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North Carolina History Digital Textbook Project

Excavating Occaneechi Town: An archaeology primer

From the UNC Research Laboratories of Archaeology

Contents

  1. 1About the Archaeology Primer
  2. 2An archaeology primer
  3. 3Basic excavation steps
  4. 4Establishing the site grid
  5. 5The excavation grid
  6. 6Removing the plowed soil
  7. 7Troweling the subsoil
  8. 8Post holes
  9. 9Pits
  10. 10Excavating an ancient pit
  11. 11Ancient pit contents
  12. 12What ancient pit contents tell us
  13. 13Documenting excavated features: Pit feature before excavation
  14. 14Documenting excavated features: Pit feature during excavation
  15. 15Documenting excavated features: Pit feature after excavation
  16. 16Pits (A common feature type)
  17. 17Storage pits (A common feature type)
  18. 18Smudge pits (A common feature type)
  19. 19Shallow basins and depressions (A common feature type)
  20. 20Burials (A common feature type)
  21. 21Post holes (A common feature type)
  22. 22Natural disturbances (A common feature type)
  23. 23A post hole structure
  24. 24An excavated post hole structure
  25. 25A wall-trench structure
  26. 26An excavated wall-trench structure
  27. 27Mapping archaeological features
  28. 28Recovering artifacts by waterscreening
  29. 29Artifacts found by waterscreening
  30. 30Recovering charcoal by flotation
  31. 31Animal bones (A common artifact type)
  32. 32Brick fragments (A common artifact type)
  33. 33Charcoal (A common artifact type)
  34. 34Chipped-stone projectile points (A common artifact type)
  35. 35Clay pipe fragments (A common artifact type)
  36. 36Daub and fired clay (A common artifact type)
  37. 37Flakes (A common artifact type)
  38. 38Glass beads (A common artifact type)
  39. 39Glass fragments (A common artifact type)
  40. 40Gunflints (A common artifact type)
  41. 41Lead shot (A common artifact type)
  42. 42Potsherds (A common artifact type)
  43. 43Shell beads (A common artifact type)
  44. 44Backfilling the excavation
  1. Index