Susan Lebo wrote:
>
> Hi!
>
> I am working on a site, which was excavated by someone else. This site was
> interpreted by them as a "bottle cache" on the basis of bottle orientation.
> They found that many of the bottles visible on the surface appeared to be
> bottom up, suggesting that the bottles were "cached" rather than simply
> discarded. Other surface bottles were found in a variety of orientations and
> most of the buried examples were also found in various orientations. Whereas
> much of what was recorded on the surface were whole bottles, numerous broken
> bottle sherds as well as sherds from ceramic vessels were found on the
> surface or buried.
>
> I have been assigned the task of writing up the interpretation of this site
> and feel uncomfortable discussing it as a "bottle cache." First, it is not
> limited to bottle discard. Second, while some of the bottles may be bottom
> up, this is not a consistent attribute nor does this lend me to believe the
> bottles were "intensionally placed." This feature is on a ridge slope and
> several nearby slopes have domestic dumps containing primarily bottles, but
> some ceramics, metal, etc. I would interpret it as a dump.
>
> Can anyone recommend any references where someone has clearly defined a
> "cache" vs. a "dump?"
>
> Thank you in advance. susan
 
 
Susan,
 
I agree with your skepticism regarding a "cache" of bottles in a trash
dump.  I can think of several questions regarding the dump and
collection of bottles that you have probably already asked:
 
        Couldn't they just be bottles that kids playing in the dump             jammed
into the ground?  especially since they were found on the       surface.
        Were these bottles all grouped together, or were they scattered         across
the dump?
        Were they all from the same time period, same type of bottle,           etc?
 
        Caching something means you plan to eventually come back for it         and
that it has some value to you.  Why store bottles in the        middle of a
dump, among broken bottles and other trash, where       someone could easily
come along and dump stuff on top of your        bottles?  If it is a cache, I
would have expected to see them         found on the edge of the dump or on an
old edge now covered by         modern trash?)so you could find them again.
 
        Many people scour dump sites for usable/saleable objects.               Perhaps a
bottle collector was placing bottles he either did, or  didn't want, in
that position to mark ones already inspected?   Maybe he didn't have any
pin flags?
 
Jeannine Kreinbrink