The homes' only physical remnants are the nails that many guests will find. Archaeologists locate and map the boundaries of these homes by finding vertical, columnar stained areas in the soil - the last vestiges of load-bearing posts.
Finding and piecing together such evidence, Luckenbach, Grow, Cox and their colleagues have brought a very human London Town to life. Dig Day visitors might hear about the property owner who kept and traded slaves from the West Indies - and how those slaves, when children died, buried them below the mother's bedroom.
That practice came to light when the team unexpectedly found a set of children's teeth below one building - and later spent considerable time reading slave owners' letters from the period.
They might hear of the man who came to London Town an undertaker, built up a carpentry business, and eventually left the remnants of "saw pits" on the site, places where workers sawed huge pieces of timber into the sort of planks used to build boats.
They'll see the two rustic wooden buildings Luckenbach's teams have reconstructed on-site, much as they might have looked as many as 300 years ago, and a contemporaneous tobacco barn that has been moved here.
Mostly, though, Luckenbach says, they'll have a rare chance to have an authentic dig experience.
"Some other sites in Maryland set up 'mock' digs," he says. "They place the artifact in there for you to find. Here, you dig in and find the stuff yourself.
"Kids especially love it. They unearth an old nail, and that's like someone else finding a gold coin. It can be a real thrill."
Enough to inspire another career in the field? Grow's not sure about that, but her first Dig Day was like sticking a shovel in the ground and hitting a mother lode.
"I never get tired of telling these stories," she says, putting the box back in its place. "Who's going to do it if we don't?"
If you go
What: Public Archaeology Dig Day
Where: Historic London Town and Gardens, 839 Londontown Road, Edgewater
When: 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday
Admission: Free
Rain date: Sept. 12
Information: 410-222-1318, losttowns.com or historiclondontown.org.
