Posted for Jack McIlroy.

We are planning to temporarily re-bury a recently excavated 1.4 metre deep
trench containing a cobbled stone floor and a solidly constructed dolerite
well in Fremantle, Western Australia. The trench will be about 3 metres
square amd 1.5 metres deep. Shoring the sides with treated wood and
burying with clean sand looks the best option to me but I'd like to hear
other suggestions.

Fremantle Council wants to re-open the site in a couple of years for
public display with a perspex or similar transparent cover over it with
interpretive signs and lighting. I have seen this approach work well in
several European cities and I've had input from several archaeologists in
Australia. I'd like to get some successful examples from urban America.
Fremantle is a seaport, the ca. 1840s site is in a park, it has been covered with
demolition debris and sand fill since about 1919. The dolerite stone floor
is about 1 metre above sea level. Siltation layers show the site was
occasionally subject to flooding.

I am looking for similar American examples of in situ preservation and display.


Jack Mc Ilroy
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