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You're on a dig. You think it's brilliant. What would make this dig the best you've ever worked on?
Feel free to elaborate if none of the following fit your choices!
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Or -
complete (beaker) pots;
flint/stone tools (not just flakes);
bronze axes.
A long, long time ago, when dinosaurs roamed the earth and I was a newby digger, I was working in a trowelling line on a hillfort site. It was my turn to make the tea, so off I went to put the kettle on, and in the meantime the people either side covered my area. One of them found a socketed bronze axe which should have been MINE! Twenty-nine years later, it still hurts.
1man1desk
to let, fully furnished
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I had to vote for "burning as evidence of industrial activity", I guess. But gold, pottery and buildings are also exciting. Complex waterlogged timber things (boats, wharves and water-power systems) are also pretty cool.
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Paul,
There should have been a minibus option.
S
:face-approve:
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Excellent poll; I went for walls.
Perhaps there should be an option for field systems, or that might be another poll...
Also I would love to find some in-situ knapping. Never gonna happen though.
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What about general water-logged conditions. Or biological material. Or landscape work. Hows about WW2 airplane crash sites. Etc etc
Not having a go as I think its a good fun. If I had the time, it would be interesting to have a wider choice of site types, artefacts and specialisms, and try to produce a proportional representation poll based on 3 choices.
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I had to go for postholes, for the sheer excitement and suspense when you section them to find...well...it was a rabbit burrow [xx(]
However, lithics is where it's at - they need an option!:face-approve:
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Hmmm, actually, thinking about it, the original poll is flawed... "what is your favourite artefact?" - I would suggest that walls, post-holes, soils etc. are [u]features</u> rather than artefacts...
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For me- its the soils and stratigraphy. Instead of whats your favourite artefact, how about whats your favourite "stuff"? Archaeology, chemistry, physics etc etc is all about stuff.
To echo 1Mans post, I once found a beautiful early Iron Age brooch pin (8cms long) by impaling myself with it. I was in a deep trench when I walked backwards into the section face. Unfortunately for me, the pin was sticking out of the section and went in about an inch below my left bum cheek to a depth of about 5cm. Even the construction employees were shocked by my high pitched profanity. I suppose I was luckier than 1Man in the sense that I can claim the discovery before my voracious colleagues. Strangley though, even though the pin was beautiful, my colleagues did`nt want to hold it...
Anyhoo- for me, archaeology is stratigraphy. Nothing more and nothing less. Events, phases and narratives. Pure sexiness.
..knowledge without action is insanity and action without knowledge is vanity..(imam ghazali,ayyuhal-walad)
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Quote:quote:Originally posted by Oxbeast
Excellent poll; I went for walls.
Perhaps there should be an option for field systems, or that might be another poll...
Also I would love to find some in-situ knapping. Never gonna happen though.
In an area of western NSW in Australia (where flakes litter the landscape) we found a core and surrounding it were the resulting flakes that had been knapped off. It would have been an excellent refitting project, unfortunately none of the material could be removed from the site (due to legislation) so short of photographing it, measuring the flakes and pinging it into the total station we were short of options.
