Archaeology Wordsmith

           

archaeology editor/writer providing solutions for busy archaeologists

Results for reconnaissance:

(View exact match)

aerial photography

SYNONYM: air photography, aerophotography, aerial reconnaissance
CATEGORY: technique
DEFINITION: A technique of photographic observation and survey of the ground from an aircraft, spacecraft, or satellite which provides detailed information about sites and features without excavation. It is most important for locating archaeological sites before destruction of the landscape through building, road construction, or modern agricultural practices. When viewed from the air, sites may be revealed as crop marks, soil marks, shadow marks, or frost marks. For example, the plan of a site, ditches, walls, pits, etc. can be reflected in the way the crops grew (crop marks) or a pattern of dark occupation soil may show against a lighter topsoil or stone from walls may be just under the surface (soil marks). Oblique aerial photos, from lower altitudes, detect shadows created by earthworks and permit more detailed interpretations of known sites (shadow marks). Variations in the amount of frost retained on the ground may indicate the presence of buried archaeological features (frost marks). Though these can sometimes be recognized on the ground by careful fieldwalking and contour planning, much larger areas can be examined from the air and overall patterns will be clearer. The same site may not be susceptible every year to aerial photographs, as local climatic variation affects the nature of the feature fillings; a site may only be seen once in ten or twenty years. The use of false-color infrared photography has increased the versatility of aerial photography and the development of photogrammetry allows the accurate mapping of both archaeological and geographical information. Recording of thermographic and radar images complements photographic methods. Aerial photography has proved to be one of the most successful methods of discovering archaeological sites. Large areas of ground can be covered quickly, and the ground plan of a new site can be plotted from the photographs. Features can be revealed in extraordinary detail by these means. The pioneers of this technique were O.G.S. Crawford and Major Allen in Britain and Père Poidebard in Syria, though its first use goes back to 1906 at Stonehenge.

aerial survey

SYNONYM: aerial reconnaissance
CATEGORY: technique
DEFINITION: An important survey technique for locating and defining archaeological sites from the air.

archaeological reconnaissance

SYNONYM: archeological reconnaissance
CATEGORY: technique
DEFINITION: A systematic method of attempting to locate, identify, and record the distribution of archaeological sites on the ground by looking at areas' contrasts in geography and environment.

ground reconnaissance

CATEGORY: technique
DEFINITION: A collective name for a variety of methods for identifying archaeological sites, including consultation of documentary sources, place-name evidence, local folklore and legend, but primarily the visual inspection from groundwork of a potential site.

limited-area reconnaissance

CATEGORY: technique
DEFINITION: A method of comprehensively inquiring about a site, supported by actual substantiation of claims that sites exist by checking the ground.

reconnaissance

SYNONYM: reconnaissance survey
CATEGORY: technique
DEFINITION: A broad range of techniques involved in the location of archaeological sites, e.g. surface survey and the recording of surface artifacts and features, the sampling of natural and mineral resources, and sometimes testing of an area to assess the number and extent of archaeological resources.

underwater reconnaissance

CATEGORY: technique
DEFINITION: Geophysical methods of underwater survey. Some of these methods are: 1) towing a proton magnetometer behind a survey vessel to detect iron and steel objects, 2) using side-scan sonar that transmits sound waves in a fan-shaped beam to produce a graphic image of surface features on the sea-bed, and 3) using a sub-bottom profiler that emits sound pulses which bounce back from features and objects buried beneath the sea floor.

(View exact match)

aerial thermography

CATEGORY: technique
DEFINITION: A technique of aerial reconnaissance that detects differences in retention and radiation of heat in ground surfaces.

auger

SYNONYM: augering (n)
CATEGORY: tool
DEFINITION: A tool used to probe into the ground and extract a small sample of a deposit without performing actual excavation. Its applications in archaeology are as a means of sampling and understanding the geological environment of a site and also for extracting peat for pollen analysis. There are various types of augers and they can be manual- or power-driven. Simple augers bring up samples on the thread of a drill bit. More elaborate ones open a chamber to collect a core after the drill has bored to an appropriate depth. Augering is generally restricted to the earliest stages of archaeological reconnaissance to determine the depth and characteristics of deposits.

