Oh, gosh, I wonder how many endangered species of fish and mussels
archaeologists are responsible for killing off with their water screening!
Who'd thunk it!

Linda Derry
Site Director
Old Cahawba Archaeological Site
719 Tremont Street
Selma, AL 36701-5446
334/875-2529
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> -----Original Message-----
> From: HISTORICAL ARCHAEOLOGY [mailto:[log in to unmask]]On Behalf Of
> [log in to unmask]
> Sent: Friday, March 26, 2004 8:52 AM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: Water Screening
>
>
> Ron's comments reminded me of one my early experiences working on the
> Tombigbee project in Alabama in the late 70s.  I was working with
> UofMichigan on a
> Moundville phase village, but I think everybody else was doing
> just about the
> same thing ...  Soils were excavated en masses, literally
> hundreds of cubic
> meters, and 100% water-screened with fire hoses, with all
> sediments simply being
> dumped back into the river.  I doubt that any of us would get
> away with that
> again.
>
> High pressure water screening should still be an incredibly
> effective way to
> process large soil recoveries, but it would entail the use of
> more formally
> constructed sediment basins ... which, IMHO, shouldn't be that
> expensive or
> difficult.  It should be just a question of choosing an
> appropriate location for
> the basin ..
>
> Mark C. Branstner
> Great Lakes Research, Inc
> 210 E. Sherwood Road
> Williamston, MI 48895
> 1-517-347-4793 / [log in to unmask]
>