Given the constraints, I would have to agree with Carl and Matthew.
Preservation in place is probably your best bet at this point.


Richard M. Affleck, RPA
Senior Archaeologist
URS Corporation
561 Cedar Lane
Florence, NJ  08518-2511
609-499-3447 (phone)
609-499-3516 (fax)



                      Matthew Sterner
                      <[log in to unmask]        To:       [log in to unmask]
                      COM>                     cc:
                      Sent by:                 Subject:  Re: Working in the well, part deux
                      HISTORICAL
                      ARCHAEOLOGY
                      <[log in to unmask]
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                      12/07/2004 03:42
                      PM
                      Please respond to
                      HISTORICAL
                      ARCHAEOLOGY






I'm not as familiar with all of the remote equipment being suggested to
investigate this well, but it seems to me that it would be most difficult
trying to use this equipment in someone's kitchen (if I remember correctly
from the original post)!

I think Carl's suggestion is the best one, with one modification. Instead
of
filling the feature with concrete and painting it blue (nice touch), which
is not easily reversible, out here in the wild west we always suggest
filling these features with aggregate of some kind, which can be more
easily
removed if circumstances ever change!

Matthew Sterner
SRI
Tucson, AZ

----- Original Message -----
From: "Rotman, Deborah L." <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Tuesday, December 07, 2004 12:55 PM
Subject: Re: Working in the well, part deux


Deborah L. Rotman, Ph.D., RPA
Assistant Professor
Department of Sociology and Anthropology
Purdue University
700 W. State Street; 316 Stone Hall
West Lafayette IN  47907-2059
Phone (765) 494-4683
Fax (765) 496-1476


Dear HistArchers ~
        I appreciate all of the terrific information.  It is wonderful
to have a community of colleagues on whom I can rely for sound advice!
        Additional conversation with the client has revealed that the
well is only about 3 feet in diameter.  So unless we can find a
volunteer willing to be suited up and lowered into the feature by their
ankles, we will need to find another way to sample the deposits in the
well (estimated to be about 30-35 feet deep).
        Any ideas on how we might recover objects remotely?  How does
one manage things like provenience control under such circumstances?

Cheers,
Deborah Rotman