Excavation involves the recovery of several types of data from a site. These data include artifacts (objects me or modified by humans), features (modifications to the site itself such as post molds, burials, and hearths), ecofacts (evidence for the local environment and

resources being used such as snail shells, seeds, and butcd bones) and, most importantly, archaeological context (relationships among the other types of data). Ily, data from the excavation should suffice to reconstruct the site completely in three-dimensional space.

The presence or absence of archaeological remains can often be suggested by remote sensing, such as ground-penetrating rar. Basic ination about the development of the site may be drawn from this work but the understanding of finer features usually requires excavation though appropriate use of augering. Excavation techniques have

developed over the years from a treasure hunting process to one which seeks to fully understand the sequence of human activity on a given site and that site's relationship with other sites and with the landscape in which it is set.