11th October 2011, 12:59 PM
There is boxing out and boxing out. Depends on the archaeology, the impact and the mitigation if you ask me.
If your 'site' is a 1m wide pipe trench that crosses a ditch that obviously is a long feature in the landscape then yes record it in section in the pipe trench.
But there are cases where such a 'boring' ditch can be regionally significant.......for instance if its part of a Bronze-Age or early Anglo-Saxon field system in east yorks. But the impact is low (1m wide damage of a 100s of meters long ditch).
The problem is when your not sure what the brown blob, layer etc you've got in plan is before you dig it. I've seen boxed out sections cut through a 'layer' destroy portions of a pottery Kiln that had survived beneath it; oval blobs half sectioned, destroying the relationships between the multiple important intercut discrete features; even a cluster of boring IA/RB pits turn into regionally important neolithic evidence. You have to take into account the possible before you destroy it.
My advice.
Cover your arse. }
If your 'site' is a 1m wide pipe trench that crosses a ditch that obviously is a long feature in the landscape then yes record it in section in the pipe trench.
But there are cases where such a 'boring' ditch can be regionally significant.......for instance if its part of a Bronze-Age or early Anglo-Saxon field system in east yorks. But the impact is low (1m wide damage of a 100s of meters long ditch).
The problem is when your not sure what the brown blob, layer etc you've got in plan is before you dig it. I've seen boxed out sections cut through a 'layer' destroy portions of a pottery Kiln that had survived beneath it; oval blobs half sectioned, destroying the relationships between the multiple important intercut discrete features; even a cluster of boring IA/RB pits turn into regionally important neolithic evidence. You have to take into account the possible before you destroy it.
My advice.
Cover your arse. }