Pro tip: I dug up my garden patch in Dayton and found a 1940s bottle dump, here is what went sideways

John Thompson · 2026-10-23T23:00:04.665049+00:00

Last spring I was digging out a new bed behind my garage in Dayton and hit glass at about 18 inches, so I kept going and pulled out 60 or so bottles from what looked like a 1940s trash pit. I got excited and scrubbed the first batch with a stiff brush and dish soap, which turned out to be a dumb move, because it scratched the glaze off two milk bottles and took the label right off a medicine bottle. A local collector told me later that plain water and a soft toothbrush is all you should ever use, and that cleaning can wipe out half the value. I also dug past the pit edges too fast and mixed the layers up, so I can't say which bottles came from which decade now. Has anyone else messed up a home dig by moving too quick, and how do you keep track of layers out in the yard?

Librear

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Pro tip: I dug up my garden patch in Dayton and found a 1940s bottle dump, here is what went sideways | Archaeology Discoveries - Librear