Posts: 4,483
Threads: 634
Joined: Aug 2005
Reputation:
0
Sometimes, archaeologists dig to a certain level, and leave the lower levels intact. Occasionally, they dig a very deep hole on one place, to have an impression of what is below. For instance, in Baalbek, research is concentrated on the Roman age, but at the center of the Great Court, there's a deep pit reaching into the Chalcolithic.
AFAIK, such a hole is called a sounding. But what's the verb that belongs to it. Are they performing, digging, executing a sounding?
Jona Lendering
Relevance is the enemy of history
My website
Posts: 363
Threads: 5
Joined: Jul 2012
Reputation:
0
It sounds like it should be a verb or adjective (it appears as both through google), but it seems clear that it exists officially as a noun, and therefore you would dig a sounding, just as you would a hole, pit, or trench.
Posts: 4,483
Threads: 634
Joined: Aug 2005
Reputation:
0
Quote:It sounds like it should be a verb or adjective (it appears as both through google), but it seems clear that it exists officially as a noun
Exactly what makes me insecure.
Quote:therefore you would dig a sounding, just as you would a hole, pit, or trench.
OK. THANKS!
Jona Lendering
Relevance is the enemy of history
My website
Posts: 113
Threads: 8
Joined: May 2012
Reputation:
0
The Archaeolgists are just digging deeper than the expected target depth (level of activity) to try and determine just how deep total activity there was. It is the same or similar meaning as sounding a river or bay with a weighted line, "how deep is it?".
Manius Acilius Italicus
Posts: 7,668
Threads: 117
Joined: Apr 2005
Reputation:
0
I think the verb should be just "sound", but it's archaic in that use. Sounding is a participle, which requires that the root verb be sound. However, being a participle, it becomes a noun-like word, so really, your question is not as simple as it seems.
M. Demetrius Abicio
(David Wills)
Saepe veritas est dura.
Posts: 13,279
Threads: 102
Joined: May 2006
Reputation:
3
I think it would be a variety..
Roit, wee're doin a soundin' to see what's really 'appanin' 'eer!!
We're digging a sounding pit...
We're going to sound out this spot....
Etc, english has a wide and rich vocabulary of colloquialisms,
and the ymust all be 'roit'! 
Visne partem mei capere? Comminus agamus! * Me semper rogo, Quid faceret Iulius Caesar? * Confidence is a good thing! Overconfidence is too much of a good thing.
[b]Legio XIIII GMV. (Q. Magivs)RMRS Remember Atuatuca! Vengence will be ours!
Titus Flavius Germanus
Batavian Coh I
Byron Angel
Posts: 3,063
Threads: 218
Joined: Feb 2010
Reputation:
2
Isn't the term sondage? In which case it would be to excavate/dig or excavating/digging a sondage.
Moi Watson
Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, Merlot in one hand, Cigar in the other; body thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and screaming "WOO HOO, what a ride!
Posts: 4,483
Threads: 634
Joined: Aug 2005
Reputation:
0
Quote:Isn't the term sondage?
Yup, that's what I would have expected. But I really heard them say "a sounding". It's one of those expressions that you remember because they're so unusual; compare "a boring campaign".
Jona Lendering
Relevance is the enemy of history
My website
Posts: 3,063
Threads: 218
Joined: Feb 2010
Reputation:
2
Ha!
A sounding in my vocabulary is the old fashioned way of finding the depth at sea with a weight. (Leading to bathymetry).
Perhaps they have got their environments mixed up or they are excavating under water :wink:
Moi Watson
Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, Merlot in one hand, Cigar in the other; body thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and screaming "WOO HOO, what a ride!
Posts: 363
Threads: 5
Joined: Jul 2012
Reputation:
0
Quote:Perhaps they have got their environments mixed up or they are excavating under water :wink:
It looks like a 'sounding' is closer in meaning to what you're referring to - it's meant to find the 'bottom' of the archaeology after all, and is distinct in meaning from sondage...
Posts: 3,063
Threads: 218
Joined: Feb 2010
Reputation:
2
Well, as an archaeologist I dig sondages not soundings.
Moi Watson
Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, Merlot in one hand, Cigar in the other; body thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and screaming "WOO HOO, what a ride!
Posts: 723
Threads: 15
Joined: Aug 2006
Reputation:
1
Sailors "make" soundings. Could that be a parallel construction?
"Fugit irreparabile tempus" (Irrecoverable time glides away) Virgil
Ron Andrea
Posts: 1,513
Threads: 210
Joined: Aug 2008
Reputation:
1
The Oxford English Dictionary says:
Quote:sondage [origin French = sounding line, borehole.] ARCHEAOLOGY. A trench dug to investigate the stratigraphy of a site.
sound noun… 2 A hole, an excavation. Only in E17.
sounding noun… C ARCHAEOLOGY. A trial excavation of limited scale made on a site to gain preliminary information. M20
Edit: Sorry, you were asking about the verb. I don’t see where the OED gives anything specific for archaeology, but it seems that “to sound” could be used as the verb in question.
Quote:Sound verb intrans. Sink in, penetrate…
Sound verb intrans. MEDICINE Orig., probe (a wound etc.). Now, examine (a body cavity, esp. the bladder) using a sound.
Sound verb intrans. A Of a sounding lead: go down; touch bottom.
|
