Why Archaeologists Don't Fully Excavate Sites

Generally with any archaeological site, they don't excavate more than 5% of it,

and often less than 2% of it. Is that because of funds? It's often because

of funds, but it's also because of the feeling that as technology improves, uh,

more be- may be learnt from these sites in the future. And, and that's a reasonable

argument, uh, because excavation is destruction. Uh,

to a certain extent, excavation destroys what's being excavated. Mm-hmm. Um,

and therefore, when you interfere with a site and start excavating it,

you may be destroying materials that, in 100 years, technology would be able to interpret