Sometimes you excavate a feature that just defies all logic and every once in a while we find new features types which either have not been defined before, have been misidentified or simply written off as a natural anomaly. Recently, near Middletown, Delaware at the Elkins A site (circa 1740-1780), Hunter Research, Inc. excavated a feature which we had initially considered to be a well or the cone for well, (located 45 feet from an mid-18th century stone-lined root-cellar). It has now become one of the most puzzling and exciting features at the Elkins A Site, and possibly on the Route 301 project to date. This circular feature is situated on the side of a shallow gully that defines the northern boundary of a mid 18th century homestead. The feature measures approximately 15 feet in diameter and extends three feet below the plowzone (See photos in attached blog). There are posts positioned approximately every three feet around the base perimeter. Each post is angled inward 10 to 30 degrees with rocks jammed in around the base to prevent the post from falling into the pit. Several green sandstone slabs situated in the upper center of the fill exhibit no signs of trimming or shaping (they do however contain thousands of fossils not thought to be related to the function of the feature). No other artifacts have been recovered from this enigmatic feature. The lack of artifacts suggest that it predates the house, as otherwise household refuse (in the form of a sheet midden) would have undoubtedly been part of the upper fill. There is no central shaft (ignore the central rectangular test and two small auger tests shown in blog image). This area has experienced between one and two feet of soil deflation. The fill inside the pit appears to be the same soil excavated from the pit suggesting it was banked against the pit or packed against branches woven between the posts and either fell back into the pit when the posts were removed or rotted away. So what is it? We have had several professionals visit the site with interesting ideas, but none are as yet completely satisfactory. We have ruled out a well, privy, cistern, spring head, windmill, brick/clay pit or silo. One exciting suggestion is that it is a wolf trap. Construction of wolf traps was mandated in this area during the 1670s and 1680s as attempts were made to eradicate wolves as pests. The small crossroads settlement of McDonough, a couple of miles south on what is now Route 13, was originally called "Trap". A competing possibility is a "field root pit" type of root cellar used to store staples such as potatoes, carrots and turnips. Field root pits are often rectangular but can be circular. Some also have peaked roofs. We have taken soil samples for flotation and chemical analysis which is underway. We also have carbon samples as we cannot rule out a prehistoric origin. Your thoughts are welcome. See the attached Route 301blog sponsored by DelDOT below for digital photographs, weekly updates regarding our site as well as two other data recoveries along the corridor. http://blogs.deldot.gov/category/us301/archaeology-updates/ Bill Liebeknecht, MA, RPA Principal Investigator Hunter Research, Inc. Trenton, New Jersey