Archaeology Wordsmith

Results for soil:

anthropic soils: CATEGORY: geology
DEFINITION: Soils formed by or related to human activity.
anthropogenic soil: CATEGORY: geology
DEFINITION: Soil that has been influenced by human activity -- indicated by a concentration of phosphorus, organic matter, debris, or artifacts. The different soil and sediment components are physically mixed through cultivation, deforestation, or construction.
brown earth: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: brown forest soil, brown earths
CATEGORY: geology
DEFINITION: Brown forest soils that result from prolonged forestal conditions and which develops under mature deciduous woodland. Brown earths are thought to have covered most of the British Isles and temperate Europe under the great forests which existed during the middle of the present Interglacial. The soil type is penetrated by tree roots and actively worked by earthworms to a considerable depth. The top is well-mixed mineral material and humus. As a result of woodland cover being removed repeatedly, these soils are rare today.
buried soil: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: paleosol
CATEGORY: geology
DEFINITION: Any ancient land surface buried and undisturbed under a structure or within a deposit, such as peat. Buried soil reflects the nature of the soil, at least at a very local level, at the time the structure was erected or the natural deposit laid down. Buried soil may be analyzed for faunal, insect, molluscan, and pollen remains which would give information about the environment of the period. Such soils are frequently preserved under barrows, mounds, or ramparts, or buried within the fill of a ditch.
composite soil: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: welded soil, superimposed soil, polypedomorphic soil
CATEGORY: geology
DEFINITION: A soil profile that forces its features upon more than one parent material.
Munsell soil color charts: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: Munsell Color Chart
CATEGORY: tool
DEFINITION: A color identification system for sediment, soil, chert, pottery, and rock; an aid used in the physical examination and recording of objects where color is felt to be an essential or at least a significant aspect of the analysis. Devised by Albert H. Munsell, the three factors of hue, value, and chroma are taken into consideration, all rated on a scale of 0-10 and expressed quantitatively. Hue describes the colors of the spectrum present, value their concentration, and chroma their purity. The color of soil or, for example, pottery, can be matched in the chart and given a value, so that anyone with a similar set of charts can understand the exact color of the material. The method allows direct comparison of colors without physically moving the material, and is clearly preferable to the use of such subjective descriptions as 'reddish-brown' or 'yellowish-gray'. The charts are contained in a loose-leaf notebook with pages of hundreds of standardized color chips, each perforated with a hole through which the color of the soil or other material can be compared with the standard sample.
podsol: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: podzol, podsol soil, podzol soil
CATEGORY: geology
DEFINITION: A soil type characteristic of coniferous woodland, heath, tundra or moorland -- leached, acid soils formed under conditions of very cold climate's forest vegetation cover. The fauna produce phenols which are washed into the horizons and disperse the clay/humus complexes. Minerals, humus, and nutrients are washed down the profile and become deposited as illuvial horizons of humus and iron oxides. The latter is often called the 'iron pan'. A bleached, sandy eluvial horizon is left at the top of the profile. Podsols develop naturally in areas of high annual rainfall, but most of the large areas of podsols in the uplands and lowland heaths of the British Isles were probably at least initiated by man's clearance of woodland during the present Interglacial.
probe: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: soil probe
CATEGORY: tool
DEFINITION: A tool consisting of a metal rod or tube pushed into unexcavated deposits to locate as yet unexposed hard features such as walls, floors, or bed rock. It is also used for exploring subsurface stratigraphy and is less expensive than a core but works down only a few meters.
relict soil: CATEGORY: geology
DEFINITION: Soil formed on a pre-existing landscape but which was not subsequently buried under younger sediments. It must be taken into account that relict soils may represent a wide range of time periods.
soil: CATEGORY: geology
DEFINITION: Mineral or organic matter that is unconsolidated and on or near the land surface. A prerequisite for soil formation is the growth of vegetation. Gradual colonization, first by lichens and then by higher plants causes build-up of organic matter (humus) in the developing soil. Clay minerals form complexes with humus and act as reservoirs of nutrients. Water from rainfall, entering the top of a soil profile, drains down the soil, taking with it nutrients and sometimes parts of the clay/humus complexes. The type of vegetation, the fauna of small animals that lives in the soil, the type of parent material, the way in which the clay/humus complexes behave, the amount of rainfall and the quality of drainage all go to determine the type of soil that develops. Soil forms differentiated layers (soil horizons) with respect to the land surface. The study of soils is called pedology. Studies of the way soils have developed may allow a reconstruction of the environmental changes which have taken place. Several complicated soil classification systems exist.
soil analysis: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: pedology
CATEGORY: technique
DEFINITION: The study of soil and subsoil to determine climate, vegetation, and human disturbance. It is used to assist the interpretation of deposits. Tools are primarily mechanical grading of particle size, determination of soil color, chemical tests like phosphate analysis, and pollen analysis.
soil chemistry: CATEGORY: related field
DEFINITION: Methods used to analyze the chemical composition of soils to determine if there was human settlement.
