Is this the rumored Halo 3 Excavator?

Recently, the guys over at the 7th Columnist did some digging and stumbled upon what looks to be a render of the rumored Halo 3 Brute Excavator weapon. If you aren't familiar, mention of the Excavator was discovered while digging through the Halo 3 beta code a while back, but Bungie has been quite mum about any details or acknowledgment of its existence. The Excavator render could easily be a fake, but it looks eerily similar to a weapon that was held by a Brute in the "Et Tu, Brute?" ViDoc. It's up in the air and for you to decide if this is our Excavator rendered in the flesh or if it's all hogwash. Now we just want to know if we'll be able to wield a Gravity Hammer come September.