Warning: picked a dig site over a museum archive and almost lost everything

I had to choose between helping excavate a Roman villa in Kent or cataloging finds at the British Museum for a month. I went with the dig, and 3 days in a storm washed out half the trench we opened. Has anyone else regretted skipping the indoor work for fieldwork?

2 comments

2 Comments

patricia90521d ago

Are you really calling a washed out trench "almost losing everything"? A bit of bad weather setting back a dig by a few days sounds more like a typical Tuesday in field archaeology. You still got to be outside digging up a Roman villa, which beats sitting in a dusty archive staring at old pots.

gavinperez21d ago

I ended up in a similar spot on my first big field project... we had a whole section of trench collapse after heavy rain and lost about a week's worth of work. What really saved me was just keeping my head down and focusing on what I could still control. I started taking detailed notes on the parts we hadn't lost yet, mapping everything twice, and even helping the other team members with their sections when they needed an extra hand. The weather is gonna do what it does no matter how much you worry about it... but you can always choose to be useful instead of just sitting there upset. After that mess, I actually learned way more about the site because I had to re-examine everything from scratch. It turned out to be one of the best learning experiences I've had in field work, honestly.