Mythically and metaphorically rich, the ground provides us with clues, knowledge, refuge as well as the sunken networks of extraction, exploitation and disposal. The ground is active, generous and vulnerable. We lace it with tar seal, concrete and gravel; stone blasted and rendered for our urban environments. Traces of people and the imperfections of humanity, are captured in paving, as unremarkable and neglected as it seems. We tend to think of archaeology as something that belongs to Pompeii, or Athens, or in Aotearoa of trench-lines and palisades. But all around us, the archaeological record is being built by road workers, and reformatted for interpretation.