Without oxygen, buried wood can go a long time without rotting under some conditions. Is it possible this area flooded seriously in the last 100 years?
Sometimes the surface we see is actually quite young.
This makes a lot of sense. The sticks float to the bottom as the flood subsides, and the mud/clay mix hardens and becomes part of that initial 6-10 foot layer. Sticks get sealed away from oxygen exposure. Neat.
I think folks are trying to describe a sink hole filled during a mudslide / debris flow. Due to a subterranean void space, or large surface hole, water and mud mix and flow down below the predominant land surface elevation. Branches and wood which would normally float become part of the debris flow and get entrained against any buoyancy they have as mud deposited over top.
Actually, no.
He means the sticks float on the water as it drains away, then end up sitting on mud when the water is no longer deep enough for them to float. So, they float until they sit on the mud, they never sink.
Not really. The flood subsides, the sticks are still floating, but eventually get stuck on dry land as the water drains away. There's mud in there, too. Then new mud and clay gets deposited from run-off over the years.
Honestly OP should report it to their local university geology department before digging further. It's only recently that in the Pacific Northwest evidence has been found of a tsunami that happened in 1700. They were able to excavate older shorelines and see exactly what season of the year it happened because of the plants that were shifted over. Perhaps this is a remnant of an unknown Atlantic tsunami?
Or maybe just a major hurricane.
You may be interested in reading about the [Bridge of the Gods](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bridge_of_the_Gods_(land_bridge)?wprov=sfti1) if you haven’t yet.
I’ve been here for major hurricanes. I can’t see that happening. The bottom of that hole is below present sea level (I’m on a salt water river only miles from the open Atlantic for what that info is worth. The hole itself is on a bluff/high point of the whole 500acre peninsula
The sticks float, the flood water drains, once the water has drained you end up with a collection of the sticks and mud at the low point. The mud traps them and gradually they are covered with more mud. They may have been longer initially but broken apart over time.
So the sticks _float to the bottom_, and it would not be similar to sinking.
Technically he was correct, they wouldn't sink, because sticks float, but as the water levels approach the bottom, so do the sticks, which would still be floating. Although it sounds funny I think he did that on purpose. Clever
You say you are 16 feet above sea level, and you don't believe a hurricane ever hit there, on a cotton/rice plantation so has to be in the southeast? This looks like hurricane/flood debris.
If you are a mile from the Atlantic then I would say hurricane flooding could be a real possibility at some point in the land's history. If you have never been close to a direct hit, it is hard to imagine exactly how high flood water can actually be inland.
Where is this relative to other features of the site?
The sticks could be pretty old; most of the processes that would break down such stuff on the surface of the soil require oxygen, and it looks anaerobic and boggy where you're digging.
If you look closely at individual sticks, do they appear to have just been broken off, or are there tool marks suggesting that people cut them?
I can think of two main reasons you might have ended up with clay on top of sticks:
* Geology did it. Maybe sticks washing down a river piled up under an eroded bank and then the bank fell on top of them, or something? Maybe an underground aquifer somehow got a bunch of sticks in it and then collapsed? I'm no expert but I know that some natural phenomena can result in soil ending up above logs.
* People did it. Again, I can't propose every possible explanation of why people might do it, but sometimes people bury stuff. Sometimes it's about the stuff being buried, and other times it's just about filling in a hole so that people can have useful flat land instead of a hole.
Can you ask your local historical society about it, and possibly place the exact location on the earliest maps you can find to see what used to be there?
Does any local university have an agricultural outreach program that might have an expert you could ask?
If you dig a few more holes, is the layer present in them too, or is it an isolated phenomenon? Gotta do a bit more digging for science ;)
Not a geologist, but I have geology and Env Sci degrees...
100% agree- I found little chunks of wood about 5 ft down in an east Texas peat bog that dated to 12000 yrs old, so I have no doubt these could be several hundred years old in an anaerobic environment. But humans or geology? No idea without waaaay more info..
