This is interesting - marbles as archaeological artifacts from old farms.

[Ocelot II]

Kale has never counted his farm marbles, but he keeps the collection in a variety of candy jars as proof of his prowess. Thousands of marbles of all sizes, colors and patterns fill the jars, separated by an occasional arrowhead, button or porcelain doll part. His massive marble trove is all the more remarkable considering it was built one specimen at a time: spot, kneel, and pry the past from the ground.

He can’t fully explain the primal pull that perpetually draws him into the fields to find another marble.

“Farmland is kind of like a museum and it’s even more enjoyable with age due to my family,” Kale says. “Every single find is exciting because it carries a physical connection to a different time, place and people.”

Come spring, Kale will hit the rows again with his family, searching for one more marble hidden in the dirt. Change is the great constant in farming, yet although the sharecroppers are gone and the houses torn down, the marbles remain, waiting patiently to tell a buried tale.

“Find a marble that hasn’t seen daylight in 75 years, pick it up and rub the grit off,” Kale adds. “You’ll almost hear it speak.”

https://www.agweb.com/news/crops/crop-production/secret-life-farmland-marbles

[secondwind]

1. What a neat hobby!! Love it

[NBachers]

2. I devoured every word and picture of this story. Thank you for posting it!

[3catwoman3]

3. How fascinating. Sounds like fun.

I get a similar feeling of delight when walking the beach in an area of the Outer Banks where a friend of ours has a home that he opens to friends every October after the season ends.

I have a fondness for scallop shells, and revel in triumph when I find intact pretty ones. Especially gratifying are the really small ones that are the about size of my pinky fingernail.

[Ferryboat]

4. Very cool

My house was built in 1911. I find marbles frequently when digging in the yard. But not like this guy.

[Marthe48]

5. We bought jars of marbles over the years

if we saw them cheap at yard sales. I bought modern decorative marbles, too, and used them around the yard. Put some in the downspout splash block, put some in some hollows in exposed roots, just a little color here and there. Well, when our grandkids came over and played in the yard, they found where I'd laid the marbles, and then more where water carried them into the grass. So we put more marbles out and the kids loved hunting for them. Lots of fun.

Our daughters and granddaughter like marbles for their own sake, and last summer, sat outside looking through some of the jars we've accumulated and picking out the ones they liked. They took a lot home and I've found even more since then. My granddaughter found a double marble, which I didn't know was in a jar. I asked her if I could keep that one. It is a nice oddity. There is a marble festival in Sistersville, WV each fall. I haven't been, but maybe post-Covid I'll visit. Not too far up the river from my house.

This area is rich in Native American culture, such as arrowheads, and other artifacts. And pioneer and settler artifacts too.

Thanks for posting. Interesting story

[pansypoo53219]

6. i collect marbles. my grandpa would weed his lawn + find marbles. i was there once,

+ i noticed something in the dirt by the house next door + i pulled out a blue glazed little clay marble! SCORE! grandpa played marbles w/ us when we were little.

[zanana1]

7. I used to garden in my back yard.

I was one of five kids, so there were quite a few marbles. I hit the jackpot when I found a brown clay marble!