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Had to choose between a trowel and a shovel for a test pit last weekend
Picked the trowel because I was scared of smashing pottery, and ended up missing a whole layer of charcoal that the guy next to me spotted with a shovel - has anyone else messed up a dig by being too careful with tools?
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rivera.hannah7d ago
Oh man, I totally get this! I did the exact same thing at a site last spring. I was so worried about breaking any bone fragments I went with this tiny dental pick on a big layer and completely missed a whole lithic scatter that the guy with the shovel just exposed like it was nothing. It's funny how being too careful can actually make you blind to bigger features. Now I always start with a shovel for the first pass, just a light scrape, then switch to trowel if I see anything fragile. You gotta trust the bigger tools for the big picture stuff first or you'll be stuck staring at dirt all day.
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beng517d ago
Read an article that said the best archeologists use the biggest tool that still works for the job.
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Heard a field tech say once that shovels find sites and trowels find artifacts.
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