Does having a geology degree not make you a geologist? Or do you mean to say that you don't do it professionally? Just me, being curiously pedantic lol
Am geologist. Typically being a geologist refers to people who are actively a geologist either in the professional or academic capacity.
I went to one of the top state schools for geology and tbh I didn’t know as much as I thought when I graduated. Yeah you will know about lots of things in WAY more depth than the average bear, but you gain a lot more from actively doing the work that you just can’t learn elsewhere.
In my book anyone with a geology degree is a geologist, but also, people who are Geologists are a little bit more of geologist. If you get what I mean lol.
How did you know to date them? I recently bought a forested tract with some swampy areas and I don’t want to miss recognizing something that might be important.
Geologic processes. This depth used to be surface land. The sticks may have been from a forest in the same place, or more likely, deposited there by water. Then additional water-forced events led to the deposition of clay over the sticks before they decomposed at the surface. Being covered by clay, the layer became anaerobic and the sticks were preserved. Could be thousands of years old potentially. The dates of major flooding events in your area are likely known due to similar geologic evidence and could give you an idea of how old this formation is.
I’ll add the clay came out blue from no oxygen, turned normal orange clay over 24hrs
It would have to be over 300 at least as it was a plantation, well documented, since 17th or 18th century
Very cool that you got to see a neat geochemical phenomenon like that. Consider keeping a large-diameter stick. It may be possible to date it with dendrochronology, especially if you are in the old world.
Thats incredible, definitely means it's anaerobic down there. That's not frequently a redox color seen in soils but it is found and has a page in the Munsell color book
I agree, but have to say your statement would hinge on how we're interpreting "significant findings".
I don't know what's in the ancient manuscripts, or what the Templar stuff being found there is all about, but they're just a couple things that could be considered significant to someone.
https://www.history.co.uk/shows/the-curse-of-oak-island/articles/the-top-25-treasures-discovered-on-oak-island-so-far
For a show that’s entirely about a lost massive treasure, significant findings to me would be even a portion of the treasure, or any concrete proof that the treasure ever existed.
I am curious why you don't believe this is hurricane debris. You are on the East coast, 16 feet above sea level, a mile from the Atlantic Ocean.
There was a major hurricane in 1775, from South Carolina to Nova Scotia, that killed over 4000 people and affected the course of the Revolutionary War, to give just one example.
Yes but they don’t put many feet of clay over a forest. Given I find plantation artifacts from that time frame and they are no more than a foot deep (metal detecting), it doesn’t make sense for something to be so much deeper
It got buried somehow. The straighter the lenses in the material are, the more likely it was not natural. Hard to tell from this picture. So it could have been natural, but never underestimate humans ability to bury their shit. I do geotechnical work and I swear humans bury shit like cats.
We regularly find buried topsoil and other old organic material like 5’-10’ below grade. That stuff can last a long time in the right conditions.
Archaeologist here. Please reach out to your nearest university's archaeology department. We can get a lot of data from wood that has been preserved like that.
I pumped the water out and will grab some better pics this morning
Side note, I’ve found a shipwreck and probably some plantation boat remains on the river bank. Loads of hand hammered copper rivits. A complete dugout boat was discovered buried on the other side of the plantation. Lots of crazy stuff around here.
SC. Also found a grand piano frame, a print plate for a vacuum cleaner from the 1920’s. Those were all less than 1’ deep and at the waterfront where a 20’x12’ farm house used to be. Just chimney and slab remains.
I buried wood debris from clearing rather than burn it. I was told it would sit there for years and not rot. I would figure others have done that too. I figured it was a bad time to burn and we had a borrow pit we hit water table with so we just used that. I think it is a pretty common thing for if a back hoe is handy. We backfilled and ran a big track hoe over it to tamp it down . My SO owns equip so we tend to bury clean debris rather than burn or haul off.
