One man’s trash is another man’s treasure.
A construction project at the historic Assay Office building in Boise has unearthed artifacts of items that were thrown away and buried as far back as 150 years.
While technically the items are trash, they’re no less valuable for the historical record and providing a window to the past.
“Initially we believed that when they dumped their trash, they dumped it farther off the property,” Chris Shaver, archaeologist for the Idaho State Historic Preservation Office , told me in an interview at the site. “I really wasn’t expecting what we found.”
Found buried in the ground around the Assay Office building, 210 W. Main St., were crucibles and other vessels used by the Assay Office, which melted down ore to separate gold and silver from impurities, leaving behind pure gold or silver, which was then weighed and exchanged with miners for cash or bank notes.
Among the artifacts found were “scorifiers” and “cupels” used in the smelting process, along with a metal bell, a stone ball, broken glass, melted glass vessels, square head nails, grommets, tacks, shotgun shell caps, and even chicken bones and dozens of cow bones, which were sawed, suggesting that they were butchered for food.