Recording and Processing of Finds from an Excavation

Vocabulary flashcards covering the preservation, processing, and historical development of archaeological finds including pottery, metallurgy, stone tools, and glass.

Simple washing

A basic treatment for archeological finds such as pottery and bones before they are recorded.

Annealing

The process of heating copper to regain its malleability after it becomes brittle from cold-hammering.

Provenance

The precise location details of a find, including coordinates, level, and context.

Pottery Neolithic

The period beginning around $6000\,BC$ in the Near East when pottery production first started.

Potter’s wheel

A tool that allows for rapid production of pottery, first experimented with in the $4^{th}$ millennium BC in Mesopotamia.

Kiln

A special two-chamber oven used to control firing conditions, with one chamber for the fire and another for stacking the pottery; first attested in the $4^{th}$ millennium BC.

Crucible

A vessel used for smelting small quantities of copper, a process that likely began during the $6^{th}$ millennium BC.

Chalcolithic period

The timeframe during the $5^{th}$ and $4^{th}$ millennia BC when the regular use of metals first occurred.

Closed Molds

A casting technique introduced during the $2^{nd}$ millennium BC involving two parts that fit together tightly to create complicated objects.

Bronze

An alloy of copper and tin, usually mixed in a ratio of $90\%$ copper to $10\%$ tin to increase hardness.

Iron Age

The period beginning around $1200\,BC$ when iron came into regular use.

Democratic metal

A term used for iron because its ores have a wide distribution and the supply is difficult to control compared to copper or tin.

Basalt

A porous stone preferred for making grinding stones during the Bronze Age.

Schöningen

The site in Germany where the earliest known wooden objects (spears) were discovered, dating to $400,000\,BC$.

Silica

The primary raw material for glass (sand or silicon dioxide) which requires a temperature of $1750^\circ\,C$ to melt.

Soda or Potash

Compounds added to silica during glass production to significantly reduce its melting point.

Glass-blowing

A technique invented in Roman times where vessels are shaped by blowing air through a tube.

Levallois technique

A specific method of stone tool production mentioned in relation to flakes and early human history.