# @stauglighthouse on Instagram

- **Type:** Image
- **Original URL:** https://www.instagram.com/p/DT6A-4IFXzU
- **Gondola URL:** https://gondola.cc/posts/54347555-stauglighthouse-instagram
- **Thumbnail:** https://img.gondola.cc/tr:w-,h-,fo-auto/postThumbnails/184cc43d75.jpg
- **Posted:** 2026-01-24T20:15:43.000+00:00
- **Account Owner:** St. Augustine Lighthouse & MM (@stauglighthouse) — https://gondola.cc/stauglighthouse

## Caption

ARCHAEOLOGY DIG AT THE LIGHTHOUSE! From Archaeologist Chuck Meide: 

During the weekend of January 10-11, the Operations team at the St. Augustine Lighthouse were digging by the path between the Visitor’s Center and the Tower to move a sign and to help with an Eagle Scout project to install brick pavers for a new interpretive sign. When digging, they encountered a large number of buried broken bricks and other artifacts, including intact and broken bottles and pieces of pottery. Realizing they had discovered a historic trash pit, they called in the Museum’s archaeology team. 

The team has been excavating a 2x2 meter area at this trash pit, and have encountered thousands of artifacts related to the Lighthouse Keepers (and their families) and the Coastguardsmen who were stationed at the Lighthouse during the 20th century. 

Bottles and a penny at the top of the trash pit dated to the 1950s-1970s, but the deeper archaeologists dig, the further back in time they go. Toward the bottom of the pit was an intact bottle bearing the embossed words “Kings Brewery Brooklyn” which operated in New York from 1932 to 1938. 

Some potentially older finds have also been made. Items include broken bricks, glass, pottery, and iron, along with a variety of interesting discoveries such as a porcelain doll’s head, a bead, buttons, components from a 1940s car battery, two kerosene lanterns, a cast iron stove leg, and a piece of glass from a bottle or jar with the name “St. Augustine” embossed on its surface.

Artifacts directly related to the operation of the Lighthouse include a piece of glass from a 1000 watt light bulb that once lit the tower at night, and a rusted, crushed paint can with red paint residue, likely once used to paint the top of the tower. Archaeologists are close to the bottom of the trash pit and hope to learn about the everyday life of the men, women, and children who lived, worked, and played at the St. Augustine Lighthouse as far back as the 1920s.

#staugustinelighthouse #archaeology #trashpit #artifacts #staugustine

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## Tags

archaeology, trashpit, staugustinelighthouse, artifacts, staugustine

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