soil conductivity meter: CATEGORY: tool
DEFINITION: A geophysical instrument used in electromagnetic surveying for the detection of metal, but also for the location of archaeological features such as shallow pits, which have a different conductivity from the surrounding soil. The instrument has a transmitter coil which is fed with a continuous sinusoidal current, and a receiver coil; they are mounted at right angles to each other at opposite ends of a horizontal bar about a meter long. The instrument is designed to pick up differences in conductivity between features and the surrounding soil, i.e. the reverse of a resistivity meter. Resistivity surveying is considered more sensitive and versatile.
soil geomorphology: CATEGORY: technique
DEFINITION: Study of the interaction of pedogenic and geomorphic processes to interpret landscapes. The physical context of archaeological material is determined and evaluated by soil geomorphic techniques.
soil horizon: CATEGORY: geology
DEFINITION: A layer in a soil developed through the natural weathering of geological and archaeological surfaces. It differs from related layers chemically, physically, or biologically. Sequences of related soil horizons make up the soil profile.
soil mark: CATEGORY: feature
DEFINITION: Any visible irregularity in the appearance of the soil surface, indicating traces of buried sites or features on the surface of plowed or otherwise disturbed ground. As revealed through aerial photography, a darker area may indicate human wastes, or a lighter area a former road or trail.
soil micromorphology: CATEGORY: related field
DEFINITION: The use of microscopic techniques to study the nature and organization of the components of soils.
soil profile: CATEGORY: feature; geology
DEFINITION: The vertical sequence of horizons in the soil which occur not as the result of stratification but as a result of weathering and other processes. The profile provides environmental or palaeoenvironmental information, such as information on vegetation and climate. The term also refers to a vertical section exposed in excavation or naturally that shows horizons and parent material. The soil profile is made up of some or all of the following: the A or humus horizon, the E or leached horizon, the B or (B) horizons or accumulation or chemical weathering, and the C horizon of parent material. Different soil profiles occur in different environmental regions, ranging from rendsinas, through brown earths, to podsols, gleys, and chernozems. The soil profile and the type of vegetation are interdependent, and man's activities have an effect on and are affected by both.
soil resistivity: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: electrical resistivity; soil resistivity surveying
CATEGORY: technique
DEFINITION: A remote sensing technique that monitors the degree of electrical resistance in soils -- which often depends on moisture content -- near the surface. Buried features are usually detected by a differential retention of groundwater.
soil stratigraphy: CATEGORY: related field
DEFINITION: A branch of stratigraphy in which soils are identified as stratigraphic units with specific chronological ordering. A pedostratigraphic unit is a three-dimensional, laterally traceable, buried sediment or rock with one or more soil horizons. It is not the same as the sequencing of soil horizons in a soil profile.
soil structure: CATEGORY: geology
DEFINITION: Physical arrangement of sediment into peds (a natural soil aggregate) as the result of pedogenesis (reproduction by young or larval animals). Soil has a structure" on which its porosity-permeability depends. Soil structure is built up by alternate moistening and drying and plant roots contribute greatly by opening pores between soil aggregates. The stability of aggregates increases with humus content especially humus that originates from grass vegetation."
soil-sounding radar: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: soil interface radar
CATEGORY: tool
DEFINITION: A method of subsurface detection in which short radio pulses are sent through the soil; the echoes reflect back significant changes in soil conditions.
sol lessivé: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: podzolic soil, podsolic, lessivé soil
CATEGORY: geology
DEFINITION: Soil usually forming in a broadleaf forest and characterized by moderate leaching, which produces an accumulation of clay and some iron that have been transported (eluviated) from another area by water. The humus formed produces a textural horizon that is less than 50 cm (20 inches) from the surface. Podzolic soils may have laterite in place of the humic horizon or along with it. Sols lessivés are often difficult to identify, but they are the dominant soil type of much of lowland Britain, where forest was cleared to make way for agriculture.
solifluction: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: solifluxion, sludging, soil flow, soil fluction, soil flowage
CATEGORY: geology
DEFINITION: The slippage of soil and rock particles due to the freezing and subsequent thawing of the earth; the process of mass movement of soil and sediment upon the thawing of water-laden ground. Many deposits in valleys and on the lower part of hills are due to the land having been glaciated, with the top level thawing in the spring and the water, unable to permeate the still-frozen subsoil, flowing downhill, taking with it chunks of loose material. Full glaciation is not necessary to cause solifluxion; hard winters with frozen earth and occasional thaws can cause minor solifluxion that may add to the accumulation of material. Solifluction can cause artifactual material to be moved from one deposit to another; sometimes whole areas of archaeological sites may be covered with solifluction material. When solifluction can be recognized geologically, it is a valuable indicator of glacial conditions in areas which remained free of ice.
sterile layer: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: sterile soil
CATEGORY: feature
DEFINITION: An excavation layer or deposit in which there are no cultural materials or evidence of human occupation or activity.
active remote sensing: CATEGORY: technique
DEFINITION: Any geophysical sensing method that passes energy through the soil and measures the response in order to read what lies below the surface.
adobe: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: uh'-doh-bee
CATEGORY: structure
DEFINITION: Spanish term for sun-dried mud brick; also the name for a structure built out of this material. These claylike buff or brown mud bricks were not fired, but hardened and dried in the sun. The material was also used as mortar, plaster, and amorphous building for walls. Adobe structures are found in the southwestern US and Mexico where there is heavy-textured clay soil and a sunny climate. These structures were often houses, temples, and large solid platforms in the shape of truncated pyramids.
aerial photography: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: 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.
alluvium: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: alluvial deposit, alluvion
CATEGORY: geology
DEFINITION: The detrital material (clay, gravel, organic material, sand, silt, soil) eroded, transported, and deposited by rivers and streams. It is very fertile and was used by early farmers. Though the largest areas of alluvium are flood plains and deltas, it may also occur where a river overflows its banks and is an important constituent of shelf deposits.
