Why an Englishman peed in this bottle in the eighteenth century may never be discovered
On a construction site in the seaside town of Cleethorpes, England, a mysterious 200-year-old bottle has been raising eyebrows about what exactly was going on at this location a couple of centuries ago. The bottle isn’t filled with precious wine, the blood of Christ, or a rolled-up treasure map. The bottle is filled with urine. 200-year-old urine.
As reported here, the unusual artifact was discovered by workers digging trenches on Seaview Street in Cleethorpes, a coastal town of nearly 30,000 in North East Lincolnshire. The workers initially thought they’d struck gold with an old bottle of rum, perhaps left behind by pirates centuries ago. They were all set to crack it open and give it a swig when the project manager wisely intervened.
The project manager wasn’t just trying to save the workers from their questionable judgment in wanting to drink from an ancient bottle found buried in the ground. They recognized the potential historical significance and had it analyzed by Zara Yeates, a student from the nearby University of Lincoln.
Using crime scene technology, Yeates determined that while the liquid might have started as rum at some point, it had definitely become something else entirely. Speaking to the BBC, Yeates noted, “It’s very unusual to find an object with this amount of liquid still inside.”
The iridescent bottle only survived the excavation because the digging machine couldn’t reach into a narrow passageway, forcing the work crew to dig by hand. If they’d been using the machine, they probably would’ve crushed the bottle and released the evil spirits of 200-year-old piss.
The bottle’s distinctive shape and craftsmanship identify it as a Hamilton bottle, likely hand-made around 1790, as mass production using molds didn’t begin until 1840. While the exact purpose of this unusual time capsule remains a mystery, Yeates and her fellow researchers at the University have some compelling theories.
The leading explanation is that it was a “witch bottle”—a” common form of folk magic in 18th and 19th century Britain, where bottles filled with urine and other items were buried to ward off evil spirits and curses. Though perhaps less mystically, it might just be an ancestor of those impromptu rest stops modern travelers still resort to on long highways lacking proper facilities.