That excavation in St. Augustine taught me a hard lesson about sieving

Last month on a dig near the old city gate, I skipped the fine mesh sieve on one test pit because I was in a hurry. Ended up missing three tiny glass trade beads from the 1600s that turned up later in the wet screen wash. Had to go back and re-sift that whole 2x2 meter unit, which cost me a full afternoon in the Florida heat. Has anyone else broken a personal rule like that and regretted it right away?

3 comments

3 Comments

lee_ward542mo ago

Were you using dry screening or running water through a setup? I ask because missing trade beads in Florida sand is a specific kind of headache. That heavy iron-rich soil clumps up bad once it bakes in the sun. Did you end up running the whole re-sift through a quarter-inch or finer mesh after you caught the mistake?

karenlee2mo ago

And here I thought careful dry screening would catch everything just fine.

hannah_price7922d ago

Blame it on the humidity level when you first screened it. Wet sand acts totally different than dry and can hide smaller stuff until the whole batch sits for a day.