5 - The limits of arbitrary excavation

Abstract

This chapter discusses the development and limits of arbitrary excavation. The history of American archeology shows that arbitrary excavation was developed with narrow goals in mind: the soil layers were conceived of as mere matrix to be cleared away in search for artifacts. Arbitrary excavation will continue to be a valuable tool when it is used with an understanding of site structure and not as a part of an inflexible archeological orthodoxy. However, it has a number of limits as it is very inefficient and needlessly squanders data, since material collected from arbitrary proveniences that later analysis shows to have included more than one layer cannot be used in layer-based interpretation; the artefacts from these mixed proveniences are refuse in the generally accepted use of the word. Furthermore, even in theory, the method could only work on sites where the units of deposition are perfectly horizontal; although this is not an uncommon occurrence in geological sediments, on archeological sites it is the exception rather than the rule. Finally, by letting the tape measures decree the bottom of the units of excavation, the site's living surfaces —what Harris calls the interfaces—are lost. As these are the planes on which people actually lived, failing to record them is a giant blow to the possibility of reconstructing site history.