A prof at a field school in Cortez told me my soil notes were useless, and it stung because he was right

Blake Williams · 2026-10-26T23:30:03.159499+00:00

I spent 3 weeks at a dig near Cortez last summer writing stuff like "brown dirt, some rocks" in my level log, and the staff archaeologist pulled me aside on a Thursday and said he couldn't tell a hearth from backfill using my notes. I switched to Munsell color codes plus a quick sketch of every level and it added maybe 20 minutes to each day but saved me when we hit a burned layer nobody could agree on. How detailed do you all get with your level records before it starts slowing the dig down too much?

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A prof at a field school in Cortez told me my soil notes were useless, and it stung because he was right | Archaeology Discoveries - Free To Speak