lee72•7d ago

Tried old school troweling vs a troweling machine on a dig site in Illinois

Last summer we had a site in central Illinois where the soil was super compacted clay. I spent three days hand troweling a 2 meter square pit and barely got 10 centimeters down. Then the field director let me try the walk-behind troweling machine for a different unit, and I cleared almost half a meter in one afternoon. The difference is the machine doesn't pulverize fragile bone fragments like a hand trowel can if you're not careful. Has anyone else had a machine pay off big on a tough site, or do you stick with hand tools for better control?

2 comments

2 Comments

wendy_jackson7d ago

Heard a similar story from an archaeologist friend who worked a site in Missouri with that awful sticky gumbo clay. He swore by the machine for clearing overburden but always finished the last few centimeters by hand to catch the small bones. The real trick is knowing when to switch tools, sounds like you found that balance.

victor_adams7d ago

Yeah I used to think you were better off just going all machine or all hand on a site, but hearing stuff like this changed my mind. It makes way more sense to switch it up depending on what you're digging through.