Feature Numbers

DAACS staff has assigned feature numbers using the original excavation records. Feature numbers assigned by DAACS have a F-prefix, which precedes the number (i.e. F01 equals Feature 1). In the case of the Fairfield Quarter, feature numbers are the same as the context numbers assigned by the original excavators in the field. Unlike other sites in DAACS, plowzone contexts and feature contexts at the Fairfield Quarter were not numbered consecutively. The result is that a plowzone context within a quadrat and a context within a feature could have been assigned the same context number. To distinguish between context numbers assigned to features and those assigned to deposits within a quadrat, we also placed a F-prefix in front of context numbers that are part of a feature. As a result contexts F008A, F008B, and F008C all belong to a subfloor pit feature F008.

Excavated contexts that belong to the same depositional basin (e.g. a posthole and postmold or the layers in a single pit) have been assigned a single feature number. In addition, single contexts have been given feature numbers when the original field records indicate that the excavators recognized a context’s spatial distinctiveness from surrounding contexts.

Feature Groups

Feature groups are sets of features whose spatial arrangements indicate they were part of a single structure (e.g. structural postholes, subfloor pits, and hearth) or landscape element (e.g. postholes that comprise a fenceline). Feature Groups assigned by DAACS have a FG-prefix, which precedes the number (i.e. FG01 equals Feature Group 1).