MOUNT VERNON, VIRGINIA—According to a Washington Post report, two bottles containing liquid and some surviving cherries have been uncovered in the dirt basement of George Washington’s plantation home. The excavation was conducted as part of a project to conserve the mansion’s foundation. Archaeologist Jason Boroughs said that much of the liquid in the bottles may be groundwater that entered the vessels after their corks had deteriorated. While emptying the bottles, members of the research team found pits, stems, cherries, and gooey residues. “It actually smelled like cherry blossoms when we got to the bottom,” Boroughs said. The contents were placed in small containers for later analysis. Conservator Lily Carhart determined that the bottles were imported from England in the mid-eighteenth century, and were likely filled with cherries picked at Mount Vernon by enslaved people, then buried in the storage area between 1758 and 1776. “There are eighteenth-century accounts that talk about proper ways of preserving fruits and vegetables,” Boroughs explained. “One of the most common, especially for berries, is to dry them as much as possible… put them in a dry bottle, cork it… and then bury them,” he added. Treated in this manner, the fruit was expected to last for a year. Additional bottles may yet be recovered as the project continues. To read about artifacts uncovered at the site of a 1754 battle where troops were led by Washington, go to “Around the World: Pennsylvania.”
