added README explaining the orgnization of Maven Studies
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+# Maven Studies
+
+This repository contains studies on new ideas for Maven:
+it's a replacement for [Maven Sandbox](https://github.com/apache/maven-sandbox)
+with an organization optimized for Git.
+
+Each study is managed in a separate [Git orphan branch](https://git-scm.com/docs/git-checkout#git-checkout---orphanltnewbranchgt).
+
+## Creating a new Maven Study
+
+```
+git checkout --orphan my-new-study
+rm .git/index
+git clean -fdx
+```
