Hello everyone,

I have been recently tasked in analyzing the artifacts from a small excavation adjacent to an 1815 Stone Gunpowder Magazine at the Fort York National Historic Site in Toronto, Ontario.  It produced an artifact that no one has yet been able to identify and I thought I might have better luck here.  It came from a layer dating roughly between 1820s/1830s to the early twentieth century and is associated with a plethora of domestic, military, and architectural artifacts.

At first glance it appears to have been a red earthenware lid - it contains the same lip you would expect to see on a lid and is roughly dome-shaped.  However, the lid lacks the top of the dome and so instead forms a ring and thus it wouldn't be an effective cover for anything.  While much of the glaze has been exfoliated, the little that remains is present both on the interior and exterior surfaces and on both the top and bottom, again suggesting that the object was made this way.  The object is 20 mm tall and 72 mm in diameter with the opening being 45 mm in diameter.

I have uploaded a few quick photographs to flickr.  They can explain the artifact better than I can.

Top - http://www.flickr.com/photos/45985978@N00/6106997042
Bottom - http://www.flickr.com/photos/45985978@N00/6107005608
Side 1 - http://www.flickr.com/photos/45985978@N00/6106459847
Side 2 - http://www.flickr.com/photos/45985978@N00/6107010178
Side 3 - http://www.flickr.com/photos/45985978@N00/6106466705

Any ideas would be appreciated.

Thank you,

Anatolijs Venovcevs
Research Archaeologist
Archaeological Services Inc.
Toronto, Ontario