last minute excavation and a demolition produce artifacts from the ground and behind walls

some of the first hidden and/or forgotten remnants recovered in the first part of 2017, came from the ground, discovered in one of the many forgotten city dumps that dot the cityscape. the dump contained piles upon piles of leather shoe soles, caked with a wretched black ooze. each time the excavator dug into the sludge, the shoes and other debris would emerge in shockingly large quantities. in my experience, this is is a good indicator that a "collective" rubbish pit has been unearthed. shards of glass, sealed bottles - of all kinds, animal bones, and heavily corroded steel and iron "objects" were mixed into this soupy pit, that ended up being nearly 36 feet deep. the 19th century cesspool was understandably unpleasant to the human senses, but in it, lied a vast collection of objects in various states of decay -  left behind by chiagoans of the latter half of the 19th century. there was a treasure trove of information pertaining to their day-to-day lives that can be gained from this chaotic collection of artifacts, that once completely extracted, cleaned and identified, will transform into a more cohesive presentation, or as i frequently say, "portal to the past."

wide range of bottles and objects were recovered from the forgotten chicago landfill. from a late 19th or early 20th century pabst brewing bottle to a heavily embossed capers jar, the wide assortment of artifacts was impressive. 

in addition to uncovering vast assemblages of bottles, shoes, boots and buckles, these communal "landfills" will often have telephone insulators, building parts and signage as well. i collect and document every buried sign i find, regardless of its state of decay - most are comprised of cold-rolled iron or steel with porcelain enameled (fused ground glass) finish. a few examples are shown below.