From Humus Mold to Stout Building: Reverse Engineering Post-in-the-Ground Structures

As archaeologists at a historic site, it is our responsibility to help visitors to envision the vanished past. Where were the dwellings, outbuildings, gardens, fields, and roads that framed their occupants’ lives? The challenge is fascinating and daunting—none more so than reconstructing long-gone earthfast structures—buildings that left only disturbed dirt and humus casts of timbers. Varying in size and shape, these wooden members—posts, studs, stakes, sills, sleepers, puncheons, and palisadoes—were the framing of colonial buildings. While some St. Mary’s City buildings had masonry foundations, many more had timber footings. The dissection of earthfast structures is tedious,