Weighing In: Mystery Artifact Revealed

I didn't anticipate how difficult it would be to guess this mystery artifact, but the item above apparently left our readers stumped!  Does this photo give you a hint?

It features a hitching post in the town of Intercourse, Pennsylvania, which is deep in Amish Country.  It is not unusual to see horse-drawn wagons and buggies there on any given day, and visitors might see our mystery artifact in use there, as well.

It is a tether weight or buggy anchor and was used, much like a ship's anchor, to hold the horse and buggy in place if a hitching post was not available.  The driver would throw the anchor overboard, as it were, and with the chain clipped to the horse's harness, the horse would be held in place by the weight.  Well-trained driving teams of horses would not move far without a command to do so, but the weight ensured they would stay nearby even if spooked.

It certainly seems a more humane way of tethering than hobbling, in which a rope is tied between the horse's front and back legs (look closely at the mule in the photo below for the hobble rope).  With the rope in place, the horse can only hobble from one spot to another while grazing rather than running off.

Tether weights came in all shapes and sizes, like the ones pictured below:

Tune in next week for another exciting mystery artifact.  Until then, we hope you'll join us tomorrow at our Prairie Stories event!  You can find more information on our website, and here is a schedule of activities to help you plan your visit:

Demonstrations & Activities
10:00 am -5:00 pm Blacksmith
10:00 am -5:00 pm Cooper
10:00 am -5:00 pm Basket weaving
10:00 am -5:00 pm Pottery-making
10:00 am -5:00 pm Weaving
10:00 am -5:00 pm Outdoor Games

12:00 pm-5:00 pm Hands-on Activities
12:00 pm-5:00 pm Archaeology Activities
1:00 pm-2:00 pm Central Illinois English Country Dancers
2:00 pm-4:00 pm Banjulele

Schoolhouse Fun!
12:30 pm-1:00 pm Quill Writing
1:30 pm-2:00 pm Spelling Bee
2:30 pm-3:00 pm 19th Century Fashion

Bring out the whole family for a day of fun! We hope to see you there!

A Weighty Mystery

Hello, readers!  Any guesses as to what this Mystery Artifact might be?

The artifact is made of cast iron and painted black, with a set of two circular areas mounted onto a larger hexagon.  A section of linked chain terminating in a clasp is attached to a loop at the top.  This object weighs about 20 pounds.

What is this item?  For what purpose was it created and used?  Let us know your guesses in the comments section on Facebook or on the blog below!

An Illuminating Artifact Revealed!

We had a few guesses for our most recent Mystery Artifact.  Jess C. was probably closest in her comment that "their main characteristics are they're small, adorable, highly reflective in a warm brassy way, and non-flammable. These qualities make for a delightful housewarming gift - you put a little tea-light there in front and the flame reflects from both surfaces to create a touch of symbolic warmth (as well as some mood lighting to heat things up in a more figurative sense)."

The non-flammable aspect of these little brass boots is a clue to their function.  These are a matched set of spill holders.  Before matches were available and affordable for everyone, people used spill holders like these to help transfer flame.  The vessels contained rolled papers or thin sticks, called spills, used to transfer fire from the fireplace to candles and lamps or vice-versa. Spill holders come in all different shapes and materials.  Here are just a few examples:

The first is from our collection:

This hollowed-out section of birch log had a handle attached, and -- as you can see -- is still full of spills.  The word spill comes from spile, a word used to describe the spigot or plug used as a stopper in a barrel or cask of liquid.  It is now used to describe the spout used when drawing sap off a maple tree.  The word originally meant "splinter or peg" in earlier Dutch and German dialects, which became spyl or speil in the East Frisain and German dialects.  Borrowed to English, these little firelighters became spills.

Here is another lovely example of a spill holder, this one in pewter:

Most spill holders, like the ones above, resembled vases in form.  However, a few were made to be wall-mounted. 

This one is allegedly made of paper mache! 

There are many beautiful examples of spill holders out there, but the brass booties in our collection remain my favorite.  Having just finished the run of CUTC's Mary Poppins, I think our matched set of spill holders are "practically perfect in every way!"

 

 

An Illuminating Artifact!

Another mystery artifact from our collection - or actually, two mystery artifacts - chosen by one of our Education Program Specialists, Susan V.!  This lovely little set of boots is practically perfect in every way:

Now, obviously this matched pair of brass artifacts was made to look like boots of the sensible kind, with copper buttons for decoration:

The boots are about 5.5" high.  As you can see in the photo below, the front of the "boot" is flat, with a half-cylinder and stand attached to the back.
 

