25th August 2008, 07:29 PM
Pre-interpretation goes on at every level and it's amazing how little one sees once one has already decided what it is, be it an individual feature or a whole site. Just look at the way features are sculpted, oops I mean cleaned" to look more like they're supposed to before being photographed or the amount of selective planning that goes on. The archives are jammed full of illogical features. As to "natural," I think very few archaeologists are well qualified to simply write things off as natural, which happens all too often. For example, colluvium and alluvium are both "natural" and can accummulate very quickly and cover entire phases, albeit not vey deeply. None of that however bothers me even a fraction as much as those PM's and PO's who only see their favourite phase and only grudgingly admit any other phasing.