26th May 2005, 03:21 PM
Quote:quote:But I still did the planning and levelling and photographing of the trenches to the required standards set out in the WSI, and filled in the sheets where new information was forthcoming - such as recording the changes in the natural across areas.
And this is precisely where trench sheets come in - as a minumum record for negative trenches. They are more than adequate for recording changes in the natural, modern intrusions and so on. I do it and it is sepcified in mine and my companies WSIs and therefore accepted and acceptable to the curators we deal with. It is standard practice in report writing in my place of work to try to explain why a project was negative (especially as clients may not see the point of costly excercises which yield little or no archaeology). However, I personally do not find that the use of trench sheets hampers this process. Then again, bits of paper are just that, and only reflect the diligence of the person filling them in.