C5-3141 Feature 1 Square F (West room of House? South of Feature 7) FILL .5-1′ BS 07/30/59
This wine bottle seal is decorated with the figure of the goddess Tyche, the goddess of luck and prosperity. She is often depicted standing on a ball with a cornacopia, a rudder, a ship’s wheel, and a billowing sail (representing the winds of fate).
Seals were placed on wine bottles by taverns and ordinaries to identify their property and by private owners to show off their wealth on their tables. It is not known if this seal came from a tavern bottle or from Joseph or James Howland or Benjamin Lothrop’s private stores. Numerous late 17th to early 18th century wine bottle fragments were recovered from the site so it may be more probable that they were associated with Joseph Howland.