Am I the only one who misses the quiet of a trowel in the dirt?

I've been at a Roman villa site in Spain for three seasons now, and this year they brought in a bunch of drones and 3D scanners. One side says this tech lets us map large areas fast and spot features we'd never see otherwise. The other side, which I lean toward, thinks it makes us skip the slow, careful work that really tells a story. Last week, a scan flagged a wall corner, but when we dug it up, we rushed and missed a coin layer right next to it. My boss calls it progress, but I spent an afternoon just brushing around a mosaic fragment, and that told me more about the people who lived there than any scan could. It feels like we're trading understanding for speed, and the details are getting lost. So, are we better off with more gadgets or should we stick to the basics? What's your view on this?

4 comments

4 Comments

anna7171mo ago

just another tool lol, not the end of the world

henryr451mo ago

Yeah, @anna717, you're right. It's just a tool, not a big deal. The hype will fade.

rivera.shane20d ago

Man, I'm the guy who still gets excited about new highlighters.

theacooper1mo ago

Actually, the problem isn't the scanner but how we use it. Rushing because of a tech readout means we've got the process wrong, not the tool. The quiet work and the new tools should inform each other, not fight.