I have heard of archaeological excavations that used detectors, but I never participated in one. First, it is only relevant if you're looking for... metal, and the major part of archaeological goods here is ceramics... (I'm not fond of ceramics). And then, it is only relevant in 1- rescue archaeology (OK, this is 95% of archaeology...) 2- when you have really little time and a big surface, so you have to decide quickly where will be your priority, 3- for periods when there IS metal (I'm a neolithist ;) ).
I will have to disagree with you here (but, then, I'm a medievalist at heart): metal detecting of plough soil, which would normally just be scraped off prior to excavation, has helped to illustrate the large amounts of metal objects at high-status sites in Scandinavia, such as Uppåkra. That site is situated in a heavily agricultured land, and the actual features below the plough soil contain comparatively very little evidence of fine metal working. And since Uppåkra is a research excavation, they have had time to go over the fields for many seasons.
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branchandroot
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Date: 2010-10-19 06:25 pm (UTC)And then, it is only relevant in 1- rescue archaeology (OK, this is 95% of archaeology...) 2- when you have really little time and a big surface, so you have to decide quickly where will be your priority, 3- for periods when there IS metal (I'm a neolithist ;) ).
I will have to disagree with you here (but, then, I'm a medievalist at heart): metal detecting of plough soil, which would normally just be scraped off prior to excavation, has helped to illustrate the large amounts of metal objects at high-status sites in Scandinavia, such as Uppåkra. That site is situated in a heavily agricultured land, and the actual features below the plough soil contain comparatively very little evidence of fine metal working. And since Uppåkra is a research excavation, they have had time to go over the fields for many seasons.