Decomposition of Buried Artefacts?

Question

I am writing an historical fiction novel which is based on writing and artefacts recovered from an archaeological dig site from the late 1800s.

Does anyone have any pointers on how being buried in various types of soil would affect the condition of finds on a late Victorian excavation site?

What conditions would be optimal to guarantee the survival of the relics which tell my story?

Also if anyone has any little nuggets of info regarding these kinds of relatively recent history excavations that would be useful.

I am also interested in finding out about the processes and techniques that would be used on such archaeological dig sites.

Sources, book references and external links are very welcome!

Thanks!

Answer 1

Dry, arid areas preserves artifacts of all types remarkable well. The escavation of Masada, well east of jersuleum is near the dead sea and cherry pits, walnuts, potery and bones all survive over 2000 years after thier common use.

In peru mummies and cotton textiles survive, almost all without preservatives for 2-5 k years. They have a variety of environments, but most commonly thought of as the dry cold Andes Mountains.

The only examples of moist preservation are the acidic preservation of Bog men, where thier skin becomes leather or deep under sea/ incredible cold environments like Antartica where organisms are less sucessful.

Also in your question you dont say where this escavation is supposed to be....America?  

I would also not really consider late 1800's to be Victorian at all.

Its remarkable how escavations are really done. Often with students from some college and using mundane everyday items like tooth brushes or fish scales as devices. Some of these escavations lasting onlya few weeks despite huge ..even vast areas of inquiry.

Answer 2

I work in cultural resource management as an archaeologist. My experience is that it's pretty believable that tableware, metal objects and glass could survive in any soil for 200 years, tableware may be a little iffy. If your story requires cloth, people, or paper to be preserved you may need to create believable conditions. Other people have posted these. Caves are notoriously good at preserving paper (the dead sea scrolls) and probably cloth.

Most likely your site would be identified by digging a series of posthole-like test holes and screening the dirt (literally forcing it through a screen). Laying these out in a grid and flagging positive ones creates a ground surface layout of the site. This is Phase I.

Phase II consists of excavating square units (usually one meter square) one level at a time. Usually levels are 10cm thick but that can vary. Each level is recorded (soil typed, photographed and drawn if necessary). These levels are usually removed with a flat shovel and screened although around intrusions, such as rocks, a pointing trowel will be used. These units are taken down until no cultural deposits are evident. I've seen them go as deep as two meters, which is rare in the midwest. Usually one meter is the deep end. This is probably your best bet for a story device. Archaeologists could be laying these units into a house foundation and finding your items in the screens or seeing them in situ (in place) in their test units. There is a phase III excavation but it basically amounts to Phase II on a larger scale with some variation. Also, there are other techniques used: trenching, water screening, metal detection testing, and ground penetrating radar, although in reality if you are working in america, archaeology isn't quite as "s**y" as people think. If you do a search for archaeological field techniques, you'll come up with some basic instruction manuals.

Answer 3

acid soils destroy bones but can preserve hair. Boggy ground can preserve clothing/bodies for thousands of years (though the bones go.) Dry environments are better for preservation of pretty much everything.