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