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Several years ago i put together the sheets of a plan done by two relatively new diggers of an open area excav' when i noticed the two large ditches that meandered across the site looked odd.On one sheet ditch A cut ditch B but on the next sheet B cut A.
I suppose thats what Eddie Wairing would have called "an up and under"[?]
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Just so you know I picked 3 classics for the Past Horizons Magazine
http://www.pasthorizons.com/magazine
its in the fun page!
cheers! your famous!
"No job worth doing was ever done on time or under budget.."
Khufu
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Mid 90s we had a good laugh about a young digger small finding a load of "nails" only for them to be revealed as worm casts!mine was finding a 2foot long possible late IA sword which turned out to be a rusted up rasp![:I]
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I remember a very shy young first-timer in the early 80s, who was terrified of the supervisor. She found a beautiful decorated bronze pin and didn't know what to do - but was too nervous to ask - so she hid it in the box of 6" nails and hoped no-one would notice. Cue a very big surprise for the next person to get a nail out of the box...
1man1desk
to let, fully furnished
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Not really a mistake when first starting to dig, but I remember checking a contractor's report and finding out that an important stratigraphic relationship wasn't described. I phoned up the contractor to query it, and the conversation with their PM went something like this:
PM: "Terribly sorry - it wasn't drawn on site and we don't have a record."
Me: "The site is still open and you have people nearby - can you send someone out to look at it?"
PM: "Ditch A cut Ditch B."
Me: "How do you know? You didn't see it personally, you don't have a record, and you haven't asked anyone who did see it on site."
PM: "I know, but I am making an executive decision that Ditch A cut Ditch B".
A highly convincing approach to stratigraphic analysis, I don't think.
1man1desk
to let, fully furnished
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This is to prove the point that it occaisonally pays to look at one's own feet-at the end of a long day digging on a Lincoln priory site back in 86 I was asked had I had many finds where I was digging, a few I replied and they were in the tray,what about any coins-had I saved any? only if I find any I said puzzled,"what about that one" I was told, looking down on my left boot was a lump of dried mud with a med silver penny sticking out of it,i've learned to be a bit more observant since then![:I]
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ha ha. A colleague tells a similar story about looking down after a clay caked trudge back to the site hut to find a Roman intaglio stuck on his boot. It was by far the best find of an otherwise horrific site.
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Same priory site,one morning while VERY hung over was told to remove a spit 30cm deep and about 20m long between two storm drains;I duly started mattocking and after a while found some tiles-put them in the tray,and then kept finding more and more tile,so in the tray they all went.At that point the old boy who'd noticed my boot ornament came over and asked what I was up to,i duly told him and pointed out all the tile i was finding (feeling dead chuffed with myself)out came his trowel and there under about 5cm of soil was this beautiful circular tile hearth!cept at this point it was only half circular as the other half was in my finds trays.
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I've just found an Iron Age triple ditch alignment on aerial photographs which is perfectly aligned under a set of pylons. Evidence of leylines, perhaps?
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Quote:quote:Originally posted by Oxbeast
I've just found an Iron Age triple ditch alignment on aerial photographs which is perfectly aligned under a set of pylons. Evidence of leylines, perhaps?
Nice yellow hay spread over a nice green field also provides fun and frolicks when following up aerial photography 'discoveries'
Classic mistakes when first starting to dig
