The old way of digging at Çatalhöyük beats the new laser scanning for me

Everyone's excited about the 3D laser scans they're doing at the site now, but I worked a season with the old trowel and brush method. We found a tiny obsidian bead in 2012 that a scan would have missed because it was under a floor slab. The hands-on work just gives you a feel for the soil and the small stuff that tech can't see. Do you think we rely too much on new tech and lose the basic skills?

3 comments

3 Comments

nancycooper2mo ago

What, you don't trust the magic laser?

elliot_patel2mo ago

Magic lasers are fine for some things but they're not a fix for everything. I had a similar issue last year and the cheap laser tool just gave me false readings. Ended up getting a proper moisture meter and it showed the real problem. Sometimes you need the right tool for the job, not just the flashy one.

vera5142mo ago

My old boss bought one of those laser things for the shop and swore by it. I spent a whole afternoon chasing a "leak" it found, only to realize it was just picking up the shine from a new PVC pipe. Felt like a real genius that day. You're totally right, the right tool saves you from your own dumb mistakes.