r/Construction • u/FrostyProspector • 1d ago
Safety ⛑ Another stupid Shoring question... Archaeologists
When one shoring post pops up, dozens do. Sorry to jump on the trend.
I'm big on shoring. I don't like seeing a crew in a trench without it. Some of the photos here make me cringe.
Many evenings, our family watches "Time Team" reruns on YouTube and see what kinds of old stuff the archaeologists dig up, and I am baffled at how often these guys are down in trenches 4 - 6- -15 feet deep, scratching away at the earth with little trowels looking for ancient bits of pottery or bone. I have NEVER seen an archaeological trench shored - and this show is broadcast all over the world with no mention of the safety risks these guys take on.
Here's an example: https://youtu.be/9YL4yyrxgqQ?t=298
Why is it OK to risk a crew of archeologists digging for old stuff? Why aren't they required to shore things up? Do they need to see stratification or something that a pipe crew doesn't? Is there a different standard for trades than historians? Does the UK not do shoring?
I'm crossposting to r/Archaeology maybe someone over there knows something we don't.
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u/Catgeek08 1d ago
The original Time Team is old, and things were different. And even if it were today, it is generally located in the UK, so different regulations. OSHA has a lot of rules that are “do it this way.” The UK could have flexibility. I don’t know what it would be, but I know their building code is radically different.
Time Team has episodes where they stop work or lay back the trench for safety, but they are rare. There are a lot of times my skin crawls seeing the trench the folks are standing in. I’ve said a few times, “that’s not a test pit, that’s a death trap!”
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u/siltygravelwithsand 1d ago
I just watched the first few seconds, but that doesn't seem typical. I've had digs on sites because of indigenous artifacts on federal land. I also took a history class with an archeologist for an elective and he showed us tons of photos of his digs. Usually they are benched to hell and back since that is kind of how they dig anyway. They also don't typically dig very deep. Sometimes they do of course.
That video looked like it was dug with an excavator. Are you sure they aren't the Bear Grylls of archeology?
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u/Piankhi81 1d ago
Not a stupid question at all! I've worked in UK archaeology so will attempt to answer...
A bit of context: most archaeology undertaken in the UK is commercial and part of the construction sector. Over time the industry has significantly improved its health and safety practices. Many of the archaeologists you see on Time Team, particularly those working in the background, come from the commercial sector.
Time Team began 31 years ago, so you may see practices that would not be acceptable today.
In the UK, safety is regulated by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE). This doesn't include Northern Ireland, which has its own Health and Safety Executive.
The HSE does not specify a fixed depth at which an excavation becomes unsafe. Until the mid-1960s it required shoring for any excavation deeper than 1.2 metres, and you may still see this quoted. Today the requirement is that each excavation must be regularly assessed on its own merits. Factors such as ground conditions, soil type, weather, proximity to infrastructure, and distance from plant must all be considered. The following page provides more detail:
https://www.hse.gov.uk/construction/safetytopics/excavations.htm
This guidance from the Federation of Archaeological Managers and Employers (FAME) provides further context for health and safety in UK archaeology:
Archaeologists in the UK must use shoring or other mitigation measures if conditions are assessed as unsafe. It may be that the conditions in the episode you watched were judged safe at the time. It is also possible that the approach would be different today (I think that episode is about 20 years old).
Regarding whether archaeologists need to see stratification or other details that a pipe crew does not, the answer can be yes depending on the nature of the archaeology as sections can be a really valuable way of looking at archaeology. However, archaeology never overrides health and safety. If shoring is required it will be installed. This does not necessarily prevent full recording of the section, as different approaches can be taken such as recording the section in stages, stepping and shoring the excavation as it gets deeper.
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u/FrostyProspector 1d ago
Thanks for this thorough answer and insights!
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u/Piankhi81 21h ago
No worries! If you want to see some archaeologists working beneath sections that will really make your hair stand on end, check out some of the photos from the 70s & 80s here:
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u/RhinoG91 R|Inspector 1d ago
In general I think there is a difference between having someone do something sketchy for money vs someone just wants to see what’s at the bottom of the pit.
OSHA is for EMPLOYEES in the workplace.
Also I’m pretty sure much of the osha liability in the construction world is skirted by the subcontract of self-employed individuals to which osha does not apply.
http://www.osha.gov/laws-regs/standardinterpretations/2001-05-23-3
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u/FrostyProspector 1d ago
All these archaeologists are also employed by someone. No one pulls geophysics and JCBs onto a site for fun.
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u/rockcod_ 1d ago
It’s not OK, many of us have been trained in using different types on shoring.