ARCHAEOLOGICAL EXCAVATIONS

Excavation

In archaeology, excavation is the process of uncovering, recording, and recovering buried material remains.

Excavations can be described as the surgical aspect of archaeology: it is surgery of the buried landscape, carried out with all the skilled craftsmanship that has been built up in the era since archaeological pioneers Heinrich Schliemann, often regarded as the modern discoverer of prehistoric Greece, and Flinders Petrie, who invented a sequence dating method that allowed the reconstruction of history from the remains of ancient cultures, invented. Excavations can be characterized as intentional, rescue, or accidental, depending on their goal. The most important excavations are the outcome of a well-thought-out plan, with the goal of uncovering hidden evidence concerning an archaeological sites. 

Many are project-oriented, such as when a scholar researching the pre-Roman, Celtic-speaking Gauls of France chooses a set of hill forts to excavate, as Sir Mortimer Wheeler did in northwestern France in at the years leading up to the outbreak of World War II. However, many excavations are carried out out of necessity rather than choice, particularly in densely populated areas of central and northern Europe. Gravel digging, clearing the terrain for airports, quarrying, road widening and construction, and the development of residences, factories, and public structures all pose a threat to archaeological sites. Then, before these remnants are obliterated forever, emergency excavations must be performed to salvage whatever information of the past can be gleaned. During World War II, bombing partially destroyed towns throughout Western Europe, allowing for salvage excavations before rebuilding. This method led to the discovery of a Mithras temple in the City of London, Viking colonies in Dublin and rhus, Denmark, and the ancient 6th-century BCE Greek settlement of Massalia (Marseille). The discovery of a pre-Roman Celtic temple at London Airport resulted from the expansion of the runways. 

In the finding of archaeological sites and portable artifacts, chance plays a significant influence. Archaeological findings have frequently been discovered by farmers plowing their fields, and construction personnel have also discovered them. In 1940, four French schoolboys decided to investigate a hole caused by an uprooted tree in the famed painted and engraved Upper Paleolithic cave of Lascaux in southern France. They extended a smaller tunnel at the bottom of the hole and leaped in, landing in the centre of this incredible pagan temple. A Bedouin looking for a stray animal found the first stash of the Dead Sea Scrolls in 1947. These unintentional discoveries frequently lead to significant excavations. A road contractor in Barnénès, north Brittany, got his stone from a nearby prehistoric cairn (burial mound), discovering and partially destroying a number of archaic burial chambers in the process. P.-R. Giot, a French archaeologist, was able to put a stop to the depredations and conduct scientific excavations that proved Barnénès to be one of Western Europe's most outstanding and noteworthy prehistoric burial mounds. 

Types of Excavations

There are basically two types of excavations which includes the following;

• Vertical Excavation
• Horizontal Excavation 

Vertical Excavation:

The archeologist may utilize test units to detect and/or remove strata during vertical excavation. These procedures are used to excavate a site until the foundations of the site are uncovered layer by layer. When sterile layers, or strata devoid of artifacts, are frequently unearthed, excavation often comes to a halt. 

Horizontal Excavation:

The archeologist may plow strips along the site's surface to disclose any artefacts lying near the surface in horizontal excavation. These procedures are used to excavate a site until the foundations of the site are uncovered layer by layer.