5 The excavation grid
A portion of the Occaneechi Town excavation grid. (North is at the top of the map.) (Photograph courtesy of Research Laboratories of Archaeology. More about the photograph)
Here’s what the excavation grid at Occaneechi Town looks like. The lines on this map are drawn at 10-foot intervals, creating a pattern of squares. Each horizontal line is labeled according to its distance north of a reference point called a datum. Similarly, each vertical line is labeled with its distance east (right) or west (left) of the same point. Thus, any location on the site can be described by the coordinates of the grid lines that intersect there. The coordinates are always written in a standard way: the north coordinate appears first, followed by the letter “R” (which stands for “right”) or the letter “L” (which stands for “left”) and then by the east or west coordinate. Thus, the coordinates 250R50 refer to a spot 250 feet north and 50 feet east of the datum.
Each block in the checkerboard pattern shown here also happens to be an excavation unit, 10 by 10 feet in size, called a square. Each square is named after the grid coordinate of its southeast corner.
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This page copyright ©1998. All Rights Reserved
Original source available from Research Laboratories of Archaeology.
