Antiques Roadshow: Subterranean Edition
Having finally finished the removal of several cubic yards of concrete from my back yard, I'd like to share some of the flotsam and jetsam that was adrift in the earth beneath.
Here are a couple larger bottles. The one on the right is a beer bottle labeled "Pabst Milwaukee," and its cap is ceramic and held on by a metal clasp.
Medium-sized bottles.
Loads of small bottles, including a couple teeny ones. The smallest was resting upright with a glass stir-rod still inside.
Here are a couple close-ups of the middle bottle in the picture on the left above.
At first I thought that it said "3ii" (with a very stylized three) on the back -- perhaps a brand name. But the graduation along the side has that same "3" coming right after "1." The "1" corresponds roughly to the 30cc mark on the other side. It turns out that 30cc is about one ounce, and the apothecary symbol for ounces is:
℥
So "℥ii" just means it's a two-ounce bottle.
Spoons, a small ceramic pot, and the broken end of a light bulb with a tiny unbroken internal glass bulb.
Frying pan with mixed greens; assorted metallic thingies. The horseshoe tells us that most of these items probably do not predate the introduction of horses to North America in the 16th century.
Early Minnesota throwing star (shuriken).
There was even a bottle (not to mention a concrete block) embedded in this tree stump.
The infamous section of yard with and without the concrete.
