Lyle Browning wrote:

>Here we disagree totally. I cannot see how any reasonably sentient
>archaeologist would bid a project about which they knew nothing and blithely
>assume they could handle it all. Phase I surveys to locate sites are one
>thing. Phase II and III work which focuses on specific sites is quite another.

No.

Phase I is the critical level, requiring the broadest knowledge and the
deepest experience. Phase I survey identifies sites and assigns them a
potential significance. To cite David Babson's example, a curious linear
feature with cinders found in a Phase I will never be examined if Phase I
investigator writes it off.

Therefore, I firmly believe that Phase I should never be assigned to anyone
but the most experienced investigator, who has a unique opportunity to set
the direction of future work.

Phase I is (or should be) the exciting stuff, where we explore local
history, look at the anomalies, and survey the whole historical/cultural
landscape. I much prefer to do a Phase I.

As I have said before, an archaeologist is a generalist or he is nothing.

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