My grad school advisor told me to always check the fill dirt on a site before digging, and I ignored her on a project in Ohio last spring

We spent three weeks excavating what we thought was a Native American midden, only to realize it was just old farm trash dumped there in the 1920s. Anyone else ever waste time on a site because you skipped a basic step someone warned you about?

2 comments

2 Comments

nancy_green1mo ago

The fill dirt check is one of those things that seems pointless until you really need it. After getting burned on a site myself, I started doing a quick shovel test in every corner before anything else - takes ten minutes and saves so much headache later. Now it feels weird to start digging without that step, honestly (learned that the hard way).

smith.anna1mo ago

Used to roll my eyes at the fill dirt check but after wasting a month on a cemetery site that turned out to be 1950s construction debris I am a total convert now. What made you finally start trusting the advice?