A treasure trove of glass jars filled with fruit preserves has reportedly been uncovered at George Washington’s historical Mount Vernon home, which archeologists said “likely haven’t seen the light of day since before the American Revolution.”
An astounding 35 glass bottles — 29 of which were fully intact — from the eighteenth century were discovered in five storage pits in the Northern Virginia mansion’s cellar, the Mount Vernon organization said in a news release.
Mount Vernon officials said the cherries, which included gooseberries and currants, were buried in five storage pits in the mansion’s cellar. https://t.co/q7dyc5OXrE
— KDKA (@KDKA) June 15, 2024
The intact containers had “perfectly preserved cherries and berries, likely gooseberries or currants,” according to the museum.
“Never in our wildest dreams did we imagine this spectacular archaeological discovery,” Mount Vernon President and CEO Doug Bradburn said in a statement.
This latest discovery follows the recent find of two intact European-manufactured eighteenth-century glass bottles containing similar cherry preserves, Breitbart News reported in April.
Both archaeological finds occurred under the $40 million privately funded Mansion Revitalization Project at the home of America’s first president.
The bottles and their contents are both undergoing analysis, and the glass will be sent off-site for conservation.
“We were ecstatic last month,” Bradburn said of the two previous bottles.
“Now we know those bottles were just the beginning of this blockbuster discovery. To our knowledge, this is an unprecedented find and nothing of this scale and significance has ever been excavated in North America,” the CEO continued. “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.”
He added that “it’s so appropriate” that the bottles were found just before the 250th anniversary of the U.S.’s founding.