Neville Agnew and Martha Demas 2004

“Monitoring through Replication. Design and Evaluation of the Monitoring Reburial at the Laetoli Trackway Site,”
Conservation and Management of Archaeological Sites, pp. 295-304.
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This contribution aims to answer to a basic methodological question: “How is it possible to monitor the condition of a site or artefact after it has been reburied?” (p. 295).

In 1995, on the remote site of Laetoli in Tanzania, the archaeologist decided to create a replica reburial close to the site. This replica provided a ‘window’ on the condition of the trackway and a series of samples of different materials were placed in the trench to provide an understanding of the burial environment. The trench itself, with triangular recesses cut into the floor to determine the mechanical stability of the tuff, was lined with root-inhibiting Biobarrier© geotextile and then reburied.

After two years, the excavation team decided to re-excavate part of the trench, and they realized that the covering system worked well and only some troubles on the preservation of some wood samples occurred. This can be for sure considered as an advantage.

On the other hand: “The disadvantage of replication lies in not being able to reproduce exactly the features and environment of the trackway. The closer the approximation, the higher the level of confidence. Inference and extrapolation is necessary in any form of monitoring except direct re-excavation and even this method, unless undertaken over the majority of the site, requires extrapolation from what is examined to what is not examined” (p. 303).