Update: I tried using a drone to map a small dig site near Tucson

We set it up for a basic grid pattern over what we thought was just a surface scatter of pottery pieces. The photos showed clear crop marks in the dirt we couldn't see from the ground, hinting at a bigger structure. Has anyone else had a small tech tool point you toward a much bigger find?

4 comments

4 Comments

kevinallen1mo ago

Tucson's dirt is keeping secrets from you. My drone once found a fence line that turned out to be a whole forgotten homestead.

rosepark1mo ago

Just imagine the family that lived there, packing up and leaving one day, thinking their story was over. Now some guy with a drone and too much free time is their main historian. The desert really does just swallow things whole and then burps up the weirdest leftovers.

sethm584d ago

Been there with the drone turning a quick look into a full dig. Grab a good metal probe and a flat shovel for the first pass, saves your back from troweling everything. Mark the drone spots with pin flags, then work in small squares. You'll sort out the real finds from the junk a lot faster.

finley_roberts271mo ago

Feel like my drone is just a really expensive way for me to find more work. It went from "let's map these few potsherds" to "guess I'm digging test pits for the next three weekends." My back already hurts just thinking about it. The tech is cool until you realize it just gave you a bigger puzzle to solve with a hand trowel.