I think engineers should have some gadgets that help speed up archeology.
1 - The most logical is a lidar scanner, call it whatever “gnomish calcificated combulation modulator”. No cd, you use it while in a digsite and it shoots a smooth wavebeam 100 yard 90degree cone (like drakthyrs firebreath), exposing all artifacts it hits that you can then just pick up in a row.
2 - Alternate version is a nova, same range and function, but it’s a circle and pulses off the player around him.
3 - DigDrone3000, 10sec cd, a tiny rusty retro looking flying toy robot instantly finds the nearest artifact, finds it and flies to expose it, you go loot it.
4 - BigDrone9000, 5 min cd, a more modern blingbot flies around, finds all artifacts, and autoloots them for you.
Just to give engineers something to sell, and make digging more fun and less boring, especially new players would really appreciate it.
The questline/material cost for all these should be very reasonable,
like toy 1 = 10min/500g, 2 = 10min/1000g, 3 = 20min/2000g, 4 = 30min/3000g, mostly get some items from legacy raids or dungeons, like any that have a tech theme, gnomeregan, ulduar and mechagon.