Excavation is normally associated with archaeology, while excavations done in the field of civil engineering are generally classified and included in a much broader term ‘earthworks’. Earth working is an engineering action that is done when massive quantities of soil or rock are moved. This act was done in a crude fashion several centuries ago. However, it slowly evolved as an exact science, with the engineers calculating the issues of soil fluidity, friction, quantity estimation, etc. so that the volumes of soil in the cuts or digs matched those of the fills. These calculations were done manually with a slide rule, using Simpson’s Rule and other similar methods. However, the advent of computers has brought in specialised software for these calculations. (more…)