Found A Burn Pit And Scored...not!!!

[PathfinderBob]

So, third time out with the LEGEND.  Went to a several acre field used for parking during public events.  This area is adjacent to Civil War earthworks used back in the day to guard a railway depot.  I figured I'd go try to find some coinage or maybe jewelry.  I'm set up to find junk.  I get to cruising around, nothing exciting, and I get a nice solid tone in the high-40's, so I dig.  I got down to around 7" or so and I notice a fire-ash burn line.  My pointer is chirping away but I've got to go deeper.  I'm sifting through the dirt and I find a dirty small round orb.  Then I find another!  And then a third!!!   I'm thinking I found an old burn pit where soldiers melted lead to make mini-balls.  SCORE!!!  I get home and soak them in soapy water for a bit and the clean up is not going very well at all.  Lot's of rusty looking stuff...I'm thinking this just isn't right!!  I grab a magnet off of the fridge and BAM!  My mini-balls turn out to be steel ball-bearings.  What an emotional roller coaster!!!

It amazes me that so much "stuff" is buried underneath the Earth's surface.  How or why in the heck was a burn pit located there with ball-bearings in it?  We will never know...

[CPT_GhostLight]

Steel ball bearings have been used since the 1850s, so it's still possible those are of the correct period. If they're stainless steel, they'd be from about WWI or newer. You might want to look at them closer.

[PathfinderBob]

35 minutes ago, CPT_GhostLight said:

Steel ball bearings have been used since the 1850s, so it's still possible those are of the correct period. If they're stainless steel, they'd be from about WWI or newer. You might want to look at them closer.

That’s good info!  What do you recommend on how to look closer?  They are pretty rusted up.  Thanks for the assist!

[CPT_GhostLight]

Well, I'm not a relics expert by any means, but if there are shiney spots between the rusty places on the original surface, that could indicate the higher chromium content of stainless steel making it a more recent (early 1900s) bearing. Older steel bearings should look similar to the look of other steel artifacts of the period, like gun barrels, etc., however there could also be indications of pressure contact from heavy loads like from wagon wheels, locomotive parts, etc. that could make places on the bearing look shiny. It's really hard to tell for sure without access to an XRF machine. When in doubt, I keep unknown artifacts in a box to check out at a later date just in case they turn out to be something unexpected.