The question this week is what is the proper name of this set of artifacts?  And for what purpose were they used?  There is a clue in the photos above, if you look closely.  I will freely admit, however, that this one might take a bit of research.  Good luck!

If the Shoe Fits: Mystery Artifact Revealed

Our readers took a look at our recent mystery artifact and guessed correctly that it had something to do with transportation:

After the clue that you would need eight of these to do the job properly, many readers guessed that this metal item had something to do with wagon brakes.  This was a great guess, although not exactly the function of this item.

This is a shoe for an ox.  Because oxen have cloven hooves, they need a shoe on each part of their hoof to protect the hoof from damage or splitting.  With all those nails driven into the hoof  to attach the shoe it may look like being shod hurts the ox, but because the hoof is made from material similar to human fingernails, it is no more painful than clipping fingernails would be to us!

This image was taken from a website called Draft Animal Power Network, and it shares several photos of cattle being shod.  Here is a link to the forum :  www.draftanimalpower.org/forums/topic/shoeing/   Below is another great image from the site, showing the tongue, similar to the one on the shoe in our collection, protruding from between the ox's "toes."

Oxen were very important to European-American colonists and settlers in our region.  When yoked together, two oxen could pull loads of several tons, making them more efficient than a horse team for pulling heavy wagons loaded full of supplies and household possessions.  They were hardy creatures with bodies well-suited to process scrubby brush and plants found along the trail, so they were easier to feed than horses.  While oxen pulled at a slower pace than a horse team, they pulled more steadily and could average 16 to 18 miles a day.  Additionally, if an ox was injured or died while on the trail, it provided a good food source.

Oxen played a different but equally important role on established homesteads.  They were useful in clearing trees to create farm fields, moving building supplies, and plowing the tough prairie sods for planting.  Below is a link to a video from Old Sturbridge Village in Massachusetts, showing a woman plowing a field with oxen hauling the plow:
Plowing a Field with Oxen
It looks like hard work - I think I would be more tired than the oxen at the end of a day behind a plow!

Did you know some ox breeds are in danger of becoming extinct?  As oxen on family farms were gradually replaced by first horses, then later technology including tractors, historic bloodlines have been lost.  However, historians at Colonial Williamsburg are helping to revive a couple of rare breeds while teaching more about the large animals and their importance in early American life.  Here is a link to an article on Colonial Williamsburg's website describing their work:
Smart as a Ox

Stop in at the Museum to take a close look at our ox shoe and maybe catch a sneak peek of our next mystery artifact!

UFOs at the Museum!

Hello, all!  Can you guess what this week's Mystery Artifact might be?

If I were out excavating an archaeological site and found this item, I might joke that it is a UFO - an "unidentified ferrous object" (with ferrous meaning an object containing iron).  As you might guess from the rusty color of this artifact, this object definitely contains its fair share of iron!

The crescent-shaped object has a somewhat pointed end bending up at a 90-degree angle from the flat portion of the plate.  It also has five rectangular holes pierced along its outer edge.

Do you know what this object is?  As always, post your best guess in the comments section on the blog or on our Facebook page.

And - speaking of archaeology - be sure to stop by the museum to take a look at the artifacts excavated by our archaeology campers in early June!  They are on display in a case near the front desk of the Museum.  Hope to see you soon!

Traveling in Time

It's finally time for the big reveal.  This week's mystery artifact is called a traveler, and the metal wheel was used to measure a specific unit of distance (for this artifact, about 24 inches).  You might see a similar tool being used today to by modern surveyors measuring distance, like the one below.

 

These helpful metal tools were used to measure the circumference of a wagon wheel to make sure the iron tire placed around the wheel would fit.  The wooden wheels were reinforced with iron tires to make them sturdier as they navigated rough and bumpy terrain. 

The iron tire would be heated and fitted to the wheel, then quenched in water quickly to keep the wooden wheel from singing or being damaged.  The quenching also caused the iron to shrink tight around the wooden wheel.

Wagons were extremely important in the expansion of the United States.  The wagon was a moving truck, chapel, and house for weeks or months at a stretch.  This original mobile home helped European-Americans move west and settle across the breadth of the continent.

The computer game Oregon Trail often played by schoolchildren features a wagon as the mode of transportation, with the players acting the part of settlers forging their route westward through an unforgiving terrain.  As we all know from classic Westerns, wagons would travel in groups called wagon trains.

Travelers were important tools used by early blacksmiths to help make wagon transportation safer and more efficient for the earliest settlers of the majority of our country.