You see, if I was a GOOD archaeologist, I'd carry a little portable scale everywhere so that you could get a real idea of what you were seeing.
It's an absolute pain in the neck, as far as faffing around's concerned. Take your average feature. The technique is as follows:- 1) Clean area around feature with trowel; 2) photograph feature; 3) excavate half of feature. Take care to collect the soil for sampling, and remember to differentiate any different contexts; 4) photograph excavated half-feature; 5) excavate 2nd half of feature (remembering to augment your existing samples, if necessary...); 5) clean and photograph fully excavated feature; 6) write up all contexts, including the cut of your posthole. In my world, this usually ends up with a text that rivals War and Peace...
Oh, and don't forget to label all your finds (if any) and double bag and label your samples.
Is it any wonder that my heart sinks whenever I actually find anything????
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Date: 2011-07-09 05:26 pm (UTC)It's an absolute pain in the neck, as far as faffing around's concerned. Take your average feature. The technique is as follows:- 1) Clean area around feature with trowel; 2) photograph feature; 3) excavate half of feature. Take care to collect the soil for sampling, and remember to differentiate any different contexts; 4) photograph excavated half-feature; 5) excavate 2nd half of feature (remembering to augment your existing samples, if necessary...); 5) clean and photograph fully excavated feature; 6) write up all contexts, including the cut of your posthole. In my world, this usually ends up with a text that rivals War and Peace...
Oh, and don't forget to label all your finds (if any) and double bag and label your samples.
Is it any wonder that my heart sinks whenever I actually find anything????