The Boghouse

Looking for a #podcast about finding historic treasure in a 250-year-old toilet? Of course you are. Subscribe to the Boghouse on Apple Podcasts, etc. boghouse.thehannah.org #takeaseat

Knit to This: The Boghouse moderndailyknitting.com/community/the-…

Inspired by the Philly trash reclaimed as treasures during an archaeological dig on the site of the Museum in 2014, join us after hours on Friday, March 28, for a featured "trash talk" with @mormolyke & @leviathant, special exhibit access, and more. 🗑️: bit.ly/4biopKl

They didn't know what they had; we paid $40, and judging from the lower handle attachment, it miiiight even pre-date our example! When we open our museum we'll put it next to ours so people can see what a whole one with a lid looks like. We took it to Starbucks for breakfast 🧜‍♀️

We're in Asheville for Matt's step-grandma's 100th birthday, and stopped by a downtown antiques store. There had to have been a few hundred German stein there, but when Melissa saw this one, she got excited: IT'S JUST LIKE THE WESTERWALD TANKARD FROM THE PRIVY, BUY IT!!

OMGGGG We are crawling out of the Boghouse and into a proper fancy room at the Colonial Williamsburg museum, where we'll be giving our first LEGIT CONFERENCE PRESENTATION next March!!! web.cvent.com/event/5b83ab3c…

Give me names and I will research/consider. I challenge you. His father Augustine sealed his bottles with a similar-looking "AW." mountvernon.org/education/prim…

...and until someone gives me an alternative, I'm telling everyone GW stands for George Washington hahaha. No but seriously, come up with another rich dude hanging out in Philly in the mid 18th century who would be likely to give out monogrammed wine bottles.

The walls of this bottle were exceptionally thin, and it's slightly larger than many of the similar 18th century mallet bottles I've handled, so it was a challenge. We can't find another example of a "GW" seal anywhere in the literature or on any seal databases...

This bottle is the main reason I spent 200+ hours in the last month jigsaw-puzzling a massive tub of glass shards. We found and picked out just the seal when we were digging the 103 South privy, and I was hoping to find the bottle that housed it. Hard work + patience = success!!

@thelastdisciple @ninhotline @leviathant did dump a bunch of old hard drives in the 103 South privy for future archaeologists to excavate, so yes it's all connected

And here's a contemporaneous image on them in their wicker coverings

Correction! The experts say this is a Belgian Spa water bottle, normally covered in wicker. Here's one on eBay that I can't afford lol ebay.com/itm/3253969187…

Google and bottle books say this is a saddle flask; our first, so we had to look it up. It doesn't stand on its own because you're always carrying it as you ride your trusty steed into the sunset. I think this is all we have of it, but the shape is there! #archaeology

Obsessed. Circa 1740. Bottom of the 103 South privy.

My back is killing me from sitting cross legged on the floor for two days, but worth it for this complete bottle alone, look at that awesome sickness patina #archaeology

Back on my bullshit

Melissa had a day or two free, and turned her puzzle solving skills toward the huge pile of glass we haven't processed yet, focusing at the moment at seven Chestnut bottles.

In 2015 Matt and Melissa Dunphy bought an old magic theater in Philadelphia and what they found inspired a popular blog and podcast, @theboghouse. Hear their incredible story this Saturday, July 29, at Peter Wentz Farmstead in Lansdale at 1 p.m. montgomerycountypa.gov/Calendar.aspx?…

Who needs the Thames? After a good rain, we can mudlark in the dog park across the street! We always spot 18th- and 19th-century sherds, likely churned up from demolished privies and dumped back into the ground when the adjacent stretch of I-95 was built in the late 1970s

Wedgwood Portland Vase street art spotted walking back to our hotel on one of our last nights in London