Quarter Sectioning
Sometimes called digging by quadrant this special case is a procedure for excavating circular features, usually mounds and, barrows, Deposits are excavated from four quarters of the feature, starting with two diagonally opposite quadrants and perhaps ending with the other two. The quadrants are slightly offset, so that the outer balk of one is continuous (in reverse) with the outer face of its opposite, going through the center of the feature. After the recording of the sections, the balks may be removed and the rest of the feature excavated. The advantage of quarter sectioning is it allows a look at two complete cross-sections while still allowing excavation in plan thus allowing a better interpretation of the stratigraphy of the site. The merits of this sectioning and balk creation are disputed.
Read more about this topic: Archaeological Section
Famous quotes containing the word quarter:
“I also heard the whooping of the ice in the pond, my great bed-fellow in that part of Concord, as if it were restless in its bed and would fain turn over, were troubled with flatulency and bad dreams; or I was waked by the cracking of the ground by the frost, as if some one had driven a team against my door, and in the morning would find a crack in the earth a quarter of a mile long and a third of an inch wide.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)