Doing Fieldwork: Why Archaeologists Dig Square Holes

Flashcards covering key vocabulary terms related to archaeological fieldwork, excavation principles, preservation, and artifact recovery techniques as presented in the lecture notes.

Provenience

The location of an artifact relative to a system of spatial data collection.

Context

The relationship of an artifact, ecofact, or feature to other artifacts, features, and geological strata in a site.

Pleistocene

A geological period from 1.8 million to 10,000 years ago, characterized by multiple periods of extensive glaciation.

In situ

From Latin, meaning 'in position'; the place where an artifact, ecofact, or feature was found during survey or excavation.

Archaeological Preservation

The survival of materials due to the absence of warmth, oxygen, and water, which are required by decomposing microorganisms.

Test excavation

A small initial excavation to determine a site’s potential for answering a specific research question.

Datum

A fixed reference point used to control both the vertical and horizontal dimensions of provenience on an excavation site.

Natural levels

The site’s strata that are more or less homogeneous and visually separable from other levels by changes in texture, color, rock, or organic content.

Arbitrary levels

Basic vertical subdivisions of an excavation square, used primarily when natural strata are lacking or are more than 10cm thick.

Strata (singular stratum)

More or less homogeneous or gradational material visually separable from other levels by a discrete change in material character and/or a sharp break in deposition.

Living floors

Distinct buried surfaces on an archaeological site where people lived and performed activities.

Total station

A device that uses a beam of light bounced off a prism to determine an artifact’s provenience, accurate to millimeters.

Water screening

A sieving process where excavated deposit is placed in a screen and the matrix is washed away with hoses, crucial for finding small or difficult-to-find artifacts.

Matrix sorting

The hand sorting of processed bulk soil to recover minute artifacts and ecofacts.

Flotation

The use of fluid suspension to recover burned plant remains and small bone fragments from archaeological sites.

Cataloging

The process of documenting archaeological objects to ensure their original provenience and context are preserved.