Are you sure this isn't marl - i.e., entirely natural? Have a geologist
look at it to be sure.

Maureen Basedow, Ph.d
Greensboro, NC

Sarah Miller wrote:

>Fellow Histarchies,
>
>Recently on an early nineteenth-century site in
>Kentucky we found a 20 cm thick layer of granular,
>almost fried looking limestone.  It chips off the sub
>easily at 47 cm below the surface.  Historically, we
>know they made bricks and processed mortar on the
>site.  A few weeks and a county later, I saw a similar
>layer on a mid-nineteenth-century farm residence.  No
>artifacts were found in either layer.
>
>My question is- has anyone else seen this in relation
>to mortar processing or other activities?  From the
>Histarch archives I have a reference for Harley
>McKee's Intro to Early American Masonry...  Any
>examples from archaeological contexts would be most
>helpful.
>
>Thanks!
>
>Sarah
>
>[log in to unmask]
>Kentucky Archaeological Survey
>Lexington, KY
>
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