Editing Archaeological excavation (section)

==Tools and techniques==
===Mechanical excavation===
[[File:Harzhorn Grabungsschnitt von unten 1.jpg|thumb|Excavation at the site of the [[Battle at the Harzhorn]] (Germany)]]
This describes the use in excavations of various types and sizes of machines from small [[backhoe]]s to heavy duty earth-moving machinery. Machines are often used in what is called salvage or rescue archaeology in developer-led excavation when there are financial or time pressures.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Van Horn|first=D.M. |author2=J. R. Murray |author3=R. S. White|title=Some Techniques for Mechanical Excavation in Salvage Archaeology|journal=Journal of Field Archaeology|year=1986|volume=13|issue=2|pages=239–244|doi=10.1179/jfa.1986.13.2.239}}<!--|access-date=10 October 2013--></ref> Using a mechanical excavator is the quickest method to remove soil and debris and to prepare the surface for excavation by hand, taking care to avoid damaging archaeological deposits by accident or to make it difficult to identify later precisely where finds were located.<ref>{{cite web|title=How to dig?|url=http://www.pastperfect.org.uk/archaeology/how2dig.html|work=Past Perfect|access-date=4 September 2013}}</ref> The use of such machinery is often routine (as it is for instance with the British archaeological television series ''[[Time Team]]'')<ref>{{cite web|title=PBS' Time Team America to Debut July 8 with Dig on Roanoke Island|url=http://www.firstcolonyfoundation.org/news/2009_time_team.aspx|publisher=First Colony Foundation|access-date=10 October 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131017110828/http://www.firstcolonyfoundation.org/news/2009_time_team.aspx|archive-date=17 October 2013|url-status=dead|df=dmy-all}}</ref> but can also be controversial as it can result in less discrimination in how the archaeological sequence on a site is recorded. One of the earliest uses of earth-moving machinery was at [[Durrington Walls]] in 1967. An old road through the henge was to be straightened and improved and was going to cause considerable damage to the archaeology. Rosemary Hill describes how [[Geoffrey Wainwright (archaeologist)|Geoffrey Wainwright]] "oversaw large, high-speed excavations, taking bulldozers to the site in a manner that shocked some of his colleagues but yielded valuable if tantalising information about what Durrington had looked like and how it might have been used."<ref>{{cite book|last=Hill|first=Rosemary|title=Stonehenge|year=2009|publisher=Profile Books|isbn=978-1861978806|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-vWrImYK8K0C&q=bulldozers++&pg=PA200|pages=201}}</ref> Machines are used primarily to remove modern [[overburden]] and for the control of [[Spoil (archaeology)|spoil]]. In [[British archaeology]] mechanical diggers are sometimes nicknamed "big yellow trowels".