On Tuesday, February 11, 2003, at 04:32 PM, Roderick Sprague wrote:

>
>
> A backhoe shovel can remove a whole burial without anyone ever seeing
> it.
As can any hamfisted approach for certain.

> The power equipment of choice is a grader (road patrol, scraper, etc,)
> or a well controlled bulldozer with an experienced operator.
The reason that I don't like graders or dozers especially is that they
disturb clean soil surfaces and have a very narrow area that is without
some form of disturbance from the tracks or tires to the soil one is
investigating. I prefer a trackhoe or gradall. Either works, but the
machine must have two items for it to be effective. First, the bucket
must absolutely be toothless and smooth. The smooth bucket gives a
fresh and clean cut. The second is an experienced operator. The degree
of experience required is that the bucket is an extension of the
operator. A good operator should be able to strap a straight razor to
the bucket and shave you under the chin without nicking your hide.
(That may be a bit exaggerated but you get the idea) A good operator
can remove half an inch or less and leave the surface flat, or can
follow a layer as it changes elevation.

Another good thing about the bucket is that the archaeologist can
direct it as it moves in very tiny increments and can react within
inches rather than the problems of dealing with avoiding tracks on the
dozer and the wheels of the grader.

The machine is not compressing the direct area of interest either as it
can either snorkle out the arm or extend it to reach the area being
stripped. The safety issue is also more easiloy dealt with because the
director is standing beyond the reach of the bucket and not in the way
as would be the case of the grader or dozer. The fellow who taught me
about heavy equipment said that "You have to assume I'm trying to kill
you and stay out of range and maybe you'll be safe". A good rule of
thumb.

Lyle Browning