Glossary of archaeology

This page is a glossary of archaeology, the study of the human past from material remains.

A

absolute age
The age of an object with reference to a fixed and specific time scale, as determined by some method of absolute dating.[1]
absolute dating
Ascertaining the age of an object with reference to a fixed and specific time scale (e.g. calendar years or radiocarbon years), as opposed to relative dating.[2]
aerial archaeology
Archaeological investigations conducted from the air, e.g. using aerial photography or satellite imagery.
antiquarian
antiquary
antiquarianism
A person interested in the collection, curation and/or study of antiquities, particularly in reference to the intellectual tradition that developed in Europe in the 16th–17th centuries and is considered a precursor to modern archaeology.[3]
antiquities
Ancient artefacts, particularly in the context of their trade and collection.
antiquity
The ancient past, in particular the period of the earliest historic civilizations (see classical antiquity).
archaeobotany
Subdiscipline devoted to the analysis of plant remains in the archaeological record.
archaeozoology
See zooarchaeology.
archaeologist
A person engaged in the study or profession of archaeology.
archaeology
archeology
The academic discipline concerned with the study of the human past through material remains.
artefact
artifact
A physical object made by humans.
association
Two or more excavated objects that are thought to be related are said to be in association, e.g. artefacts discovered in close proximity within the same context, or architectural features thought to have been standing at the same time.

B

backfill
1.  To re-fill a trench once an excavation has been completed.
2.  Material used for backfilling, usually spoil from the original excavation.
baulk
balk
A wall of earth left in place between excavated areas in order to maintain the structural integrity of the trench and/or expose a section to aid in interpretation.

C

context
1.  As in common usage, information relating to where an artefact or feature was found and what it was found in association with.
2.  In single context excavation, a well-defined stratigraphic unit relating to a single depositional event, used as the primary unit for recording and analysis.

D

dig
An informal term for an archaeological excavation.

F

fieldwork
Archaeological investigations taking place in the field, e.g. excavations or surveys.
finds
An informal term for artifacts, features and other things discovered by archaeologists.
finds processing
The preparation of finds from an excavation for storage or further specialist analysis, typically including washing, labelling, sorting and listing in an inventory.
finds specialist
An archaeologist who specialises in the analysis of a particular type of find.
flotation
A method for recovering very small artefacts (particularly small fragments of bone and botanical remains) from excavated sediments using water.

I

industrial archaeology
Subdiscipline devoted to the study of past industry and industrial heritage.
industry
A typological classification of stone tools, e.g. the Mousterian industry, the Acheulean industry.
in situ
Features, artefacts and other remains in their original depositional context, cf. unstratified.

L

locus
See context.

P

palaeoethnobotany
paleoethnobotany
See archaeobotany.
pollen diagram
pollen profile
pollen spectrum
A series of side-by-side graphs, produced by archaeobotanists and palynologists, showing the frequency of different types (species) of pollen in a soil sample by depth. Usually presented vertically, with the shallowest samples at the top and the deepest at the bottom, to represent a pollen core or other stratified deposit. The depth of the sample corresponds roughly to how old it is, and therefore the vertical axis may also contain an estimate of its absolute age. Used to visualise the environmental history of the place where the sample was taken.[4][5]
potsherd
A fragment of pottery.

S

season
A period of time spent working on a particular site or field project.
sherd
See potsherd
shovelbum
A colloquial term for professional excavators working in cultural resources management in the United States.
spoil
Loose sediment excavated from a trench.
spoil heap
A pile of sediment from an excavation, usually located next to a trench.

W

wet sieving
The use of flowing water to force excavated sediment through a screen or mesh and recover small artefacts; may also refer to flotation.

Z

zooarchaeology
Subdiscipline devoted to the analysis of animal remains in the archaeological record.

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ Kipfer 2000, "absolute age".
  2. ↑ Kipfer 2000, "absolute dating".
  3. ↑ Darvill 2009, "antiquarianism".
  4. ↑ Kipfer, Barbara Ann (2010). "pollen diagram". Archaeology Wordsmith. Retrieved 2017-01-31.
  5. ↑ "How To Read A Pollen Diagram". Maryland Archeobotany. Jefferson Patterson Park and Museum. Retrieved 2017-01-31.

References

Darvill, Timothy (2009). The Concise Oxford Dictionary of ArchaeologyPaid subscription required. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780191727139. doi:10.1093/acref/9780199534043.001.0001. 
Kipfer, Barbara Ann (2000). Encyclopedic Dictionary of Archaeology. New York, NY: Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers. ISBN 0-306-46158-7. 
Pearsall, Deborah M., ed. (2008). Encyclopedia of ArchaeologyPaid subscription required. Amsterdam: Elsevier. ISBN 9780123739629. 
Shaw, Ian; Jameson, Robert, eds. (1999). A Dictionary of ArchaeologyPaid subscription required. Oxford: Blackwell. ISBN 9780470753446. doi:10.1002/9780470753446. 
Smith, Clare, ed. (2014). Encyclopedia of Global ArchaeologyPaid subscription required. New York, NY: Springer. ISBN 978-1-4419-0465-2. doi:10.1007/978-1-4419-0465-2. 
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