We recently excavated what we believe is a cesspool in Louisville, Ky.
It was an oval shaped unmortared brick lined vault without a floor.
It measured approximately 4 x 5 feet and 5 feet deep.  The contents of
the feature date to the 1870s.
 
I have found little information about these features and have only come
across scant references to them.  As far as I can tell, they were used
primarily to drain waste water from a building.  Often a structure would
have both a cesspool and a privy.  I susepect that later when water
closets were used rather than privies, the waste water would drain into
the cesspool.  I have evidence from some privies that suggest that they
were converted into cesspools later, by extending sewage pipes into the
vault.  Are there any pipes leading into the feature?
 
As far as excavating these features are concerned, they are much like
privies.  I have excavated privies from the early 1900s some turned out
to be as late as the 1940s and 1950s.  These were certainly not pleasant
to excavate.  We must be wierd or someting!  However, I suspect that you
will not have much of a problem with the date range you indicated.  Based
on my experience these features like privies accumulated mostly refuse at
the end of its useful life and may not contain as much night soil as you
may think.  Hence, all of the wonderful things you saw in the video.
We have had no health related problems with these features, but I recommend
that your people are up on vaccinations and extreme consideration paid to
washing at every oppurtunity.  I do not how close the quarters in which
you will work are.  All of my experiences have been pretty much in open
air.  So there may certainly be other saftey considerations, particularly
shoring up the feature walls.
 
The materials recovered should be wonderful, with many whole and mendable
vessels being found.  These types of features are truely amazing as artifact
repositories, but beware of the large amounts of stuff that is likely to
be there.  It can be a logistical nightmare.  Also, the deposits tend
to be rather sticky and wet, which do not dry screen very well.  I highly
recommend water screening.
 
I would also, suggest that strict attention be paid to the stratigraphy
of the feature.  You may be able to distinguish between different refuse
deposition episodes, particularly when the deposits have settled and created
depressions, which were subsequently refilled.  I have found the deposition of
these types of features to be much more complicated than one might think.
 
Vaults with no floor are pretty common here, in privies and in the cesspool
excavated.  Historical evidence suggests that this was done so that the
vault contents could leach out or be absorbed into the water table.  This
prevented the frequent and annoying act of cleaning out full vaults.  I won't
mention the sanitary consequences of this action.
 
This reply is long enough, feel free to ask more specific questions I
have been dealing with these types of features for six years now.
Let us also, try and refrain from showing our wit with countless privy
and cesspool puns.
 
M. Jay Stottman
Kentucky Archaeological Survey