Glass shard, 18th century wine bottle (Archaeological Find)

Files

A visual guide to wine bottles of the 18th century. These are much more slender than the "onion bottles" from the 17th century.

A popular song from the 1860s describing the drinking culture at Harvard during the colonial period.

Glass fragment with patinated surface, a feature caused by the interactions between ions in the glass and moisture in the soil.

Title:

Glass shard, 18th century wine bottle

Subject:

This fragment of olive green bottle glass was found in Level 2 of Unit H978, along the south wall of Holden Chapel in Harvard Yard. Given its patinated surface and overall thickness, this shard likely originated from a wine bottle, specifically the neck area. A visual guide compiled by Ivor Nöel Hume documents the transition from the round, onion-shaped wine bottles of the 17th century to the more slender wine bottles of the 18th century. Since this fragment has a straight vertical edge, it best matches the examples from the latter century. Drinking was quite common at Harvard Yard during this time, as students began shirking restraints from the Puritan era. Faculty records from President Benjamin Wadsworth’s tenure (1725-1737) contained many instances of “drinking frolicks,” and alcoholic drinks were even concocted within Harvard Yard in the following decades (Morison, 1964). The condition of this glass fragment is further significant, as the crust on its surface points to weathering processes over time. Indeed, the partly-dulled yet partly-iridescent surface is largely a result of ions that leached out of the fragment due to moisture within the soil, as noted by the Corning Museum of Glass. Given these visual and historical cues, this bottle fragment in Harvard Yard can thus be linked to the 18th century.

Source:

Hume, Ivor Noël. 1970. A Guide to Artifacts of Colonial America. [1st ed.]. New York: Knopf. https://id.lib.harvard.edu/alma/990012245160203941/catalog.

Morison, Samuel Eliot. 1964. Three Centuries of Harvard, 1636-1936. Cambridge, Mass.: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. https://id.lib.harvard.edu/alma/990004943010203941/catalog.

van Giffen, Astrid. "Weathered Archaeological Glass." Accessed 24 February 2024. https://www.cmog.org/article/weathered-archaeological-glass.

Object Name:

Glass shard, 18th century wine bottle

Inventory Description:

A shard of olive-colored glass with patina on surface, likely from the neck of an 18th century wine bottle.

Peabody Number:

2023.11.53

Culture/Period:

18th century

Intrasite:

H978 Level 2

Depth:

10-20 cm

Class 1:

Glass

Class 2:

Bottle glass

Class 3:

Olive green bottle glass

Quantity:

Height (cm):

4.5 cm

Width (cm):

3.6 cm

Depth/Thickness (cm):

1.5 cm

Collection:

2023 Inventory