Post Holes

After the troweling is finished, dark stains in the soil become readily visible. These stains are traces of ancient human activity. Archaeologists call them features. The small round features visible in this photograph are traces of wooden posts that were once driven into the ground. The posts themselves are long gone; they decayed away centuries ago. But we can still see where the posts once stood because they stained the soil when they rotted. These kinds of features are called post holes.

Students reveal ancient postholes by troweling the top of subsoil.