Dictionary definition of “trowel fodder”

trowel fodder

n. unskilled, cheap, and plentiful workers used at an archaeological site. Subjects: English, Science, Slang

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Citations: 1995 [Dave Beard] Usenet: sci.archaeology (Mar. 15) “Re: Looking For Work On A Dig!”: It will be possible for people who have some excavation experience to come as volunteers. In these cases there will be no formal tuition provided. However, this does not simply mean that they will be used as trowel fodder! 1999 [John Michaels] Usenet: sci.archaeology.moderated (Apr. 24) “Draft layout for a small finds report”: I have been working in a commercial archaeology company as basic trowel fodder for a year and have now been given the task of writing the small finds report from my first site. 2004 Dave Jones Education and the Historic Environment (Mar. 2) “Archaeology in Further Education” p. 45: Excavations are often very expensive or simply use students as “trowel fodder,” providing no training at all. 2006 Paul Sussman CNN (Dec. 11) “Shortcuts: How to make it as an archaeologist”: While many of the technical aspects of archaeology can be learnt in a classroom, there is no substitute for practical experience. If you are really committed to the subject many excavations will offer places to what are commonly known as “trowel fodder”—people who do all the messy, boring jobs such as digging trenches, pushing wheel barrows and standing around all day in the pouring rain holding surveying poles. It might not be glamorous, but it will give you an invaluable grounding in the basic skills of field archaeology.

Posted 10 Sep 07 | Permalink | Tell a Friend