excavate

They noticed fossils on the surface and were excavating to try and find the source.

The Belize Institute of Archaeology provided an archaeological permit, granting permission to excavate in the Crooked Tree Wildlife Sanctuary.

What appears to be evidence of the oldest alphabetic writing in human history is etched onto finger-length, clay cylinders excavated from a tomb in Syria by a team of Johns Hopkins University researchers.

"Sometimes we make dramatic discoveries and sometimes we excavate an entire bed and say 'hmmm, I've been looking at that thing, what do you think?'"

Amid hordes of gnats they excavate that first fossil, which turns out to be a damaged leg bone.