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Since its first publication, Field Archaeology: An Introduction has proved to be a key handbook for all those undertaking introductory courses in archaeology or volunteering on their first excavation. In this revised second edition, key developments in technology, theory and changes in the law are included, bringing it up to date with the most recent fieldwork practices. The dig is the face of archaeology most immediately recognised by the general public, and is often what attracts both students and amateurs to the discipline. Yet there is much more to working in the field than digging alone. Peter Drewett's comprehensive survey explores the process, from the core work of discovery and excavation to the final product, the published archaeological report. The main topics are: How an archaeological site is formed Finding and recording archaeological sites Planning excavations, digging the site and recording the results Post-fieldwork planning, processing and finds analysis Interpreting the evidence Publishing the report Illustrated with 100 photographs and line drawings, and using numerous case studies, this second edition of Field Archaeology ensures it will remain the essential introductory guide for archaeology students and the growing number of enthusiasts for the subject. 1. Introduction 2. What is an archaeological site? How is it formed and transformed? 3. Finding archaeological sites 4. Recording archaeological sites 5. Planning the excavation 6. Digging the site 7. Recording archaeological excavations 8. Post-fieldwork planning, processing and finds analysis 9. Interpreting the evidence 10. Publishing the report Peter Drewett is Emeritus Professor of Archaeology at the University of Sussex. Prior to this, he taught field archaeology at the Institute of Archaeology, University College London, where he directed the undergraduate field training excavations and established the Institute’s Field Archaeology Unit. Early in his career he was particularly involved in the rescue excavation of plough damaged sites on the South Downs. He set up and directed the Barbados Archaeological Survey, as well as running field courses and rescue excavations in Portugal and Hong Kong. Professor Drewett has over 100 published works, including (with Mark Gardiner and David Rudling) The South East to AD 1000 (1988, Longman) and Prehistoric Barbados (1991, Archetype). 'In a time of uncertainty in the profession, it’s refreshing to read a book that puts archaeology in the context of the best field practice ... This is an optimistic book, with an upbeat, breezy style that reviews all the major field techniques from the formation of deposits and how to find sites, through how to record them to postexcavation. There is detailed discussion of the problems of excavation and interpretation, and the rapidly changing means of publishing the results ... [This book] remains one of the best introductions to the techniques and problems of dirt archaeology.' - Mike Nevell, British Archaeology '... it remains that Drewett’s Field Archaeology is a companionable introduction to archaeological fieldwork, with a good balance between survey and excavation.' – Antiquity

Since its first publication, Field Archaeology: An Introduction has proved to be a key handbook for all those undertaking introductory courses in archaeology or volunteering on their first excavation. In this revised second edition, key developments in technology, theory and changes in the law are included, bringing it up to date with the most recent fieldwork practices. The dig is the face of archaeology most immediately recognised by the general public, and is often what attracts both students and amateurs to the discipline. Yet there is much more to working in the field than digging alone. Peter Drewett's comprehensive survey explores the process, from the core work of discovery and excavation to the final product, the published archaeological report. The main topics are: How an archaeological site is formed Finding and recording archaeological sites Planning excavations, digging the site and recording the results Post-fieldwork planning, processing and finds analysis Interpreting the evidence Publishing the report Illustrated with 100 photographs and line drawings, and using numerous case studies, this second edition of Field Archaeology ensures it will remain the essential introductory guide for archaeology students and the growing number of enthusiasts for the subject.

When setting out an excavation, some care should be taken to consider the effective management of soil in relation to safety and the day-to-day running of the site. Much time and effort can be wasted in moving, and sometimes re-moving, soil. The first aspect to be considered will always be safety, then what is best for the archaeology of the site, and finally the most efficient way of moving and storing soil. From a safety point of view soil should never simply be dumped on the edge of the trench. Soil dumped in this way will not only increase the likelihood of trench-edge collapse but will also spill back into the trench, becoming particularly dangerous to site workers as the trench gets deeper. Archaeologically, it is also bad, as objects from the spoil (soil) heap can fall into earlier layers, potentially confounding their date.

The record of an archaeological excavation consists of four major elements: the written record, the drawn record, the photographic record and the materials taken away from the site, that is, the 'finds' consisting of artefacts, ecofacts and environmental samples. Finds will be considered further in Chapter 8.

The end product of most field projects should be an archive of material remains, field records and material analyses, together with a report. The archive must be deposited in a professionally curated institution like a museum, and the report should be published. Both must be publicly available. The archive essentially comprises all primary data relating to the field project. In the case of an excavation or field survey involving surface collection, the artefacts, ecofacts and residues of any environmental samples will form the bulk of the archive, although this material will be of little use without its associated archive record.

Archaeological sites consist essentially of activity areas and rubbish. That is where people have done things in the past and left some residue of having done something. This may have been a great 'something' like constructing Machu Picchu or Stonehenge, or a very minor 'something' like flaking a flint axe or eating a shellfish. Some activity areas, like a sacred rock, may involve no surviving residue other than the natural rock, so one can never be certain that it was an activity area. Unless there is clear oral tradition or documentary evidence that it was a sacred rock, then it cannot be considered an archaeological site, simply a site that could have been used (Bradley 2000). What we now see as archaeological sites are of course not intact activity areas. They have been changed through time. They are being changed during the life of the activity area, changed at the point of discard or abandonment and changed after discard. Archaeological sites are therefore transformed or changed activity areas and rubbish. The American scholar Michael Schiffer, among others, has been very influential in the consideration of the processes of transformation, and what follows is loosely based on much of his work (for example, Schiffer 1976 and Schiffer 1996), but consideration of transformation processes goes right back to Charles Darwin and his study of earthworm activity (Darwin 1881). Cutting across much of this processual understanding of site formation is the added problem of how, especially in prehistory, people used artefacts, both whole and fragmented, in ritual and symbolic ways. These would be cultural activities which may look to us very like 'rubbish' deposition. For example a placed potsherd may represent a ritual activity rather than a rubbish deposition (Chapman and Gaydarska 2006). Any changes that involve human activity can be considered cultural, while changes that involve only non-human agencies are natural. To confuse non-archaeologists, these may be referred to as C (cultural) or N (natural) transforms.

Many archaeological sites have never been lost. The site may have been abandoned but it may remain clearly visible in the landscape even if, during much of its post-use life, it was not considered an archaeological site as such. Classic sites like Stonehenge, the Great Wall of China, or the Acropolis in Athens have always been known. This usually, but not always, includes the major sites in a region. In England, for example, few medieval masonry castles have been lost, while most small peasant farmsteads of the same date have been lost. In general, but not always, small sites are more likely to have been 'lost' than big ones. However, big ones may also have been 'lost' to archaeologists, even if known to the local population.

Interpretation of the evidence revealed through excavation is not something that happens after the site has been dug and the finds have been analysed. It is an ongoing process that takes place throughout the project. That having been said, inevitably interpretations change as new information is recovered, both during the excavation and in the post-excavation and analysis phase. At some stage in the project, however, an interpretation or a range of interpretations for the recovered data has to be decided upon. Raw data is just that. Archaeology is the study of the past through the study of material remains, not simply the study of material remains.

Many field archaeologists attempt to go straight into the post-excavation stage of their fieldwork without considering fully what they are really letting themselves in for. Post-excavation work and publication preparation takes far longer, and is often more expensive in terms of time and money, than the actual excavation. At a general level, the field project design should have considered the post-excavation and publication stages of the project (Chapter 1), but detailed post-excavation project planning cannot be undertaken until the excavation is complete. Only then will you know fully the range, quality and quantity of data recovered.