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9th January 2007, 04:40 PM
No budget restrictions......
Have heard allsorts of wacky (but strangely feasible) ideas of inventions for fieldwork-a sampling hoover strapped to the back incorporating fine mesh filters for pollen etc with suction attachments to the trowel....metal-detectors built into trowels...four-wheeled barrows...
Whats your idea, lets get on "Dragons Den" fer a giggle.
..knowledge without action is insanity and action without knowledge is vanity..(imam ghazali,ayyuhal-walad)
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10th January 2007, 09:51 AM
In the real world: a geophysical survey device that actually shows what's there without the need for a filter?
In the ideal world: a kind of hi tech trowel that contained GPS so you could log the position of finds as soon as they appeared (perhaps even their orientation and dimensions if the accuracy was good enough). The GPS would also enable you to plot the edges of features by pointing without the need to resort to all those pesky sheets of permatrace. Slap in a voice recognition recorder for all the notes and hey presto - paperless site. Tie it all in to a central site computer and it could work out the harris matrix.....:face-thinks:
I maiali sono alimentati e aspettano per volare
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10th January 2007, 11:55 AM
A motorised wheelbarrow, soil conveyor belts, ladder hoists, cranes to lift mini skips, jackhammers etc. Rumour has it that these have been invented already and are widely used in the construction industry to remove spoil
Many years ago I announced some news I had just read to a team of archies. 'Somebody's invented a ceramic/pot detector that can even give a date estimate...on buried pottery!' Site director looks down nose and asks the source...the CBA magazine (must be true)...April edition...doh[:0]
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10th January 2007, 01:43 PM
A sort of device like one of those kitchen whisks you get, where you turn the wheel and two sets of whisk blade things go round at the bottom - only with trowels at the end instead of whisks (obviously). A kind of Ronco "site-away"...
Also, a consultant "Git Detector" It would have a scale on it so you could see just how big a Git they actually were. [xx(]
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10th January 2007, 02:22 PM
Fully fitted out site welfare cabins with built-in heaters, drying rooms, hot and cold water, and toilets, self-powered with no need for a mains connection - silly me, they're already in use in construction along with the equipment that achingknees mentioned.
A 'site-experience-ometer' for curators, so that you can see if the person that comes to monitor the quality of the site work has ever been on or even seen an archaeological site before or has actually just been promoted from SMR data-entry or transferred in from buildings conservation.
Beamo
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10th January 2007, 03:56 PM
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10th January 2007, 05:08 PM
Quote:quote:Originally posted by beamo
A 'site-experience-ometer' for curators
I think this is a great idea. Maybe it could be used on all archaeological staff. It could have a balloon at the end which would blow up depending upon the size of the persons ego. Then you could compare how good they are, against how good they
think they are...
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10th January 2007, 05:13 PM
Perhaps a suitable extention of that would be using helium to fill the balloons and making the individual responsible inhale the contents (Hot Shots style).
I maiali sono alimentati e aspettano per volare
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10th January 2007, 05:51 PM
I've had two 'solid gold' ideas, (which amazingly have met nothing but scepticism and even derision when I've described them to my colleagues):
1. The section frame.
Like a planning frame, but made of some light plastic divided into measured squares that can be hung off levelled nails. This would speed up section drawing at whatever level of detail you were recording at.
2. The measuring line.
This would be a thin plastic wire (of some flexible but non stretchable compound) marked out in centimetres like a measuring tape.
No need for a string line and a measuring tape for sections - just hang your line level of the measuring line, and off you go!
I'm wasted in this job, I really am.
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10th January 2007, 06:32 PM
Detachable and height-adjustable legs for planning frames.
Anti-grav sleds instead of wheelbarrows.
We owe the dead nothing but the truth.
