Archaeologists sites ideas

[rumacara]

Hello all

Looking for some ideas to scratchbuild a archaeologists site for my adventure games.
Your terrain ideas bought or made are welcome.
It will be terrain to be used in the 1920´s so that i can cross with BOB.

Thanks for watching

Rui

[FreakyFenton]

No idea if it is helpful but a few episodes of Hercules Poirot feature archaeological dig sites and happen to be centered loosely around a 1920's style fashion. Just give the episode "Appointment with Death" a look as it features a few shots of a dig site and could be quite inspirational. The buzzwords "Poirot + dig site" also give some results on Google.

As for materials? Balsa wood, maybe some branches from your garden for gnarlier wooden constructions and a metal brush to detail the balsa and some threads will do plenty. Sprinkle some dirt here and there and perhaps use some foam cuts to provide ruins. You can also structure foam to look 'weathered and beaten' with a coarse rock which you press into the foam lightly.

For painting? Cheap craft paints diluted with wood glue or white scenery glue to give the foam and such stability, then dry-bush with model colours.

Hope that helps!

[rumacara]

Yes it helps.
Thank you.

[has.been]

I think it would vary depending on what they
are hoping to dig up. I would suggest a 'trench'
amongst the dig. You could then drop in various
things for various scenarios, e.g. a dinosaur
skull for a Back of beyond scenario or a chariot
wreck for Egypt. You could take it further afield
with a stone Quetzalcoatl for Mexico, or even a
Spaceship as in Quatermass  and the Pit.

Aside from that, some scaffolding, ladders, wheel-
barrow, spoil heaps, sorting tables, buckets,
water barrels,  & a tent or two with various awnings.
If you make it in sections with a universal edge, i.e.
so that any piece can fit alongside any other piece,
you will get more use out of it. In a TV programme
in the UK, Time Team, (or Archaeology lite) they
always seem to open 'another trench over there'
I look forward to seeing what you do with this.

[gamer Mac]

I am sure OVERLORD, Paul built one for one of the build something contests search for that
He built ruins with some pits and scafold

[tin shed gamer]

Sometimes you just strike lucky. I've done the rooting around. Ready to build my own dig site.
I've no where near enough space to store one off pieces. So I've choosen to use a combination of scratch built and prepainted.
Gale force 9's. Forgotten City range has proven a super fast solution for scene setting pieces. Budget restraints ment I've not bought every set I'd like from the range . But in addition to the set in the scaling photo. I do own two sets of the columns and obelix.
There's a slight down side to them .Several of the sets have really poorly done dog like skulls on the Sphinx models..

I must admit I was planning on doing a Poirot enspired scaffolding complete with armchair and Parasol.
Sarrisa is probably the easiest set of scaffolding to work with.
TT combat has the odd egyptian themed building and scaffolding.

Alternatively I'd reccomend looking at Blotz scenery their ruins and jetties/ warfs would work as an alternative to an Egyptian theme. In fact any generic ruined low walls and corners could double for your BoB and dig site.
I suspect you've already got tents within your BoB collection.
They're pretty effortless either as a scratch build or premade plastic.
As for the 'Dig' the simplest multi functional form is a square pit ( or rectangular or even an L shape or T shape.)
It's called a trench for a reason So build a 'trench'
A floor area surrounded by a fire step.Plank revetments around the inner edge.Not on the edge of the step its self..
Then simlpy have an exterior slope all the way around the out side. At one point have a narrow wooden ramp go up the slope to the top of the revetment and a second ramp down onto the fire set.
Then you've an emplacement for BoB and a dig site for your archeology.( you can even have a separate dig item(s) to plonk in the floor space to imply its a dig.)
Has been got there first whilst I've been one figer typing

[tin shed gamer]

Had to add it as another post as it kept objecting to been added.
If it's easier on the budget EBay has candle moulds for around a fiver that'll give you the option to make your own columns.

The TT scaffolding is £4 ( in the Venice section.)
The ruin piece is a similar price from Blotz.

[Vanvlak]

I think most of the stuff we use on site has been indicated - our modest equipment (for a very generic site) includes:

tool boxes and bags
awnings or tents (for shade - with UV 11 and temperatures around 40 degrees you need these here!) - one approach is to use scaffolding with awnings over it; scaffolding is also used to support structures which might collapse
shovels and pickaxes, as well as trowels
water - for drinking
sample boxes (sturdy plastic or wooden crates)
surveying equipment - depending on the period of interest, a total station or a theodolite, and an auto-level or Dumpy level
grid markers - metal pins in the ground or stakes with string delimiting a grid or individual trenches
photography scales (1 m long banded in red and white, can be joined together for greater lengths)
cameras
piles of notebooks and record sheets
drawings
a hoist (only in particular cases, but it's a nice accessory to add to the mix)
a drone (that's my job  ) - obviously not for earlier digs, although you could add a balloon for aerial photos!
a storage shed (we use a container in one particular site) which can be locked to keep tolls safe
wheelbarrows
buckets, for removing soil and other material removed
sieves
drawing boards
grids (for drawing small areas to scale)
the odd laptop
archaeologists(!), with sturdy boots, gloves, hats
ideally, a support vehicle (or more than one)
sandbags, for shoring loose soil or sediment; or for backfill (filling up the trenches if conservation is not to be carried out)
wasp's nests  (at least we always get these)
fencing around the site - to keep people from mucking about, falling in pits or grave robbing!

Amongst the stuff generated by a dig would be:
trenches - not necessarily military style, shallow rectangular ones or sampling pits are possible
the site itself - many trenches reveal just bedrock, further layers of soil, or some sort of paving, which can be removed if necessary; you also get structures of course, mostly stone, unless conditions are good for preserving wood
a spoil heap - the material removed - in many cases, one for soil, one for stones
architectural features (stone) which are removed from where they are found to be conserved or transported, or simply stored near the site
finds - pottery being the commonest, mostly broken, some intact
visitors and the press, including film crews!
backfilled areas - trenches which have been refilled; in modern archaeology, geotextile is used, and some inert material which is different from the ground material is piled in, usually in sacks or sandbags; in less well-funded circumstances the material removed is placed back, although some sort of textile is placed as a boundary between excavated and replaced material

In sensitive areas which are of major relevance, a security guard may be on site - usually with some sort of shed or office.

More specialized locations might need taller scaffolding with platforms and planking, more permanent guard rails around deeper holes, caving or even diving equipment, portable analytical equipment etc.

[Bravo Six]

There's lots of great ruins and tombs for this kind of thing from 3D print designer Ian Lovecraft's "Desert Adventures"

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/iain-lovecraft/desert-adventures

[FramFramson]

A ground grid marked with pins or stakes seems like an easy one and very traditional in archaeology.

[rumacara]

Some very nice ideas.
Thank you all.

Keep them coming for this is not only for me but to others who may search for the same theme. May be usefull to keep as a generic post.

[marianas_gamer]

Here is some kit I knocked together a few years back. A screen for soils, a sorting table for artifacts and a desk to do all of the endless recording, drawings, and notes required to really do archaeology.

[rumacara]

Very nice.

[Cat]

A passenger van or bus to carry the crew back and forth from their lodgings.  A cook setting up a lunch table in the nearest shady spot.
 
I was the cook and driver for the dig I worked on!  And helped with the trowelling otherwise.  Once the pits have opened up to goodies within, then trowels are the weapon of choice to arm your crew, not shovels.

There should be a theodolite around for helping to record precise locations on site.

[Bravo Six]

Yeah Lon that's pretty nice!