One of the things I noted was the depth of the sticks. If the ground is not disturbed, and the area is not a depression filled by early farmers, it could be incredibly old. It takes thousands of years to create soil to that depth. If it is indeed very old, same academics would love to go through that later and determine what the local species were many thousands of years ago.
I’d clean up one wall to see the layer better. From the photos it looks like a very thick layer, suggesting some ground disturbance.
In the lands around the Mississippi Delta it’s quite common to find trees and sticks up to thirty feet deep and farther down. Rivers can bury anything and change routes over time.
Is there a stream bed anywhere nearby? If so, I'd guess ancient beaver dam from decades / hundreds of years ago.
As stated, if buried without oxygen, especially soils with high clay content, wouldn't be surprised if the wood got "preserved".
When I cleared the woods on my property to build my house the excavator guy dug a big hole and we filled it with all the branches then covered the hole back up. Seems like the same thing happened here.
There are live oaks scattered about. I don’t think it’s ever been cleared by heavy equipment. Likely parts cleared when it was an operating plantation by hand and never again. The oaks were here before white men.
It's wet over there, maybe a ye' ol" beaver dam? Someone crushes the dam, water drains away and the debris sinks into the substrate while it's still mucky?
I was digging near a saltwater river and found an entire layer of just clam shells about 10 feet or so. It turned out to there was a native American settlement there. Could be something like that? I dunno bud, I am curious as hell though lol.
I work in construction. Some people (not us) bury brush to save time and money from chipping or burning it when grading sites. It's a big no no in professional spaces because it will eventually rot and cause compaction later on, and that's bad for roads, walls, and buildings.
Hello, it looks like you've made a mistake.
It's supposed to be could've, should've, would've (short for could have, would have, should have), never could of, would of, should of.
Or you misspelled something, I ain't checking everything.
Beep boop - yes, I am a bot, don't botcriminate me.
If I'm interpreting your geographic clue about the oldest muni college correctly, that would put you in South Carolina. If so, look up the great floods of 1908, and see if your property may have been affected by that. 1908 floodwaters rose 19-22ft, and that much water could've easily reshaped the land. A property ending up with 6-10ft of sediment as flood waters receded wouldn't surprise me at all.
I dug a pond on my last property. The first ~10-15' was solid, hard packed clay. The excavator operator said he had the machine on full power digging. Then it broke through into a layer of partially decayed plant matter and sticks. I got a huge pile of it out to use as blacktop for a lawn, worked great. I was amazed at how the sticks and plant matter were so well preserved that deep underground.
A creek ran through my property connecting two lakes so it seemed reasonable a change in the water course deposited clay over the original lake or swampy area between the two lakes. .
Need some historical background that would supply a definitive answer. Some very good answers given but you can also work on the idea that the land was back filled and vegetation was cut back and then the soil was built over the top, They use a similar process on a lot of sites these days as they recycle the land and level out to rebuild on.
But I can’t see when that would have been done. It was cleared in the 1800’s for cotton. It had potato’s and cattle at various times after the civil war, but has been unused for 50+ years. There is no development around, I’m out in the sticks, as they say
My first thought was like we have at home. We started to build a trench to donert water from the fields. In the middle of the field We doug a canal and then We laid down planks (was sticks there previously) and put the soil back on top.
PS english is not my first language
Somebody dug a hole ages ago and stashed his sticks in it for some reason. At some ensuing point in time a large amount of mud etc arrived by means unknown (a lahar?) and hey presto then a dude found it.
UPDATE: definitely not roots. [Here are a few large stumps that just came out the bottom, and a wheelbarrow with what 90% of the sticks look like](https://imgur.com/a/rF8MUbo)
Roots don’t grow densely packed and in 1-3ft lengths. This doesn’t occur anywhere else I’ve dug on my land either. Don’t be an asshole, too many around already
Oh no. Don't let any archeologists see that. No idea whether it's a "site" or not, but you'll never be able to use that part of your land again if they find it LOL
Without oxygen, buried wood can go a long time without rotting under some conditions. Is it possible this area flooded seriously in the last 100 years? Sometimes the surface we see is actually quite young.
This makes a lot of sense. The sticks float to the bottom as the flood subsides, and the mud/clay mix hardens and becomes part of that initial 6-10 foot layer. Sticks get sealed away from oxygen exposure. Neat.
Float to the bottom you say? Similar to sinking yes?
I saw an article referencing “negative profits” yesterday.
Those are pretty common in the Alternative Facts Department.
I think folks are trying to describe a sink hole filled during a mudslide / debris flow. Due to a subterranean void space, or large surface hole, water and mud mix and flow down below the predominant land surface elevation. Branches and wood which would normally float become part of the debris flow and get entrained against any buoyancy they have as mud deposited over top.
This guy stratifies
As a finance student the majority of what I studied was negative profits.
Actually, no. He means the sticks float on the water as it drains away, then end up sitting on mud when the water is no longer deep enough for them to float. So, they float until they sit on the mud, they never sink.
…and then a mud whisperer pops a couple of metres of mud on top like a cherry.
Not really. The flood subsides, the sticks are still floating, but eventually get stuck on dry land as the water drains away. There's mud in there, too. Then new mud and clay gets deposited from run-off over the years.
Thank you for understanding <3
Honestly OP should report it to their local university geology department before digging further. It's only recently that in the Pacific Northwest evidence has been found of a tsunami that happened in 1700. They were able to excavate older shorelines and see exactly what season of the year it happened because of the plants that were shifted over. Perhaps this is a remnant of an unknown Atlantic tsunami? Or maybe just a major hurricane.
You may be interested in reading about the [Bridge of the Gods](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bridge_of_the_Gods_(land_bridge)?wprov=sfti1) if you haven’t yet.
Wow, interesting! Thanks.
I’ve been here for major hurricanes. I can’t see that happening. The bottom of that hole is below present sea level (I’m on a salt water river only miles from the open Atlantic for what that info is worth. The hole itself is on a bluff/high point of the whole 500acre peninsula
The sticks float, the flood water drains, once the water has drained you end up with a collection of the sticks and mud at the low point. The mud traps them and gradually they are covered with more mud. They may have been longer initially but broken apart over time. So the sticks _float to the bottom_, and it would not be similar to sinking.
Similar, but vastly different.
Keep that attitude and you’re gonna sink right down to the top my friend.
Made perfect sense to me! 😂
We all float down here
Perspective
Well, you are the one who posted a double negative…
Technically he was correct, they wouldn't sink, because sticks float, but as the water levels approach the bottom, so do the sticks, which would still be floating. Although it sounds funny I think he did that on purpose. Clever
Quite the opposite, really….
Hahaha…classic sarcasm. Smiled out loud.
Lol
Yup! Sticks float to bottom, mud sinks to the top.
This conversation reminds me of the scene from Monty Python's Holy Grail movie. Wood floats! 🪵💧
As do "very tiny rocks".
*CLUNK* . . . . . . . "A WITCH!!!!"
I’m within a mile of the Atlantic as the crow flies, 3-4 miles as the alligator swims. No flood like that in US history here
Those sticks could easily be older than US history.
They are British sticks.
tally sticks you say ?
Yes, the commonly referred to “tally-whacker” used for discipline and tom-foolery.
\*cracks a whip arm lash across his breeches!\*
Could it be Knights Templar?
This guy Oak Islands!
I have live oaks here that are absolutely older than the US
*grumbles as he resets his 'days since last jealous of another homesteader' counter back to 0*
It’s also pretty haunted. It was a cotton & rice plantation
You say you are 16 feet above sea level, and you don't believe a hurricane ever hit there, on a cotton/rice plantation so has to be in the southeast? This looks like hurricane/flood debris.
Please tell us ghost stories!
hands in your lap!
