The Science That Destroys Its Evidence
Excavation is the only experiment that can never be rerun: to read a site you must take it apart, and the layers, once lifted, are gone. Archaeology's answer to this brutal fact is total recording: the site is destroyed, but it is destroyed into an archive of drawings, photographs, coordinates, and context sheets to rebuild the sequence on paper forever.
Digging is the last resort. A project begins with survey before the first trowel touches dirt. Provenience is the find's meaning; an object without context is merely an art object.
| Survey Method | What It Does |
|---|---|
| Desk-based assessment | Maps, archives, aerial photos |
| Field walking | Surface collection of artifact scatters |
| Test pits and sampling | Targeted or random statistical probes |
Taking It Apart in Order
Modern practice excavates in single contexts, peeling depositional events in reverse order, youngest first. Each context is recorded before removal, avoiding the pitfall of arbitrary fixed spits.
| Digging Method | How It Works | The Risk |
|---|---|---|
| Arbitrary spits | Fixed 20cm depth cuts | Chews through multiple floors and mixes contents |
| Single contexts | Follows natural layers in reverse | Slower, but preserves exact historical sequence |
The Pitfall of Completeness: Even with perfect recording, excavation spends the site. Best practice leaves part of every site untouched as a gift to future technologies like DNA and isotope analysis.