How does an archaeologist uncover the artifacts?
Very carefully! Many objects buried for hundreds of years may be quite fragile. Generally, archaeologists loosen the earth with a pick, shovel, or trowel in very small, shallow area, remove the loosened earth, and then loosen more. They move the dirt horizontally, in small increments, rather than dig down around objects as they appear – and when they find something, they leave it in place until they have uncovered everything else around it at the same level, and have recorded all the finds and their locations. It is very tempting to dig objects out of the ground right away, or to dig holes around artifacts, since it is human nature to want to see what you have found! The archaeologist’s goal, however, is to notice all the relationships and connections between objects and features – the context of the finds — because otherwise a great deal of information may be lost. The earth that is removed is often taken to screens where the archaeologists look for very small artifacts or other rema
