It wasn't so important finding the stuff, but rather seeing it and realizing that it's been under the ground for 200 years and no one else has seen it. When someone finds something, others will gather around to look. I've tried to let the students take major responsibility for much of the work here. De Cunzo says researchers spend about three hours in the laboratory for every hour digging at a site. And that, she explains, is time spent cleaning and logging material.
Additional time is spent on research and analysis.
But, she admits, as a landscape anthropologist, it's difficult for her to keep her mind from focusing on what may be waiting to be discovered only a few feet below the surface. It's an occupational hazard.