A metallic, pot-like artifact that reportedly was unearthed from a pile of rocks by workers who were building St. Peter’s Church on Bowdoin Street 174 years ago continues to be the source of controversy. While experts have largely debunked 19th-century speculation that the “Dorchester Pot” dated back to ancient Mesopotamia, the now-missing item continues to fuel speculation about its mysterious origins.
The story begins on May 13, 1852, when demolition crews were using dynamite to blast away rocky substructure to clear the way for the new Catholic church building. According to contemporary news reports, the workers were stunned at something they found amidst the pile of Puddingstone that they were excavating.
Above, St. Peter’s Church, 2026. Seth Daniel photo
Among the rocks “was picked up a metallic vessel in two parts, rent asunder by the explosion,” read a news article published in the Boston Evening Transcript. “On putting the two parts together it formed a bell- shaped vessel, 4.5 inches high, 6.5 inches at the base, 2.5 inches at the top, and about a half inch in thickness.
The article continued: “The body of this vessel resembles zinc in color, or a composition metal, in which there is a considerable portion of silver. In the top there is a hole for a handle and in the bottom opposite a larger hole is filled with lead, soldered up close…On the side there are six figures of a flower or bouquet, beautifully inlaid with pure silver, and around the lower part of the vessel a vine, or wreath, inlaid also with silver.”
Workers on the scene insisted that they had found the pot some 15 feet deep in a section of puddingstone. Following that assertion, some at the time presented the vessel as an “ancient artifact” with its age reported as “100,000 years old” and its origin “ancient Mesopotamia,” the legendary site of the Garden of Eden.
The report caused a sensation at the time, and soon the artifact was being displayed at local museums. The mystery element was instantaneous, with the article noting, “How it came there, or for what use it was made, no one can imagine.” That was the last statement on which there was widespread agreement about what was uncovered on Meetinghouse Hill that long-ago day.
Was the Dorchester Pot really an inexplicably sited relic from the ancient past or just another fantastic— and not uncommon— Victorian-era hoax? The true origins of the vessel may be impossible to nail down, since it has long been reported as missing, thus unavailable for modern scientific inspection.
Over the years it has been cited as evidence in fringe theories of human existence, described as an “out of place artifact” by even the Dorchester Historical Society (DHS), and pointed out by ancient alien enthusiasts as evidence of “other life” on earth. It has also been seen by Old Earth theorists as having been created 600 million years ago, and by Young Earth devotees as having been manufactured before Noah filled his ark for the biblical flood.
It has also over the years been cited as both proof and disproof of creationism, and as an attraction for earth scientists who diligently debunk all the theories cited above, and more. More recent studies of the 1852 accounts have offered up more contemporary considerations: It’s a smoking instrument, or hookah, from 18th or 19th Century India, with a fantastic story attached to it.
This year it has come back into the spotlight with the second printing of John Joseph Fahey’s book, “Saint Peter’s – A Church to be Treasured,” that expounds on the history of Meetinghouse Hill and St. Peter’s parish, and the unique architecture of the church. Only one of its 95 pages is devoted to the mystery of the 1852 artifact, but it’s a hook few can ignore.
“The vessel is a very interesting story,” said Fahey. “In the book I tried to create a narrative using the Old Testament time frame and create a bridge for the church between the Old World and New World. I don’t know what it could be or what it is. It could be legitimate.”
Dorchester Historical Society leaders don’t have a lot of information about the story, but they maintain a short essay on their website entitled, “Dorchester’s Out of Place Artifact.”
For all the above, this story continues to stir the pot in certain quarters.
The author Michael Cremo – an American-born Hindu creationist – uses the Dorchester Pot as evidence for his theory that humans have lived on earth for hundreds of millions of years. He believes that academia suppresses important findings like the Pot that would support his theory.
With puddingstone being 600 million years old, he argues in “Forbidden Archeology,” the rare find under the St. Peter’s construction site is evident of the “presence of artistic metal workers in North America over 600 million years ago.”
A photograph of the “vessel” was used in a 1985 “Reader’s Digest” article entitled “Mysteries of the Unexplained,” along with a photo that may or may not have been of the artifact. No one seems certain.
Today, local archeologists are saying: “Let’s pump the brakes.”
“An interesting story, but sadly it does not seem legitimate,” wrote Dr. Dave Landon, associate director of the Fiske Center for Archaeological Research at UMass Boston, who believes the finding was an 1800s bell candleholder.
“This would not have been found in solid rock but was more likely accidentally included in the excavation,” he wrote. “So, silver candlestick, but not Mesopotamian or 100,000 years old.”
Landon’s motion was seconded by City Archeologist Joe Bagley.
“Fundamentally I don’t think it’s an ancient Sumerian thing; I think it’s 150 years old, at best,” said Bagley. “I can 100 percent state the thing in the photo is the bowl of a hookah…likely an Indian hookah from the 18th Century…I’m confident that’s what is in the picture…If it’s not what’s in the picture, if it did come out of the rock, I don’t know that it would have survived the dynamite blast.
“Also, the rock itself is 600 million years old,” he noted. “I think we were only single cell organisms at that time, and I don’t think (we) were pulling off metallurgy.”
Bagley – an expert in puddingstone – said it would be impossible to have something encased in it. Puddingstone conglomerate is unique to eastern Massachusetts and was believed to have formed between 550 and 600 million years ago.
A land mass called Avalon was formed from a string of volcanoes near the South Pole and moved north on tectonic plates. It eventually slammed into what is now eastern Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Maine, Nova Scotia and over to Scotland and Ireland. It is found in the Boston area almost exclusively between the Lynn Highlands in Saugus and the Blue Hills in Milton.
“If they’re 100 percent sure it shot out of the hole from inside the rock, they are 100 percent lying,” said Bagley. “It was possibly nearby or buried in the dirt or in a nook or rocky ledge near the blast, but not in the blast.”
Bagley noted that other examples of fantastic stories about 19th century oddities abound. It was fashionable for sailors, he says. to bring back interesting things while out to sea that would generate headlines – and perhaps money.
“All around I think it’s a great story, but I don’t think it’s Sumerian and I don’t think it disproves evolution or creationism,” he said. “Sensational journalism in the 19th Century was not uncommon. I think this one was just a great story.”
Fahey has his own theory involving the immediate neighborhood where the vessel was “found.” Percival Street is named after the one-time US Naval Capt. John “Mad Jack” Percival, who commanded the USS Constitution, among other ships. He was a colorful and controversial character who lived next door to the St. Peter’s property in Dorchester at the time of the blasting and he would have had plenty of treasures like the Dorchester Pot from his sea-faring adventures.
“He might have put it there or buried it in advance or had it put into that area by the blast,” said Fahey. “I think it has to have something to do with him.”
In their forewords to the book, two local priests, Revs. Jack Ahern and John Currie, offer a sense of the spiritual, of the sacred when in the St. Peter’s Church. “They talk about it being on sacred ground and it’s turned into that,” said Fahey. “It’s all tied together with the church and the ‘vessel,’ and we can’t explain any of it and don’t really know what it is. There’s something special about that area we don’t know and can’t explain but we do know it’s very important. That’s why we’ve got to keep it going.”
