14th October 2012, 01:51 PM
Archaeology seems to moving more and more towards extensive non-intrusive surveys (AP plotting, lidar, landscape characterisation etc) - trashing a strip of landscape occasionally (with attendant excavation and recording of course) is the only way of 'calibrating' such work - a surprising amount of which often turns out to either not show the half of it or, quite often, is just plain wrong (at least at an interpretational level). Am currently writing up a similar long linear infrastructure project 'benefitting' from a wide range of non-excavated evidence (and done plenty of others), so can speak with some authority :0:face-stir: