Pro tip: We found a whole new layer of a site in Tucson after a flash flood washed away a foot of topsoil.

I was on a crew digging at a known Hohokam site near the Santa Cruz River last spring. The storm cleared out a bunch of modern fill and exposed a previously buried pithouse floor. Now we always schedule a walkover survey after heavy rain. What's the biggest 'accidental' find you've seen change a dig plan?

3 comments

3 Comments

eric_martinez27d ago

That "accidental find" sounds more like a lucky break from a known problem. In my experience, that kind of erosion can really mess up the stratigraphy and scatter artifacts, making the real work harder.

cameronb9727d ago

Yeah but sometimes that mess is the whole point. I've seen sites where erosion cut through layers we'd never get to dig, @eric_martinez. Like that coastal site last year, the storm exposed a midden under six feet of sterile sand. We got a clear snapshot of one period because it was all jumbled together, no mixing. It gave us a fast answer when time and money were tight.

seanperez6d ago

But what if the mess is the data, @eric_martinez? Sometimes the scatter tells you exactly how the site fell apart.