Opiate bottles, empty liquor flasks and a chamber pot.
These are just some of the items found at an excavation site just a few feet from Fells Point?s bustling Thames street, all of which archaeologists said could reveal important facts from the city?s past.
Sponsored by The Preservation Society, a Fells Point nonprofit that works to maintain and restore historic sites in the city, archaeologists are working to excavate an essential part of the city?s past which dates back to the 17th century.
“This site is a critical piece of the city?s history,” said Peter Middlethon, an archaeologist leading the dig, “particularly because of its proximity to the Robert Long House.”
Robert Long was a successful merchant whose house just down the street on Charles provided crucial supplies to the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War.
The house is the oldest urban structure in the city. Among the important finds that might reveal more about this historic structure, is a pre-plumbing version of a bathroom.
“We found two outhouses,” Middlethon said.
Ellen von Karajan, executive director of The Preservation Society, said outhouses offer a particularly rich assortment of great historical finds.
“People didn?t have zippers in the 1800s, and buttons were very expensive,” said von Karajan. “Using the ?necessary? could be very awkward, and things would fall out of people?s pockets.”
Since the dig began, the archaeologists have discovered along with the opiate bottles, shards of pottery that were used for the kitchen, glasses and smoking pipes.
The dig will last about a week, while contractors wait for permits to finish improvements on the plot of land adjacent to a bar.
Middlethon, who is donating his services along with archaeologist Doug Anderson and Chris Rowe, said part of the excitement is that each item helps them learn more about the city?s past, like the fact that opium, the major ingredient of heroin was once legal.
“You find interesting things that tell us how people lived,” he said.
