Soil is being carefully shoveled from a feature and screened to recover small artifacts.
Troweling.
Most excavation is done with sharp flat
skim shovels. The soil is carefully scraped, shaving thin layers at a time. The archaeologist is looking for artifacts and for
soil changes. An experienced archaeologist can "feel" the different soil textures in a site, or when they've found an artifact.
All of the soil is screened through 1/4 inch mesh to recover small artifacts.
Careful digging with trowel, paint brush, and wooden pick is often required for feature excavation in order to find and map artifacts in place. The soil that is troweled
is also screened.