6/20/26 Report - Artifacts from Battle of Bunker Hill Recovered. Item Photos and Data for Context.

Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of the Treasure Beaches Report.

Musket Ball Found at Bunker Hill
Clipped from Fox News video (link below)

Inspired by a centuries-old map, archaeologists have been digging in the park that sits on the site where American patriots hastily constructed an earthen fort to slow advancing British forces at what became known as the Battle of Bunker Hill. 

Ground-penetrating radar identified potential locations for the fort in Boston's Charlestown section. Soon after digging the first trench, the team... found definitive signs of a ditch constructed hours before the battle on June 17, 1775...

So far, the dig has uncovered musket balls and parts of a musket from the battle. They also found objects likely left behind by British troops who occupied the area after the battle — including tea cups, tobacco pipes, sleeve buttons and a wig curler. There were nearly 150 combatants who died there but no human remains have been found, though a forensic archaeologist is on site to identify any bones...

One volunteer held in her hand two jagged stones — the gray one was an English gun flint while a beige one was a French gun flint...

They also found eight marble-sized musket balls from both sides in the battle. The markings and shape of some bullets showed they had been fired from a distance but didn't hit anyone. If they had, the balls would have been deformed.

“You can see the ramrod mark from when the soldier rammed it down. You can the little ring on the top where it was pushed down” ... “marks on the edge of the ball” show that it had been fired.

Here is the link for the entire article.

Archaeologists find musket balls and fort linked to the Battle of Bunker Hill - ABC News

And here is a video of the dig.

Archaeologists digging for history at Bunker Hill ahead of America 250 | Fox News

I never looked for ram rod marks.  I'll do that.  

One thing that caught my attention was the picture that shows a musket ball being held between the fingers of a gloved archaeologist.  Although that is how I often show artifacts in this blog, it is not how artifacts from archaeological digs are usually shown. They are shown with a measure or grid.  I know that it has become more common to show metal detected artifacts in hand but it has not always been that way.  In fact, early in this blog, reader's often suggested showing a coin for size comparison, which was the preferred way to show dug items in forums before that.  

I haven't always been careful to compose my images.  I often neglected to show any good indicator of size.  I did often how items in hand, which gives some idea of size, even if it is not precise.  For international readers who are more comfortable with the metric system, our rulers require conversion and our coins aren't as familiar.  Being lazy, impatient or short on time, is my excuse.  I simply don't always devote a lot of time to the composition of the images I use. 

Showing items in hand isn't bad, even if it might not be the best.  It is important to provide accurate measurements if you want help with ID.  That is a slightly different matter.

Hand images do provide some idea of size even though hand sizes vary, but it also adds a human context.  It shows the item not as something on a shelf or in a sterile laboratory.  It shows the item as someone's discovery - as they often say, being touched and seen for the first time in how many ever years.

Since archaeologists so often show items with a grid, the picture made me wonder if there is someting of a trend to show objects in hand.  I'm always interested in trends in communication.  I just find it interesting.  For example, one current trend is saying "thank you so much" instead of simply thank you.  Obama's "existential threats" was picked up almost immediately and continues strong.  I've commented on that one before.  For a while everybody was talking about "cognitive dissonance." 

It seems that the more popular a term becomes, the farther it strays from the original definition and accurate usage.  "Cognitive dissonance" has strayed far from how it was defined in Leon Festinger's seminal experiments.  It became almost meaningless and thankfully is now seldom used in the media.

Expressions that become popular or trendy like that are thrown around until they have almost no meaning.  They become all about form and lose all substance.  

Do you know what this is?  Take a guess.

It is a Boy Scouts of America lapel pin.

I used the image without any indication of size intentionally this time just to make ID a little more difficult.  It is small - perhaps smaller than you might guess. 

Here are three old finds in hand.  They give some idea of size.  They are all pretty small. 

Not only does the size of the hand and fingers provide some context, but so does the texture of the hand and picture.  Now you have an idea of how small the lapel pin is.

Handy Ruler with Slider.

There are any number of rulers and grids that can be used. the one above shows inches and has a nice slider that helps a bit. There might be times when you have the metric units too.

Here is the little silver ring on the ruler.  This image isn't ideal either. but you can get a better idea of its size.  

Looks like about 11/16 inch.

So there are multiple ways to provide visual context for finds.  Select the one that is right for the purpose.

Remember that for item ID, someone just seeing a photo will not have all the details or context you have, so you might need to provide the details.

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Surf Chart from SurfGuru.com.

That is a flat surf.

No change there.

No tropical weather showing on the Atlantic NHC map now.

The low tides aren't very big today.

Good hunting,

Treasureguide@comcast.net