well im gunna have to concede i spose... excavation is probably better to get proper dating evidence than the geophys.

Thanks for everyones input.

Archaeology is obviously a many layered subject,(mind the pun), that is totally fluid depending on site, situation, time ,money and desired result etc.
But i still feel to a certain extent that leaving archaeology for future generations is a bit of a gamble with the way the world is going today.

No, you don't have to concede - geophys first, to look at the site's potential and help decide IF and where to dig.

Have you had a chance to do any geophys yourself? It's good fun - a bit boring tramping up and down in straight lines, but amazing when the computer transforms your readings into a visible record. But they are rarely as clear-cut and easy to interpret as some of the ones you see on TT, and just think how many times they've opened up a trench and found something very different from what the geophys led them to expect - or nothing at all!

quote:

Originally posted by NTT07:
Thanks for everyones input.

Archaeology is obviously a many layered subject,(mind the pun), that is totally fluid depending on site, situation, time ,money and desired result etc.
But i still feel to a certain extent that leaving archaeology for future generations is a bit of a gamble with the way the world is going today.

But I'm afraid we simply don't have the resources to excavate absolutely everything though, even if we wanted to. It's difficult enough trying to do a decent job on the stuff that is threatened

Thanks Chris.... you have now cheered up my day... I realise my life is a meaningless toil agaist the enveoping darkness of ignorance

Seriously though:

quote:

playing card shape u are bound to have a roman fort

as Sammy says... however.. from what period? Was it part of teh Antonine advance? the Flavian reoccupation or the Severan? Looks like you have a firm grasp on teh complexity of archaeology, and how each case has to be taken in turn... with everything from resources, threat, etc... taken into consideration.

Geofizz is a first strike technique.. allowing targeting of the archaeology (though it usually turns out to be a high signal caused by a 1960s bucket or an electric cable )

quote:

Originally posted by BAJR:
Thanks Chris.... you have now cheered up my day... I realise my life is a meaningless toil agaist the enveoping darkness of ignorance

Sorry David.Still if you think THATS depressing,how about this?

Archaeologists Find Evidence for Meaninglessness of Existance

Archaeologists working at an unspecified City Centre location today uncovered evidence firmly supporting the meaningless of existance.

"While excavating several tonnes of Post Medieval and waterlogged alluvial deposits it occurred to us that people in the past, as well as in the present lived drear, hum-drum and crushingly tedious lives" said the archaeologist in charge of the site.

City Archaeologist JCB Spear-Jackson is reported to have visited the site early today and commented later " The evidence as it stand allows us, as human beings to put into full perspective our empty and meaningless lives and pointless, unfulfilling careers, Archaeology has at last proven that live is, and always has been, devoid of meaning and purpose with little to look forward to but the inevitability of death.

Work is continuing at the site.

Next you will be telling me that people that worked on the construction of Stonehenge lived in houses.... oh...hold on.... too late...

JCB Spear-Jackson - wow! I AM impressed!

well if we listened to tony robbinson, we would start excavating everything, he seems to want to get the team to excavate everything in threedays

JCB Spear and Jackson.. or the BIG yellow trowel.. !

And sammy... you have it in a nutshell... the hardest thing to explain... why you can't excavate everything (Chris D explains it exactly) and also why excaavtions can't jsut take three days.. if I had a penny for every developer that said.. why can't you be out in three days..(I would have £1.34) I usually say.. give me a six figure budget, unlimited resources and a team of 50 and I will ;-))

silly developers, but with a salvage excavation u have to basically just take the most important stuff and leave urself a lil watchin breif there to jump in and remove new artefacts... but developers should be happy, they get lots of publicity and the papers love skeletons, so they shudnt complain!!

quote:

Originally posted by AJ ap:
How do you see Geofizz developing Chris?

I thought the radar results on sundays programme were amazing.

Did ya miss this one Chris or was it that daft a question?

quote:

Originally posted by AJ ap:

quote:

Originally posted by AJ ap:
How do you see Geofizz developing Chris?

I thought the radar results on sundays programme were amazing.

Did ya miss this one Chris or was it that daft a question?

Sorry AJ. missed your post due to only being here very fleetingly in recent days I missed Sundays programme too.

From talking to various geophysics types over the years, I gather the technology is moving forward fairly rapidly, although they reckon there will always be areas where some results with some techniques, will be better then others.For example Essex, where I live and work, the preference was not to use resistivity as the results were generally rather poor due to the predominant geological conditions. This, is an area where things are improving, apparently, although I admit, I tend to nod wisely and make a quick escape when they start spouting technobabble

The point about it is though,as far as the near future is concerned, there will always be questions about archaeological sites which can only be answered by excavation. And in the case of unthreatened sites, the less the better.