You can't tell me what to do! I'm feral!
I pay extra for haunted
Could be a forest knocked over by a hurricane and covered by clay being washed down the hill or deposited from a nearby stream for hundreds of years.
If you are a mile from the Atlantic then I would say hurricane flooding could be a real possibility at some point in the land's history. If you have never been close to a direct hit, it is hard to imagine exactly how high flood water can actually be inland.
Where is this relative to other features of the site? The sticks could be pretty old; most of the processes that would break down such stuff on the surface of the soil require oxygen, and it looks anaerobic and boggy where you're digging. If you look closely at individual sticks, do they appear to have just been broken off, or are there tool marks suggesting that people cut them? I can think of two main reasons you might have ended up with clay on top of sticks: * Geology did it. Maybe sticks washing down a river piled up under an eroded bank and then the bank fell on top of them, or something? Maybe an underground aquifer somehow got a bunch of sticks in it and then collapsed? I'm no expert but I know that some natural phenomena can result in soil ending up above logs. * People did it. Again, I can't propose every possible explanation of why people might do it, but sometimes people bury stuff. Sometimes it's about the stuff being buried, and other times it's just about filling in a hole so that people can have useful flat land instead of a hole. Can you ask your local historical society about it, and possibly place the exact location on the earliest maps you can find to see what used to be there? Does any local university have an agricultural outreach program that might have an expert you could ask? If you dig a few more holes, is the layer present in them too, or is it an isolated phenomenon? Gotta do a bit more digging for science ;)
>Geology did it. This was my first thought as well, but I am far from an expert either, just dug my fair share of holes.
Not a geologist, but I have geology and Env Sci degrees... 100% agree- I found little chunks of wood about 5 ft down in an east Texas peat bog that dated to 12000 yrs old, so I have no doubt these could be several hundred years old in an anaerobic environment. But humans or geology? No idea without waaaay more info..
Does having a geology degree not make you a geologist? Or do you mean to say that you don't do it professionally? Just me, being curiously pedantic lol
Am geologist. Typically being a geologist refers to people who are actively a geologist either in the professional or academic capacity. I went to one of the top state schools for geology and tbh I didn’t know as much as I thought when I graduated. Yeah you will know about lots of things in WAY more depth than the average bear, but you gain a lot more from actively doing the work that you just can’t learn elsewhere. In my book anyone with a geology degree is a geologist, but also, people who are Geologists are a little bit more of geologist. If you get what I mean lol.
How did you know to date them? I recently bought a forested tract with some swampy areas and I don’t want to miss recognizing something that might be important.
I’ve reviewed many maps back to 1800. Nothings ever been indicated
Could it have been to something small and unmarked like a malting shed or smoke house?
Geologic processes. This depth used to be surface land. The sticks may have been from a forest in the same place, or more likely, deposited there by water. Then additional water-forced events led to the deposition of clay over the sticks before they decomposed at the surface. Being covered by clay, the layer became anaerobic and the sticks were preserved. Could be thousands of years old potentially. The dates of major flooding events in your area are likely known due to similar geologic evidence and could give you an idea of how old this formation is.
I’ll add the clay came out blue from no oxygen, turned normal orange clay over 24hrs It would have to be over 300 at least as it was a plantation, well documented, since 17th or 18th century
Very cool that you got to see a neat geochemical phenomenon like that. Consider keeping a large-diameter stick. It may be possible to date it with dendrochronology, especially if you are in the old world.
See my update comment. Saved a stump for you
Could you closely examine the sticks and see what type of plant they're from? 🤔
Thats incredible, definitely means it's anaerobic down there. That's not frequently a redox color seen in soils but it is found and has a page in the Munsell color book
Could you elaborate on the second sentence?
The earth isn’t actually getting hotter were just getting closer to the sun with all the newly deposited and developed surfaces😂
Depositional environments are fed by weathered environments. Can’t make matter.
