Trial trenching is a rapid and relatively inexpensive method of archaeological evaluation used to estimate the archaeological potential of a site.
Trenches are located at intervals across a site leaving the rest untouched. A mechanical excavator is used to dig down to archaeological features or natural geological deposits and any archaeology is recorded. No further excavation takes place at this stage. The results of the trial trenching are used to inform any future stage of work which may extend to full
excavation
Excavation may refer to:
* Excavation (archaeology)
* Excavation (medicine)
* ''Excavation'' (The Haxan Cloak album), 2013
* ''Excavation'' (Ben Monder album), 2000
* ''Excavation'' (novel), a 2000 novel by James Rollins
* '' Excavation: A Mem ...
of the rest of the site if the evaluation reveals significant finds.
There is some argument over the
sampling strategy to be employed in trial trenching, especially in evaluating sites that are intended for development. Issues such as the effectiveness of certain trench layouts or the percentage of the site to be dug (normally around 5% at present) are widely discussed. Whether an effective picture of past human activity on a site can be truly estimated through this methods is widely debated. Development can destroy buried archaeology forever and a reliable evaluation methodology is very important. Whilst it is difficult to quantify the number of
false negative
A false positive is an error in binary classification in which a test result incorrectly indicates the presence of a condition (such as a disease when the disease is not present), while a false negative is the opposite error, where the test resul ...
results there have certainly been examples of evaluations suggesting a relatively limited amount of past activity which has had to be upwardly revised during the excavation.
In the UK the results of the trial trenching will be used to inform the decision on the need for any further archaeological work to be undertaken prior to development. This process is enshrined in the
National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF).
See also
*
Archaeological field survey
In archaeology, survey or field survey is a type of field research by which archaeologists (often landscape archaeologists) search for archaeological sites and collect information about the location, distribution and organization of past human ...
*
Excavation
Excavation may refer to:
* Excavation (archaeology)
* Excavation (medicine)
* ''Excavation'' (The Haxan Cloak album), 2013
* ''Excavation'' (Ben Monder album), 2000
* ''Excavation'' (novel), a 2000 novel by James Rollins
* '' Excavation: A Mem ...
*
Shovel test pit
A shovel test pit (STP) is a standard method for Phase I of an archaeological survey. It is usually a part of the Cultural Resources Management (CRM) methodology and a popular form of rapid archaeological survey in the United States of America a ...
*
Watching brief
In British archaeology a watching brief is a method of preserving archaeological remains by record in the face of development threat. An archaeologist is employed by the developer to monitor the excavation of foundation and service trenches, lan ...
*
wikt:sondage
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Trial Trenching
Methods in archaeology