But once the heavy work was done, Woolley usually sent everyone away and did the most delicate, time-consuming excavating himself, working face down in the dirt with a knife and a little brush beside his wife, Catherine, who was also an archaeologist, and one trusted assistant.
The revelations about the tanks — the ones taken by the pirates are now sitting in Kenya, their fate unclear — come at one of the most delicate times in Sudan's history, with the nation, Africa's largest, on the verge of splitting into two.
The prime minister reacted by accusing him of undermining the crumbling agreement at the most delicate of times.
Having done all in his power to end the wars he was bequeathed, Barack Obama was more unwilling than any other American leader of recent times to start a new one; and the war on which he opened a new front this week, authorising warplanes, drones and cruise missiles to strike Isis positions in Syria, is by some measure the most delicate military operation of recent times.
One envoy noted that the plan forces inspectors to ask questions on only one issue at a time, leaving the most delicate topics until the end.
While diplomats are likely to hail Saturday's agreement as at least a modest advance, it merely delays negotiations on the most delicate issues and potentially gives North Korea time to continue to develop nuclear weapons, experts say.
At the same time, the ministers delayed dealing with the most delicate issues related to exchanging details on individuals' tax matters.
On March 8, Italian women receive branches of mimosa (a bush that blossoms at this time of year and has one of the most delicate and lovely perfumes I know).
These are values of current that flow only in the most delicate electronic circuits, and are literally thousands (and even millions) of times smaller than values seen in the home and automotive circuits that most homeowners would be interested testing.
The "real-world" consequence: with reduced flying time, Sikes' pilots can't all practice in-flight refueling, the trickiest, most delicate and dangerous part of long-distance missions.
But Yahoo's saber-rattling happens to come at a delicate time for Facebook, which is preparing to go public this spring in one of the most anticipated market debuts in years.
