Front-Loading Backfilling: Site Stabilization of a Cliffside Shell Midden at l’akayamu

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

We present the design of a sampling project at one of the three archaeological sites composing the Late/Historic village of l’akayamu on limuw (Santa Cruz Island, California). We developed our methods with two goals: first, to support effective site stabilization post-excavation; second, to recover fragile artifacts eroding from a sea cliff while generating new data about the pattern of village occupation through time. We describe our design process for excavation and stabilization of a column sample in high-density shell-bearing midden.

After excavation with brushes and trowels, we backfilled the column sample using a two-layer stabilization system. The first layer consists of a nonwoven geotextile placed tightly in contact with the unit walls, held in place by sterile boulder-and-sand backfill, which then doubles back to help retain the small particles in the fill material. The second layer is a galvanized chain-link fence secured at ground level above and below the unit that provides support for the nonwoven geotextile and backfill. We designed this system to permit normal percolation while preventing slumping, erosion, or collapse on the cliff-face.

In sharing our work, we hope to highlight approaches to sampling that responsibly incorporate post-excavation stabilization efforts into the initial project design.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts   •
• Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting, Portland, OR (2023)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 37018.0