>Mark Wittkofski  said

Will digging such sites
>as 1930-1940s landfills validate in the eyes of the public the worth of
>archaeology?  I am skeptical at best.
>
>No doubt I have stirred up the hornet's nest, but isn't that what makes
>these discussions so interesting?
>

Perhaps there is a solution in determining the appropriate techniges on a
cost-benifit basis for all such work.

The landfill excavations I have worked on have generally been staged so
that minimal cost is put in to start. The results of the first backhoe
trenches (a days work) has to justify the further work. If there is little
perceived value or potential for stratified, temporal or spatial
distribution, (As is likely in a municipal tip used for a decade) then
mechanical means of excavation and sampling may save money. Eg. dig out a
test unit with a mechanical excavator, spread it over the ground and then
treat it as a survey/recording process.

Sounds crude, but if you can in a day, with one machine, one operator and
one archaeologist (All up cost less than thousand Aus dollars)  get a
snapshot of the contents of a landfill that answers some research
questions, and demonstrates the significance (if any) of the artefacts,
then you have justified the expence.

All sites have sime value,

Its all a question of site value relative to cost of recovering
information, probably with a mechanism of diminishing returns in play.

Gary Vines

Melbourne's Living Museum of the West
P.O. BOX 60 Highpoint City, 3032
Victoria, Australia
ph. +61 3 93183544
fax. +61 3 93181039
email- [log in to unmask]
www.livingmuseum.org.au