Mary and Dan are quite correct that metric excavation probably should be
some kind of standard, but I should point out that the measurement system
used by the creator of a site is essential for interpretation. Builders
work in increments, usually of "standard" multiples that must be
interpreted.
 
A sixteen-foot bay is culturally important, and needs to be recognized, for
example. Our reports will make no sense without scaling that relates to the
objects we are reporting, so we have no choice but to interpret sites and
objects in the measurement system in use when the site or object was
created.
 
Land measurement requires original units. In New Castle, Delaware, for
example, you can't understand city lots without scaling to Amsterdam Wood
Measure. New Castle people today may complain about odd lot sizes, but they
make very good sense if you use seventeenth-century Dutch traditional
measurements.
 
K&E make scales ruled in rods, which allow you to transcribe traditional
surveys into a "modern" standard scale, such as 1"=660' without the hassle
of which Mary complained.  The 660' scale is also useful because it is a
multiple of the USGS 7.5' scale. A metric-scaled land survey drawing, using
historic source materials, would be a headache supreme, so there's no
compelling need to go metric in this case.
 
The main obstacle to metrication in America is the hardware industry.
Outside America, you can buy Stanley tape measures, made in France, with
metric scaling, but in America one must be satisfied with all-inches or
inches-and-centimeters. Even such excellent sources as Forestry Suppliers
tend to provide a slender range of all-metric equipment.
 
One-meter wooden folding rules and five-meter steel tapes can be had in
America for a premium, but I bought two of each at a neighborhood hardware
store abroad for less than ten dollars US.  Since my crew members eat these
items for lunch, I hate to pay the gourmet prices American vendors charge
for all-metric tools.
 
So whenever you are out of the country, stock up on cheap metric supplies.
 
"Soft" metrication has been a failure, in no small part because of the
Reagan era setback, but I doubt that our politicians are ready to take the
heat of "hard" metrication. Pat Robertson and his intellectual peers
probably would complain that metrication is part of a heathenish lesbian
plot by the UN New World Order and Walt Disney.
 
 
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