Artefacts
Artefacts
Artefacts and Objects of Interest
Objects or artefacts are often found within buildings and in the surrounding garden or land.
When found in a ‘sealed context’, such as behind a panel or within a builder’s trench, they can be invaluable in dating particular areas of a building or land around it.
These bottles were found in the garden of a Grade II listed house; probably discarded rubbish. Vintage, although of no great date, this fish paste glass bottle and coffee essence or sauce bottle are nonetheless charming artefacts which tell us a little about the lives and tastes of previous occupants.
An example of using artefacts to help to date a building can be seen in this clay pipe fragment, dated to the early 18th Century. This was excavated by builders from the foundations of an old Sussex house. Found in what archaeologists term a ‘stratified layer’ they supported other evidence suggesting an 18th Century date for that part of the building.
Buildings Historian has archaeological expertise ‘in house’ but can also readily access the expertise of small finds specialists, who are widely experienced in the dating and history of archaeological artefacts and can help explain the history and relevance of these objects in their context.