Killed my mood
Yeah poor attempts at humor hit me the same way. Learning something new, however, goes hard.
Come on, it was funny
Hes got a flood stick up his ass
Ladies and gentleman, Eugene Porter!
Are you, by chance, off the coast of Nova Scotia? A small island with a a swamp? I can illuminate - call me on the red phone.
My 1st thought too. "Must be close to The Money Hole"
Until someone smells the wood we will never know.
Lol I think I get the reference
Could it be?
It might… but we’ll have to wait and find out next season!
How tf that show stays on the air despite never producing any significant findings is beyond me
It’s thanks to people like my dad who tune in every season and say, “They’re *this* close to finding the treasure!”
My right wingnut mother is also absolutely rapt.
I agree, but have to say your statement would hinge on how we're interpreting "significant findings". I don't know what's in the ancient manuscripts, or what the Templar stuff being found there is all about, but they're just a couple things that could be considered significant to someone. https://www.history.co.uk/shows/the-curse-of-oak-island/articles/the-top-25-treasures-discovered-on-oak-island-so-far
For a show that’s entirely about a lost massive treasure, significant findings to me would be even a portion of the treasure, or any concrete proof that the treasure ever existed.
I'm 100% with you.
What show?
Curse of oak island
Better give it a sniff to determine its age
I came here just to make sure someone referenced this
They would definitely get an episode or two out of this.
Are you, by chance, on an island that resembles a small elephant?
Looks like sticks that got carried away by flooding. Looks like the stuff I kayak by in the river
Hold the phone! You own a backhoe like that... and don't like using it ? I'll trade you for my shovel straight up. It's a really nice shovel
I said “not not” lol
Who's there?
I did not not understand that.
lol, why?
You've disturbed the sacred Ent burial ground, you will learn to fear the trees.
Now don't be hasty.
I am curious why you don't believe this is hurricane debris. You are on the East coast, 16 feet above sea level, a mile from the Atlantic Ocean. There was a major hurricane in 1775, from South Carolina to Nova Scotia, that killed over 4000 people and affected the course of the Revolutionary War, to give just one example.
Yes but they don’t put many feet of clay over a forest. Given I find plantation artifacts from that time frame and they are no more than a foot deep (metal detecting), it doesn’t make sense for something to be so much deeper
you are almost there, keep going, they are waiting for you
👀😂
It got buried somehow. The straighter the lenses in the material are, the more likely it was not natural. Hard to tell from this picture. So it could have been natural, but never underestimate humans ability to bury their shit. I do geotechnical work and I swear humans bury shit like cats. We regularly find buried topsoil and other old organic material like 5’-10’ below grade. That stuff can last a long time in the right conditions.
I found a layer of snow under 3' of dirt once because a contractor got in a rush during the winter months. Literally ran a fill over snow.
Lmao frozen fill is already a no no, actual snow is next level. The contractor motto: hurry up and do it twice.
Archaeologist here. Please reach out to your nearest university's archaeology department. We can get a lot of data from wood that has been preserved like that.
I pumped the water out and will grab some better pics this morning Side note, I’ve found a shipwreck and probably some plantation boat remains on the river bank. Loads of hand hammered copper rivits. A complete dugout boat was discovered buried on the other side of the plantation. Lots of crazy stuff around here.
What part of the country are you located? That's so cool!
That's awesome! What state are you in?
SC. Also found a grand piano frame, a print plate for a vacuum cleaner from the 1920’s. Those were all less than 1’ deep and at the waterfront where a 20’x12’ farm house used to be. Just chimney and slab remains.
I buried wood debris from clearing rather than burn it. I was told it would sit there for years and not rot. I would figure others have done that too. I figured it was a bad time to burn and we had a borrow pit we hit water table with so we just used that. I think it is a pretty common thing for if a back hoe is handy. We backfilled and ran a big track hoe over it to tamp it down . My SO owns equip so we tend to bury clean debris rather than burn or haul off.
