Excavation is digging a hole in one place. The goal of archaeological excavation is to follow up on clues like ruins or ancient artefacts visible on the ground by systematically investigating what was beneath the surface.
Systematic excavation requires archaeologists to understand how and when different layers of material accumulated; to determine which artefacts go with which structures (if there are any); and to interpret all data discovered - environmental, material, documentary, oral - in terms of the human activity in that one place. It is crucial for archaeologists to define wherever possible groups of artefacts that are clearly associated, and sealed in by a clearly separate layer. These groups are the stratified sealed deposits that constitute the gold standard for constructing and dating the archaeological sequences that allow us to think about what people might actually have been doing in a particular time and place.
An archaeological site forming through the three epochs. © TALL |
These pages are from a course designed for the Alliance for Lifelong Learning Web site, with an associated online discussion forum, and other functionality, and any references to these should be ignored.