An Archaeology Primer

The five basic steps in any excavation are: establish a grid of squares over the entire site; remove and screen the plowed soil from the top of each square; photograph and map the soil stains (called features), which are visible beneath the plowed soil; excavate the features to recover their contents; and when everything else is finished, refill (or backfill) the excavated areas with soil. In the rest of this section, we will describe all these steps in more detail.

Students engages in various excavation tasks at Occaneechi Town