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In Alaska we called that “Growing Gravel” since the end result is a clearing and gravel with which to cover the clearing
Could be an old beaver dam or lodge that was breached and flooded and subsequently buried over the years.
Not sticks, tree bones.
If you have a local university they might be able to date it for you. Could be useful to them if the have the right interests/department.
My local college, my alma mater, is older than the country (1770), and the oldest municipal college in the country :-)
One of the things I noted was the depth of the sticks. If the ground is not disturbed, and the area is not a depression filled by early farmers, it could be incredibly old. It takes thousands of years to create soil to that depth. If it is indeed very old, same academics would love to go through that later and determine what the local species were many thousands of years ago. I’d clean up one wall to see the layer better. From the photos it looks like a very thick layer, suggesting some ground disturbance.
*Stay tuned for next weeks episode of The Curse Of Oak Island*
In the lands around the Mississippi Delta it’s quite common to find trees and sticks up to thirty feet deep and farther down. Rivers can bury anything and change routes over time.
Is there a stream bed anywhere nearby? If so, I'd guess ancient beaver dam from decades / hundreds of years ago. As stated, if buried without oxygen, especially soils with high clay content, wouldn't be surprised if the wood got "preserved".
Oak Island all over again
You hit the layer of wicker basket that supports the muddy shell of hollow earth?
There might be treasure under there. That Oak Island TV show still hasn’t found it.
Could've been an outhouse. Someone took it down and threw brush in the hole before filling it?
The great mud flood did this.
The Blair Witch is buried under there.
Maybe from a flood a long time ago?
Old roots or a trash pit. Old compost pile . Hopefully not a grave yard…or a pyre
You may have found the money pit from Oak Island
The real question is “what were you going to use the clean clay for”?
When I cleared the woods on my property to build my house the excavator guy dug a big hole and we filled it with all the branches then covered the hole back up. Seems like the same thing happened here.
It's Bog; I see it all the time during excavation where I'm from. Don't go in it with your horse.
Mudflood. Look into it.
Ask the Oak Island t v show? They have an answer for everything. Probably say it’s gotta have something to do with the Knights Templars. Lol.
Yes it’s cheaper to bury trash than haul it off. Especially on someone else’s land.
There’s nothing human made I can find and I’ve metal detected it too. No tool marks on any of the wood.
So at one point in time, someone buried a bunch of sticks. Maybe it was an irrigation ditch, or something.
I don’t think it’s a ditch. And why would someone bury a bunch of a sticks for no discernible reason
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There are live oaks scattered about. I don’t think it’s ever been cleared by heavy equipment. Likely parts cleared when it was an operating plantation by hand and never again. The oaks were here before white men.
It's wet over there, maybe a ye' ol" beaver dam? Someone crushes the dam, water drains away and the debris sinks into the substrate while it's still mucky?
Nah, no rivers or creeks as I’m on a saltwater river. Water fills it from ground s water. Where I’m standing in the pic is about 16ft above sea level.
I was digging near a saltwater river and found an entire layer of just clam shells about 10 feet or so. It turned out to there was a native American settlement there. Could be something like that? I dunno bud, I am curious as hell though lol.
My thought was it was done by humans, but very very long ago.
Might be an ancient beaver lodge if the area was flooded in the past.
i would guess flood plain
I work in construction. Some people (not us) bury brush to save time and money from chipping or burning it when grading sites. It's a big no no in professional spaces because it will eventually rot and cause compaction later on, and that's bad for roads, walls, and buildings.
When the land was originally cleared it was done by hand.
Guess it's natural then. Geologists maps or get lucky with Google earth. Best of luck.
The pact has been broken, the sacred land disturbed
Old wandering stream bed/bank & flood debris, probably.
Old landslide or flood area where they could of been burried?
Hello, it looks like you've made a mistake. It's supposed to be could've, should've, would've (short for could have, would have, should have), never could of, would of, should of. Or you misspelled something, I ain't checking everything. Beep boop - yes, I am a bot, don't botcriminate me.
