That burial site in Utah taught me to stop digging without a plan first

Back in 2019 I used to just start trenching on a site near Moab hoping to find something good, but after I hit a pit house feature and lost the context because I was too fast, I learned to map every surface before moving dirt. Now I spend the first 2 hours just sketching and photographing grids before I even touch a trowel, and it's saved me from ruining three more features since then. Does anyone else here have a bad habit from early digs that they had to unlearn the hard way?

3 comments

3 Comments

emerym361mo ago

Dropped a metal rod right through a midden layer once because I was too excited to screen the topsoil. Whole afternoon wasted trying to piece back the stratigraphy. Now I keep a checklist taped to my field notebook, forces me to slow down before the adrenaline kicks in. A buddy of mine uses a timer, thirty minutes of observation before he even touches ground. Might sound extreme but saves you from cleaning up your own mess later.

gracec161mo ago

Tripped over my own tool bag right after @emerym36 shared that checklist tip.

amy_anderson1mo ago

Question whether it's really that serious though... I mean yeah you messed up a pit house but unless you're working on some super rare site you just chalk it up to experience and move on @emerym36's timer thing sounds like overkill for most of us weekend warriors.