Page 256 - Green - Maritime Archaeology: A Technical Handbook. 2nd ed

Chapter 9
Excavation
I. GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS
This chapter deals with the techniques of excavation. The question of the surveying techniques that can be used to survey a site during an excavation is discussed in Chapter 4, the recording of the excavation work is discussed in Chapter 10, and the excavation and the archaeological interpretation of an excavation is dealt with in Chapter 13. It is difficult to generalize about excavation. Each excavator will have a different approach to a site, and no two sites are ever alike. It is therefore impossible to give more than the broad outlines of methods and techniques of excavation. Because an archaeological site contains unique records of the past which the process of excavation will dismantle, it is essential to understand that excavation can only be justified in certain circumstances. The excavator must have a clear understanding of reasons for undertaking the excavation, of the techniques and methods that will be used, and the effects these techniques and methods will have on the archaeological record. Adequate storage, conservation, and work facilities, together with trained archaeological staff to handle the material, are absolutely essential before excavation can be considered.
Archaeologists undertaking an excavation must not only be experienced in excavation work but must also be used to directing the excavation. It is, for example, possible to be a good archaeologist and yet not be able to direct an excavation; this can result in poor archaeology. However, the con- verse is not true; one cannot be a good director of people and, without any archaeological skills, direct an archaeological excavation. This may have been true 20 or 30 years ago when there were no archaeologists who were
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