Stained Dirt?!

Fearing attack, the people of Charles Towne Landing dug a ditch and piled the dirt along one edge to create a higher foundation for a defensive palisade wall, which would have forced attackers to fight from a disadvantaged position. After the settlement relocated, the palisade wall crumbled, and debris collected in the ditch and decomposed into dirt darker than the surrounding soil. Almost 300 years later, archaeologists found the long line of distinctive soil and recognized it as proof of the wall’s location, and the palisade has now been partially reconstructed beside the stained dirt.

Charleston, South Carolina · United States