[Alkhin]

LOL - "gravel pit with some soil around it" - shall we compare flesh wounds?? LOL - try getting our famous black soil gumbo off the skin/skeletal material/artifacts - or digging in it when there hasnt been rain for several weeks. Like digging for bricks.

would love to excavate something older than 150 years old, and more substantial than broken dart points and ochre.

[Betis70]

I've done the concrete desert digging in New Mexico, and I can't tell which is worse, the gravel pit or the caliche. Both are probably better than one job where I worked outside in 5 degree weather, on the shore, with a wind chill around -20.

Yikes black soil gumbo sounds pretty nasty. I did work on an 18th-19th century cemetery that had some pretty nasty (and greasy) soil. That was ... err ... not fun. It also had a 'vampire' associated with it, which made it a lot more interesting.

http://users.net1plus.com/vyrdolak/NEfolkbelief.htm