American Revolution Museum Construction Unearths Artifacts
by John McDevitt
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- The Museum of the American Revolution being built at 3rd and Chestnut Streets in Old City is on track and set to open next Spring. More than 82,000 artifact pieces were uncovered during construction.
Some of the shattered pieces unearthed date back to the 16 and 1700s. They are puzzle pieces of sorts, attempting to be fitted together to tell the stories of people before, during, and after the American Revolution.
Michael Quinn, president and CEO of the Museum of the American Revolution. One of the largest assemblages of artifacts comes from what looks to be from a mid-18th century tavern and includes many red earthenwares made by identifiable local potters, according to Michael Quinn, president and CEO of the museum.
"We are able to see the forms that the potters made. They would have been served in a common man's tavern in the city of Philadelphia, and they would have been used as people were sitting there debating the Declaration of Independence, or Thomas Payne's Common Sense, should we separate from Britain or should we remain loyal? So it's wonderful to look at these pieces and think, we got that in our hands."
A lot of the pieces came from brick-lined privy and well shafts.
Some of the artifacts are planned to be included in the new museum.
