Courtesy Photo | An empty bottle of "Dr. Bowman's Tooth Powder" is shown June 13, 2020, in a laboratory...... read more read more
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Archaeological investigations at Fort McCoy encounter traces of the recent, or historic, past (the last 200 years) almost as frequently as they encounter the distant, or prehistoric, past (the last 10,000 years).
In fact, nearly two-fifths of the approximately 600 archaeological sites identified at Fort McCoy have turned up historic materials. Historic artifacts can paint a much clearer picture of specific activities that people engaged in during the recent past.
A site investigated in 2014 yielded a plethora of historic artifacts, including hundreds of pieces of plates, glass bottles, canning jars, stove parts, animal bones, building materials like bricks and nails, clothing fasteners, tobacco tins, barbed wire, and farm vehicle parts.
A small number of prehistoric artifacts were also recovered, but these were restricted to waste, which were made while shaping or sharpening a stone tool.
One of the more interesting artifacts recovered from the 2014 investigations was a glass bottle that was fully intact. It has raised letters on one side of the bottle that read “DR. BOWMAN’S TOOTH POWDER.”
Tooth powders, also called dentifrices, date back as far as the ancient Greeks, Romans, and Egyptians, and the earliest powders and pastes were composed of materials including ground ox hooves, charcoal, eggshells, pumice, ash, crushed bones, and oyster shells.
More recent tooth powders saw the introduction of brick dust, crushed china, baking soda, and borax.
While toothpaste has the majority of the oral hygiene market cornered in the modern era, tooth powders are still available at supermarkets and pharmacies. Modern ingredients still include baking soda and borax, but also chalk, charcoal, powdered sugar, honey, and peppermint oil.
Tooth powders can be applied with a finger and do not require the use of a toothbrush, which makes them a bit more practical when spending time in the wild camping (or bivouacking), but most dentists assert that baking soda is too abrasive for daily use.
All archaeological work conducted at Fort McCoy was sponsored by the Directorate of Public Works Environmental Division Natural Resources Branch.
Visitors and employees are reminded they should not collect artifacts on Fort McCoy or other government lands and leave the digging to the professionals.
Any person who excavates, removes, damages, or otherwise alters or defaces any historic or prehistoric site, artifact, or object of antiquity on Fort McCoy is in violation of federal law.
The discovery of any archaeological artifact should be reported to the Directorate of Public Works Environmental Division Natural Resources Branch.
(Article prepared by Colorado State University Center for Environmental Management of Military Lands.)
| Date Taken: | 06.26.2020 |
| Date Posted: | 06.26.2020 09:43 |
| Story ID: | 372894 |
| Location: | FORT MCCOY, WISCONSIN, US |
| Web Views: | 78 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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