The trowel is the archaeologist's all-purpose tool. There are several types, but unlike the trowels you may have seen used in your garden, these are flat, very thin, and can be sharp! They are the same sorts of tools used by masons to spread mortar on bricks or by plasterers to put plaster on new walls. In general, a small, pointed trowel is used for horizontal digging and its edge is used for scraping in hard-packed soil. Large round-edged plasterer's trowels are more useful for digging in loose desert sand.
