Many years ago, well about twenty (20) there was a site in NYC the 175
Water Street Site (actually a whole block of addresses and backyards,
features, etc) excavated in winter through the first week of March
after a ship hulh from about 1730 (from landfill records and other
documents I think, though none very specific) which was found in the
last deep trench of three to have been dug by myself and Bert Herbert
with the backhoe operator, Fred, an M.P. at West Point during WWII,
picked because he was tall.

Anyway at the time we used a "lucus" system in-place from Caesaria
where it was used by the field director. It worked sort in decimal
(though I understand in Israel its used from right to left) by placing
significant coded or apparent digits in a string such as
1.2.333.44.55.66.77.88, the first number could be a Lot #, dot, Unit
#, dot, Feature#, dot, Level# dot, or some combination thereof.
Particularly stressed I was told was its use to have types of soils
easily identified across, within and without sites to ease
interpretation of deposits representing different or similar episodes
of filling. An urban site is described sometimes as a pit within a pit
within another pit, filled from another pit, etc. Anyway though on a
landfill site it was still an interesting way, as lomng as the
numbered "places" in the "dot" sequence stayed, and may sort out in
columns easier. Then inventories were double key entered on a main
frame.