A Shot in the Dark

Many people often ask, "how deep do you have to dig" and "how do you know how old things are now." The truth of the matter is that these things vary. Sometimes you don't have to dig very far at all, and sometimes you haven't got a clue about the time period.

So, archaeologists are always looking at bits of everything to try to figure out "time" and "space." It means that you have to have odd bits of knowledge from time to time.

Digging at the Colbert-Henderson house site is just one of those examples. In a 1m x 1m pit, down at about 20 cm, we uncovered the Smith & Wesson 32 caliber cartridge seen here. It is one of the more datable finds.

Immediately we know that we are post-1856, which is the year that Smith & Wesson manufactured the world's first metallic cartridge. But there are other clues here as well.

The cartridge is a 32 caliber. If we look up information online, we find that Smith & Wesson introduced a 32 caliber pistol around the time of the Civil War. But that gun was rim fire, whereas our shell casing in center fire. We note that the Montgomery Ward catalog of 1895 lists a H. & R. Premier double-action, self-cocking revolver for $4.00. That pistol is listed as using S&W 32 center-fire ammo.

So, for the moment, until we might be able to nail things down a touch better, it seems that we are around the end of the 19th century, at the earliest, when we are 20 cm down at the site. This seems to fit well with other clues from bottles as well, and gives us "a shot in the dark."