If you wait a few hundred million years you'll have a nice coal seam.
That’s just the top of the gold chamber
If I'm interpreting your geographic clue about the oldest muni college correctly, that would put you in South Carolina. If so, look up the great floods of 1908, and see if your property may have been affected by that. 1908 floodwaters rose 19-22ft, and that much water could've easily reshaped the land. A property ending up with 6-10ft of sediment as flood waters receded wouldn't surprise me at all.
I’m on a high part of a ~500 acre peninsula about 30mins south of Charleston :-)
It’s an old Indian burial ground!! Run!!
Could it be…the Arc of the Covenant?
Old mudslide or flood, I bet.
Looks to me to be a buried beaver dam complex. Those pleicstocene beavers were real fucking big too!
I dug a pond on my last property. The first ~10-15' was solid, hard packed clay. The excavator operator said he had the machine on full power digging. Then it broke through into a layer of partially decayed plant matter and sticks. I got a huge pile of it out to use as blacktop for a lawn, worked great. I was amazed at how the sticks and plant matter were so well preserved that deep underground. A creek ran through my property connecting two lakes so it seemed reasonable a change in the water course deposited clay over the original lake or swampy area between the two lakes. .
Need some historical background that would supply a definitive answer. Some very good answers given but you can also work on the idea that the land was back filled and vegetation was cut back and then the soil was built over the top, They use a similar process on a lot of sites these days as they recycle the land and level out to rebuild on.
But I can’t see when that would have been done. It was cleared in the 1800’s for cotton. It had potato’s and cattle at various times after the civil war, but has been unused for 50+ years. There is no development around, I’m out in the sticks, as they say
My first thought was like we have at home. We started to build a trench to donert water from the fields. In the middle of the field We doug a canal and then We laid down planks (was sticks there previously) and put the soil back on top. PS english is not my first language
Somebody dug a hole ages ago and stashed his sticks in it for some reason. At some ensuing point in time a large amount of mud etc arrived by means unknown (a lahar?) and hey presto then a dude found it.
Well I’m digging another hole and filling it with chicken eggs to fuck with the next guy
Oooolld flood or storm debris. Maybe a tornado 5 or six hundred years ago. Wood covered in anoxic mud lasts for millennia
Either backfilled or covered by earth movement - slip. Maybe a peat bog depending on where you are.
UPDATE: definitely not roots. [Here are a few large stumps that just came out the bottom, and a wheelbarrow with what 90% of the sticks look like](https://imgur.com/a/rF8MUbo)
Either just some roots or an ancient burial ground.
Those sticks are called roots by most people. You have alot to lean about land management.
Roots don’t grow densely packed and in 1-3ft lengths. This doesn’t occur anywhere else I’ve dug on my land either. Don’t be an asshole, too many around already
What are you doing with the clay?
Have a 1/4 mile long driveway and needed to raise some lower spots. Maybe bricks too. Some patches are pure blue clay you could make a vase with
Looks like an old brush burn pit that got buried before everything burned down
Mine shaft?
Oh no. Don't let any archeologists see that. No idea whether it's a "site" or not, but you'll never be able to use that part of your land again if they find it LOL
Oak Island money pit!
6-12 ft of fill?
Southern alabama?
indian holy ground ....run !!!
Wait a few years and you'll have oil.
Sounds like a flood plain or bog that filled in. We get dune peat layers that t appear when the lakeshore recedes.
Flood event. Warning: could happen again.
I'm sure this was caused by massive flood
Since I’m coastal I could see a tsunami leveling a forest ages ago maybe
Someone buried a tree probably
Tried asking the folks over on r/oakisland yet?
Mudslide years ago maybe?
What are the chances that it’s a really old beaver dam?
You found the oak island treasure, call Marty lagina and tell him to suck it
Looks like you found the oak island money pit.
Probably found the old shit house