Dear Fellow Histarch's,
        I am working on a 17th (and 18th,19th...) Century site in
Edgewater Maryland, about 20 minutes outside of Annapolis. We are doing
block excavation, sprawling out via 5 X5 ft units that now exceeds a 50
x 80 foot area. The soil composition (of the subsoil)is compact silty
clay -which presents us with a drainage nightmare. Conversly, when the
soil isn't saturated with water (and worms and mesquito larvae) it is
bone dry and begins to crack. Plastic doesn't seem to help much since the
winds are so strong it blows away, and the water is still retained by the
clay. We dug one thin drainage trench on the downward slope of the unit
which was a help but not a solution. Wet sheets help the cracking, but
are rather labor intensive.
        Besides keeping the site pleasantly moist and respectable, my
other question is how to keep the postholes preserved once they are
excavated? I have noticed the rather sharp looking slides of the
Jamestown excavation with wonderfully circular shadows of excavated
postholes. What happens to them afterwards, do they remain open or are
they filled with sand? If anyone has any suggestions they are much
appreciated!
        Our second challenge is the profile of a 17th century cellar hole
 filled in the first quarter of the 18th with tavern garbage.  We have
bisected the cellar and we now have a wall profile that extends about
10feet long and 4 feet deep, with 26 layers of tavern fill and tinglaze,
bottle, oyster, and pipe sticking out of it. We would like to preserve
it, perhaps permenatly for the museum, but at least temporarily. Any
ideas?
Thanks,
        Liz West
        The Lost Towns Project