If I drill a 500-foot deep hole, keep track of the material that comes out, place a cell phone in the hole and replace the dirt in reverse order...
Will the cell phone be dated to 200,000,000 BC when it's found?
Just wondering...
It's not usually hard to see the outlines of past soil disturbances at archaeological sites. In Indian mounds a cross section even reveals the individual basket loads of earth with remarkable clarity. Old fire pits alter the color and other characteristics of soils as well, burnt posts leave their own distinct marks, layers of burnt thatch still others, groundhog and other rodent tunnels show themselves clearly, trash pits are distinguishable, cooking pits leave the soil with a peculiar odor and greasiness even after hundreds of years or more, rotted wood also changes soil color in the space it occupied long af the wood is gone, etc. No matter how careful you are you cannot replace what has been dug out perfectly and maintain all the different factors to hide what you did.
Also, how reasonable is it to think that someone made an axe or found a more recent one and decided to risk losing that hard work or losing that artifact- surely even a more recent one has some value- for the sake of a prank? How reasonable is it to assume someone randomly chose a spot in the ground in which to set up a trick in the hopes there would be an archaeological dig there some day, and some archaeologists would come along and just happen to pick the vary same spot to dig, and just happen to dig to the very same same depth, and just happen to find what the prankster left and not be deterred by the lack of other finds or clues yet keep digging to the neccessary level, and not be curious that nothing else was found there but an odd, long backfilled hole containing the axe? In this theory that it could be planted, did the prankster have the foresight to decide to play the trick a thousand years ago, a hundred years ago, or the day before the archaeologists started to dig? For what reason would anyone go through the trouble? You can have more fun with archaeologists if you just get them drunk.
Only by the person trying to carry out such an obvious hoax.