Topic: Dating Machine Made Bottles

Speaker: Carol Serr

Her presentation will be on this topic, more specifically on post-1910 machine-made bottles that often have codes that show the year a bottle (or jar) was made. Many archaeologists do not know how to read these codes so end up using glass company date ranges for the bottles they find. It is important to learn how to “read the codes” for more precise dating of refuse collections.

Carol Serr was born in San Diego and grew up in La Mesa/Spring Valley. She majored in Anthropology at SDSU and began working as an archaeologist upon graduating in 1978, cutting her teeth at the extensive village site along the San Diego River (Santee Greens project). Her first historic trash collection was not until 1998, then again in 2000. By 2005, she was part of a bottle research group, specializing in diagnostic embossed markings on post-1900 bottles. Carol served as the 2nd VP for the SDCAS in 2004 and Membership Chair from Oct. 1999 to Feb. 2016.