Thirty-Five 18th Century Glass Bottles Discovered

[Mayhem]

Archaeologists at Mount Vernon have unearthed an astounding 35 glass bottles from the 1700's in five storage pits in the Mansion cellar.

Of the 35 bottles, 29 are intact and contain perfectly preserved cherries and berries, likely gooseberries or currants. The contents of each bottle have been carefully extracted, are under refrigeration at Mount Vernon, and will undergo scientific analysis.

[Squid]

I have what may be silly questions:

• Why haven't these storage pits been investigated before?
• Was it common practice to bury preserve bottles or did that dirt/sediment surround the bottles over time?
• If the dirt came over time, was it because the cellars were flooding?
• If flooding caused this, I go back to my first question about earlier investigations, especially when tackling the flooding issues involving one of our national treasures.
• I used to cycle to Mt. Vernon all the time.  Lovely ride and beautiful property with great views.  Just sayin'...

[Mayhem]

Good questions!

Although I'm pretty sure the article below doesn't answer any of them, it has a lot of information about this discovery.

https://www.mountvernon.org/preservation/restoration-projects/mansion-revitalization-project/an-in-depth-look/sealed-18th-century-bottles-discovered/

[Squid]

Thanks! Interesting article but, like you said, they didn't address the finding of the bottles within the dirt, etc.  It would be nice to follow this a bit.  I'm wondering what the lab results will be.  Bacterial growth?  Pure preservation?  They don't LOOK pure!  LOL.  Would you taste the cherries?  I don't think I would.  

I find it cute and coincidental that the majority appear to be preserved cherries (Cherry tree reference and all... )