The School of Jack

[Dinosaur]

I've always found 20' to be about right, if that helps? - Fil 'Ardin style longer-handled shovel though :face-approve:

[pdurdin]

Stay away from those oak shaft, Spear and Jackson no.3s with the reinforced brass handle, I hear they're no good.

[Jack]

Think you accidentally skipped over the first bit? Picking the right shovel? Very important! :face-thinks:

'This is my shovel. There are many others like it, but this one is mine. My shovel is my best friend. It is my life. I must master it as I must master my life. Without me, my shovel is useless. Without my shovel, I am useless. I must shovel with my shovel true. My sections must be straighter than my enemy, who is trying to better me. I must better him before he better's me. I will. Before God I swear this creed: my shovel and myself are defenders of archaeology, we are the masters of the soil, we are the saviors of the archaeology. So be it, until there is no enemy, but peace. Amen.'

[Jack]

Lesson 5 The mattock vs the trowel[SIZE=2]

The mattock is a versatile digging tool, it's weight and the leverage created by the shaft and how it is held (oo er Kevin) can aid the practitioner in breaking up even the toughest of clays. More importantly, the mattock can be used for finer work by holding it nearer the head.....using a careful legs spread stance with the shaft between your legs. With most features, (though not the smaller pits, post- and stakeholes and beam slots etc), the majority of the fill can be removed with just a mattock and shovel. The mattock can even be used, with practice, for a rough clean of larger features.

The trowel and hand shovel should only be used for the finishing touches, the final clean and those annoying crevasses.

This is not only best for efficiency (see lesson 6), but for health reasons. The trowel has little weight behind it, if it is used to dig, the majority of the work is done by the practitioners wrist, arm and shoulder muscles. When digging with a mattock a large proportion of the work is done by gravity and the momentum of the tool, but also by the practitioners upper arm, upper and lower torso and leg muscles. These muscles are much better suited for providing the power needed to dig. Excessive digging with a trowel results in tendonitis and wrist injury.

Inexperienced archaeologists often find this difficult at first, the mattock is often seen as an imprecise digging tool and constant 'checking of the edges' with a trowel result in too much of the feature being dug with a trowel. Some feel the mattock as being too heavy for them to use correctly and safely. Careful instruction on how to control the mattock by a variety of grips should be given. Remember Lesson 1.......'[/SIZE]everyone can try. It is through trying that we get better, it is through hard work our bodies become adapted to the job.'

Those who see digging with a trowel and avoiding using a mattock as ways of slacking are not only making sure the archaeology suffers, they are also harming themselves.

'Why have you both got trowels in your hands? Put them down. Pick up your mattocks and start digging!'
- Cider Pat (The machine)
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[Dinosaur]

Can see where all those comments in pot and bone reports about 'modern breakage' originate.... :0

[vinnie0057]

Pity this isn't in Italian, as most Italian graduates think that having an archaeo degree excludes them from digging. A number of years ago, on a large project in Ireland, we recruited a number of Italian "archaeologists". When shown the site and told what would be required, most of them were shocked and surprised to learn that they would be required to "dig". "But we're archaeologists" many of them said. My reply was "we're all archaeologists here". They were even more shocked to learn that even the supervisors excavated (whenever we got the bloody chance!). A number of them said that it wasn't what they were expecting (obviously thought that the salary of €450 pw was for just being there and looking cool. In fact, one guy turned up for work wearing 'Ralph Lauren'), and asked to be taken back to the airport. From what i could gather, they assumed that having a degree meant that they'd sit on a spoil-heap whilst 'workers' would do the digging, then they'd go in with brushes etc to remove the "goodies". Watching too much Indiana Jones, methinks! As a supervisor, can honestly say that i get very pissed-off when i'm told to "get on with the paper-work" whenever i jump into a trench, and many's the weekend i've spent on doing paperwork at home in my own time in order to give me some time for "digging".
Totally agree with everything you say Senor Jack!
A dirty archaeologist is a happy archaeologist!:o)

[vinnie0057]

I LOVE MY MATTOCK:face-kiss:

[vinnie0057]

school of jack - last bastion for macho posturing?
in a world where everybody digs why are you excluding supervisors, who are afterall lazy shed loafers who think they have earned the right to waltz around with clean hands.
and as for site directors - those bloated nerdowellies - words fail........

I dare say that there are quite a few as you describe, but please don't tar us all with the same brush. I love nothing more than being in a trench or up to my waist in a peat bog. In fact, one one large excavation, due to shite weather, i would regularly call the team back to the huts whilst i stayed out in order to keep an eye on pumps, machines etc. As a supe, i wouldn't expect my team to do nothing or work under any conditions that i wouldn't be prepared to do myself!

[kevin wooldridge]

As a supe, i wouldn't expect my team to do nothing or work under any conditions that i wouldn't be prepared to do myself!

A fine sentiment and of course it helps if a supervisor is also technically competent at all of the tasks that an underling is expected to carry out. But the art of leadership is surely delegation and vinnie0057's earlier point about having to do the paperwork in their own time because of pressure to also be 'upfronting' it in the trench, demonstrates that there is a balance to be struck. In the days when I used to interview diggers striving for promotion to supervisor, that was always the question over which most stumbled - where do you draw the line between remaining one of the diggers and getting on with fulfilling your supervisory duties...

[Dinosaur]

...due to shite weather, i would regularly call the team back to the huts whilst i stayed out in order to keep an eye on pumps, machines etc. As a supe, i wouldn't expect my team to do nothing or work under any conditions that i wouldn't be prepared to do myself!

@ Vinnie -Ignore Kevin, yer a man after me own heart (and doing that's the only time you ever get any peace on a busy site)
:face-approve: