What are auger holes in reference to Archaeology?

Question

What are auger holes in reference to Archaeology?

Answer 1

Soil auguring can be an effective technique for site discovery, especially where artifact concentrations are dense. Because auger holes are 4-6 inches wide, they extract more soil and detect more artifacts than soil cores do. However, soil stratigraphy is difficult to see in the samples. Experience suggests that augers do not effectively yield artifacts within site boundaries unless the distribution of artifacts is both abundant and widespread.

Answer 2

An auger is a hollow metal thing that pokes a hole in the ground and brings up a column of soil so you can see what's down there without bothering to dig it up.  There are different sizes of augers.  The narrowest ones are only a few centimeters across and have a window cut out of the bottom.  Those are good for seeing what the soil layers are doing.  Soil layer changes can be really, really subtle, and it's easier to see the change using one of those augers.

There are wider ones that are used for site testing.  You can take augers every so many meters and push the soil through a screen to see if there are artifacts there.  If you've got artifacts at multiple augers, then you may have a site.

The auger holes are what's left behind when you get out the soil.  With the wider ones, if you can see the wall, you can get an idea of what the soil layers look like.  Otherwise, the important bit's not the hole, but what you took out of it.

Answer 3

When they don't have the enough money, or time to dig an entire site, they make holes through-out the site to see what the have and if they should expand their digging in a certain spot if they see some artifacts in one of the holes. Also sometimes they do this if they don't want to destroy the enitre site if there is nothing there.

Answer 4

Auger is another name for a drill.

Answer 5

round holes for fence posts.