Standing over one of the Colonial, brick sidewalks that help define Annapolis, the archaeologists began digging with trowels and shovels.
The team from the University of Maryland carved a 4-foot-long trench along a sidewalk at Fleet and Cornhill streets - two of the oldest in the historic district. Bagging and tagging artifacts along the way, they scraped through the powdered remains of a red brick sidewalk from 1820 and a black layer of wood chips from 1740.
Then they found something far more significant than the shards of pearlware, animal bones and the King George III penny that they uncovered in the layers above: a log street that archaeologists called the oldest remnant yet discovered of the Annapolis settlement.
Preserved in briny muck were several logs laying side-by-side perpendicular to the curb. They were flattened on the top and sides, but the curve and bark of the log remained on the bottom.
The find, announced yesterday, is unique because log roads, while common during Colonial times, rotted long ago, said Mark Leone, a University of Maryland archaeologist who started the Archaeology in Annapolis project in 1981. But these logs are in saltwater and covered in silt and clay - an anaerobic environment perfect for preservation.
"The major impact of this discovery is to alert everybody that the archaeology of (Fleet and Cornhill) roads is intact," Leone said. "There's a lot more we can expect."
The 3-foot section of log road remained buried for so long because archaeologists get to dig only when a major construction project is about to begin, he said. The city Department of Public Works is paying for the excavation ahead of a $5 million project to lay underground utility cables and upgrade sewer and water pipes.
The find has excited city historians and officials who are organizing events for the 300th anniversary celebration of the city's royal charter, which starts next week.
"This confirms some of the early beginnings of the city," Mayor Ellen O. Moyer said. "It wasn't long before that it was basically woodland."
The archaeologists and students had dug several trenches on Fleet Street and on Market Space over the past month in search of anything of historical value. They were shocked by their discovery.
"We were expecting sidewalks," said Matthew Cochran, project director for the University of Maryland team. "We didn't expect a road."