Aztec

SYNONYM: Mexica, Tenochcas
CATEGORY: culture
DEFINITION: The last pre-Columbian civilization to enter the Valley of Mexico after the collapse of the Toltec civilization in c 12 AD, who built a magnificent capital at Tenochtitlán and were later conquered by the Spaniards (1521). They called themselves the Mexica or Tenochca and were the dominant political group of the Late Post-Classic Period. The people spoke Nahuatl. Their origin is obscure, partly because of the deliberate destruction of their own records, but tradition says that in 1193 AD the last of seven Chichimec tribes left Aztlan , a mythical birthplace somewhere north or west of Mexico, and filtered south. For a while they lived around Lake Texococo, but in 1345 they were allowed to found Tenochtitlán (under present-day Mexico City) on some unoccupied islands. By 1428 Tenochtitlán, Texococo, and Tlacopan formed an independent state which controlled most of present-day Mexico from the desert zone in the north to Oaxaca in the south, with extensions as far as the Guatemalan border -- all through military expansion. By inclination and training the Aztecs were militaristic, and a person's status depended on his success as a warrior. The chief god of the Aztecs, Huitzilopochtli, was a war god who required the blood of sacrificial victims, and only constant warfare supplied the altar of the god. Human sacrifice was necessary also to ensure the daily rising of the sun. Other major deities were Huitzilpotchtli (the warrior god and chief deity of Tenochtitlan), Texcatlipoca (god of night, death and destruction), Xipe Totec (god of spring and renewal), and Quetzacoatl, the plumed serpent (god of self-sacrifice and inventor of agriculture and the calendar). Tenochtitlán became a great imperial city, so large that it could not be self-sufficient but had to rely on tributes from its provinces. Luxury goods and necessities were brought to the city, and craftsmen produced jewelry, turquoise mosaics, featherwork, and carved stone. Mold-made clay figurines were common, and the black-on-orange pottery was decorated with geometrical designs and stylized creatures. Little architecture or painting survived the Spanish conquest of 1521. Copies of several books have been preserved (as the Dresden Codex). Aztec society was set in a clearly defined hierarchical class system. At the top was the ruling class (pipil) from whom and by whom the emperors were chosen. The mass of the population were freeman (machuale) and under them were the serfs (mayeques) and then at the bottom the slaves. Most people were of the landholding group called the calpulli, which had its own internal hierarchy. Change of social class was possible through state service in the military and sometimes through merchant activity. The merchants (pochteca) served as early-reconnaissance and espionage groups. The arrival of the Spaniards and the fall of Tenochtitlán after a 90-day siege marked the end of Aztec dominance.

data acquisition

CATEGORY: technique
DEFINITION: A stage in archaeological research design in which data are gathered, normally by three basic procedures -- reconnaissance, surface survey, and excavation.

foot survey

SYNONYM: ground survey
CATEGORY: technique
DEFINITION: Archaeological reconnaissance on foot; the direct observation of a surface by walking over it. It is often carried out with a set interval between members of the survey team and surface features and artifacts are plotted on a site map. Excavation is determined from this primary information.

georadar

CATEGORY: technique
DEFINITION: A technique used in ground reconnaissance, similar to soil-sounding radar, but with a much larger antenna and more extensive coverage.

remote sensing

CATEGORY: technique
DEFINITION: The nondestructive techniques used in geophysical prospecting and to generate archaeological data without excavation. It is a general term for reconnaissance and surface survey techniques that leave subsurface archaeological deposits undisturbed. Reconnaissance and site survey methods use such devices as aerial photography and pedestrian survey to detect subsurface features and sites. It includes the detection of hidden archaeological features such as walls, pits, or roads by means of sound or radar impulses passed through the ground.

site

CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: Any location that demonstrates past human activity, as evidence by the presence of artifacts, features, ecofacts, or other material remains; a single place in which excavation or reconnaissance has revealed objects or data of archaeological interest. The definition implies that such a location was utilized by humans for a sufficient period of time to develop features or become a deposit ground for artifacts. Sites can range from small, temporary camps to large, complex cities, from a living site to a quarry site, and from one artifact to many levels of occupation. Major types of sites include domestic / habitation sites, kill-sites, and processing / butchering sites.

systematic settlement survey

CATEGORY: technique
DEFINITION: The reconnaissance of an archaeological site based on a sampling design which is intended to ensure that all types of areas within the region will be surveyed.

thermal prospection

CATEGORY: technique
DEFINITION: A remote sensing method used in aerial reconnaissance and based on weak variations in temperature which can be found above buried structures whose thermal properties are different from those of their surroundings.