Boston Archaeologists Search For Paul Revere’s Poop At Historic Home

Archaeologists may have found the outhouse where the American Revolutionary War icon Paul Revere pooped.

Experts from the City of Boston Archaeological Program are digging up a spot next to a home belonging to the patriot’s family that may have been the house’s privy — or outhouse — in the hopes of finding a load of artifacts. So far they have uncovered small pieces as they removed soil and brick rubble from the site.

The AP reported, however, that the archaeologists have yet to find any mummified human poop that would confirm the spot’s previous usage as an outhouse.

Revere, a silversmith by trade, is famous for a midnight horseback ride in April 1775 in which he covered a lot of ground and warned rebels in the American colonies fighting for their independence that British troops were arriving right before the Battles of Lexington and Concord in Massachusetts. He is attributed with shouting along his route, “The British are coming,” but historical accounts suggest he more quietly warned militia along his journey, and those Americans sent out other horseback riders to further spread the message and cover more ground.

The historic home in Boston, called the Pierce-Hichborn House, was built around 1711 and is one of the oldest brick homes in the city, located next to Revere’s own home. The original occupant was glassworker Moses Pierce but Revere’s cousin, boatbuilder Nathaniel Hichborn later owned it, and it stayed in the family until 1864.

“Paul Revere might well have come over here for dinner and used the bathroom,” Boston archaeologist Joe Bagley told the AP. “He had 12 kids in his own little house next door. It’s easy to imagine they didn’t stay cramped up in there all the time.”

At the bricked yard next to the home, archaeologists were still digging into the possible privy spot on Friday. The material that filled it in is from the 18th and 19 century, the city reported, and the archaeologists have dug up ceramic pieces, including from a dish, with the soil and brick rubble. They also uncovered a piece of a clay tobacco pipe.

One potential obstacle they have run into is how deep the hole went before running into concrete.

“Our privy appears to only be 3 feet deep, not the expected 6,” the archaeological program wrote in an Instagram post. “It also appears to have been cleaned out completely before being filled around 1850 with rubble. That said, we will be trying to get through the concrete floor to see if it maybe was capped and reused for a different purpose.”

They also have artifacts to sift through.

According to the AP, people often put garbage and other household items in their outhouses.

“They’ve excavated other privies and they were full of stuff,” Nina Zannieri, the executive director of the Paul Revere Memorial Association that owns and runs the historic homes, told the AP. “It’s always a treasure trove. For us, it’s an opportunity to get at a source of information that’s literally buried underground.” Zannieri said she hopes Revere left his mark on the outhouse.

The contents of mummified poop or the remains of meals the people ate could tell experts a lot about their health and diet.

“We’ll learn what they were eating, how much money they had, whether they bought good or cheap cuts of meat,” Bagley told the AP.