Archaeologists at George Washington’s Mount Vernon have discovered dozens of glass jars filled with fruit preserves in the cellar of the historic Northern Virginia home.
Archaeologists at George Washington’s Mount Vernon have discovered dozens of glass jars filled with fruit preserves in the cellar of the historic Northern Virginia home that “likely haven’t seen the light of day since before the American Revolution.”
Twenty-nine of the 35 bottles remain intact, and all contain either cherries, gooseberries or currants, the home and museum of the first U.S. president revealed in a press release Friday.
“Never in our wildest dreams did we imagine this spectacular archaeological discovery,” Mount Vernon President & CEO Doug Bradburn said in a statement.
“We were ecstatic last month to uncover two fully intact 18th-century bottles containing biological matter. Now we know those bottles were just the beginning of this blockbuster discovery.”
Bradburn called the discovery an “unprecedented” find, adding, “nothing of this scale and significance has ever been excavated in North America. We now possess a bounty of artifacts and matter to analyze that may provide a powerful glimpse into the origins of our nation, and we are crossing our fingers that the cherry pits discovered will be viable for future germination. It’s so appropriate that these bottles have been unearthed shortly before the 250th anniversary of the United States,” which will be in 2026.
The discovery comes two months after two bottles were found that contained a “mysterious” liquid, along with cherries and pits.
