To Bill Adams I repond:  Lighten up. Obviously Stottman understoond
my meaning!  This IS the Internet, after all.  There have, of course,
been quite a few studies done on privies, including some dealing with
"depositional processes." I have no doubt that Mr. Stottman's
inquiries will be well worthwhile.  I am up to my hinderparts in
privy fills in downtown Richmond myself these days, and I hope Mr.
Stottman will share any real advice he gets here, or elsewhere, with
us. I once defended historical archaeology in a debate with an
historian who claimed that archaeologists cannot possibly have the
same intimate, personal view of history that one can get from reading
a 19th-century diary.  My response was that I would wager one cannot
get much more intimate with someone of the past than to stand
knee-deep in his/her privy.