Greetings list members!

        I have a mystery I'm hoping someone may be able to help me with.
I'm working on a site we dug last summer on a tidal cove in Georgetown,in
mid-coast Maine.  The site is a shallow 3 x 3 m cellar hole on a small
triangle of land.  By the mid-19th c. on this lot was a wharf and
storehouse, blacksmith shop, and one photo  shows a "work buildings" behind
the whare and storehouse.  The cellar apparently belonged to one of these
work buildings.  Across the road the same person owned general store with
post office and slaughter house and across the cove was a shipyard.  Just
above, on, and in the cellar floor  we found over 100 pieces of quartz.
Most is shatter, but some have been flaked and a few pieces could be
considered cores.  The quartz is mostly colorless, but some is crystal and
some smokey.  It is not prehistoric nor did it come in with the fill.  The
only  possible  lead I have is that feldspar was mined in the area in the
3rd quarter 19th c.  It was shiped out (on ships) to a pottery in Trenton,
NJ.  But even if the quartz was related to this industry, why would it be in
this cellar.  My question is, does anyone know of a use for quartz in the
second half of the 19th c.?  Any suggestions here would be appriciated!
Thanks for your time!

Regard, Lee Cranmer
Maine Historic Preservation Commission
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