Ch. 4 - Doing Fieldwork: Why Archaeologists Dig Square Holes

Question 1

Provenience

Answer 1

An artifact’s location relative to a system of spatial data collection.

Question 2

Pleistocene

Answer 2

A geologic period from 2 million to 10,000 years ago, which was characterized by multiple periods of extensive glaciation.

Question 3

In situ

Answer 3

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

Question 4

Test excavation

Answer 4

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

Question 5

Datum point

Answer 5

The zero point, a fixed reference used to keep control on a dig; usually controls both the vertical and horizontal dimensions of provenience.

Question 6

Natural level

Answer 6

A vertical subdivision of an excavation square that is based on natural breaks in the sediments (in terms of color, grain size, texture, hardness, or other characteristics).

Question 7

Arbitrary level

Answer 7

The basic vertical subdivision of an excavation square; only used when easily recognizable “natural” strata are lacking and when natural strata are more than 10 cm thick.

Question 8

Strata (singular, stratum)

Answer 8

More or less homogenous or gradational material, visually separable from other levels by a discrete change in the character of the material – texture, compactness, color, rock, organic content – and/or by a sharp break in the nature of deposition.

Question 9

Living floor

Answer 9

A distinct buried surface on which people lived.

Question 10

Total station

Answer 10

A device that uses a beam of light bounces off a prism to determine an artifact’s provenience; it is accurate to +/- 3 mm

Question 11

Water screening

Answer 11

A sieving process in which deposit is placed on a screen and the matrix washed away with hoses; essential where artifacts are expected to be small and/or difficult to find without washing.

Question 12

Matrix sorting

Answer 12

The hand sorting of processed bulk soil samples for minute artifacts and ecofacts.

Question 13

Flotation

Answer 13

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

Question 14

Systemic context

Answer 14

The living behavioral system in which artifacts were originally manufactured, used, reused, and discarded.

Question 15

Archaeological context

Answer 15

Once artifacts enter the ground, they become part of the archaeological context, where they can continue to be affected by human action but are also affected by natural processes.

Question 16

Formation process

Answer 16

The ways in which human behaviors and natural actions operate to produce the archaeological record.

Question 17

Cultural depositional processes

Answer 17

The ways in which artifacts enter the archaeological context though human action, primarily discard, loss, caching, and ritual interment.

Question 18

Reclamation process

Answer 18

Human behaviors that result in artifacts’ moving from the archaeological context back to the systemic context – for example, scavenging beams from an abandoned structure to use in a new one.

Question 19

Cultural disturbance process

Answer 19

Human behaviors that modify artifacts in their archaeological context – for instance, digging pits, hearths, canals, and houses.

Question 20

Reuse processes

Answer 20

Human behaviors that recycle and reuse artifacts before the artifacts enter an archaeological context.

Question 21

Floralturbation

Answer 21

A natural formation process in which trees and other plants affect the distribution of artifacts within an archaeological site.

Question 22

Faunalturbation

Answer 22

A natural formation process in which animals, from large game to earthworms, affect the distribution of material within an archaeological site.

Question 23

Krotovina

Answer 23

A filled-in animal burrow.

Question 24

Cryoturbation

Answer 24

A natural formation process in which freeze/thaw activity in a soil selectively pushes larger artifacts to the surface of a site.

Question 25

Argilliturbation

Answer 25

A natural formation process in which wet/dry cycles push artifacts upward as the sediment swells and then moves them down as cracks form during dry cycles.

Question 26

Graviturbation

Answer 26

A natural formation process in which artifacts are moved downslope through gravity, sometimes assisted by precipitation runoff.