Anlo: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: A site in Holland with a long sequence of occupation, starting with the Funnel Beaker culture. It was followed by a cattle enclosure during the Late Neolithic (protruding foot beaker) people, then a cemetery of five flat graves with foot beakers and bell beakers with cord ornament. The next phase was a settlement with late varieties of Beaker pottery, followed by a Middle Bronze Age plow soil, and a Late Bronze Age urnfield.
apron: CATEGORY: feature
DEFINITION: The lip or exposed portion of a prehistoric cave or rock shelter, the soil of which typically contains durable cultural materials such as flaked stone and ceramic artifacts.
arbitrary excavation: CATEGORY: technique
DEFINITION: Excavation by predetermined levels of a given thickness; used on sites or areas of sites without visible layering of the soil.
ard: CATEGORY: artifact
DEFINITION: An ancient light plow with a simple blade that was used to scratch the surface of the soil rather than turn furrows. It was drawn by animals or man and grooved the ground, but it had no mold board or colter and therefore did not turn over the soil. With this type of plow cross-plowing was usually necessary, with a second plowing at right angles to the first.
B Group: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: B Horizon
CATEGORY: culture
DEFINITION: A term no longer used to describe the final stages of the Neolithic A Group in Nubia (c 2800-2300 BC), prior to the beginning of the C Group phase. In soils, the B horizon lies immediately beneath the A horizon and may reach a depth of 65 to 90 centimeters (26 to 35 inches). It is a zone of more moderate weathering in which there is an accumulation of many of the products removed from the A horizon.
Black Earth: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: A distinctive area of Russia where the soil coloration resulted from intensive settlement activity and major deposits of iron ore.
block approach: CATEGORY: technique
DEFINITION: An excavation strategy in which archaeologists open a large area of soil at one time, excavating down the whole block at once -- either by arbitrary levels or by cultural strata defined by a sounding.
blow-outs: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: blowout
CATEGORY: geology
DEFINITION: An area in the earth that has become concave or depressed by wind-removal or erosion of sandy or soft, light soils. The topsoil and, perhaps, some of the lower soils, are so removed, especially in arid regions. A blowout resembles the crater of a volcano. Sometimes when earth is removed in this way, archaeological sites are revealed.
bog: CATEGORY: geography
DEFINITION: A type of wetland ecosystem characterized by wet, spongy, poorly drained peaty soil. The term also describes the communities of plants growing on acid waterlogged ground, as opposed to fen. Three main types of bog exist: valley bogs that remain waterlogged due to the concentration of drainage into a valley; raised bogs that form as large pillows of peat and are kept waterlogged by high rainfall; and blanket bogs that form through the growth of the organic horizons of gleyed podzols.
bone: CATEGORY: fauna
DEFINITION: The connective tissues of the body, consisting of crystallite minerals and collagen. After death, the proteins slowly decompose and the remaining mineral is subject to solution in acid soil conditions. Bones are preserved on a wide variety of archaeological sites. From early prehistory, the bones, horns, or antlers of animals man hunted or kept provided him with a vital source of raw material for constructing artifacts. There are many types of bone. There are a variety of relative age determination techniques applicable to bone material, including measurements of the depletion of nitrogen (bone dating) and the accumulation of fluorine and uranium.
boundary: CATEGORY: geology
DEFINITION: A zone of vertical change from one soil horizon to another. They are described in vertical distance -- as abrupt, clear, or gradual -- and the horizontal character as being smooth, wavy, or irregular.
bowsing: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: bosing
CATEGORY: technique
DEFINITION: A technique used to locate features beneath the surface, such a buried chambers or ditches, by thumping the ground and sensing the differences between compacted and undisturbed earth. A resulting resonant sound may indicate a buried chamber or pit. It is an unsophisticated but effective method of searching for earthworks at archaeological sites, especially in chalk subsoil. Wooden mallets or lead-filled tools are examples of implements used. The verb 'bose' or 'bowse' means to test the ground for the presence of buried structures by noting the sound of percussion from a weighted striker.
calcium carbonate: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: calcite
CATEGORY: geology
DEFINITION: A natural calcium-carbon-oxygen combination, that occurs in limestone, chalk, marble, dolomite, eggshells, pearls, coral, stalactites, stalagmites, and the shells of many marine animals. Calcite is often the adhesive in composite rocks. The most abundant dissolved solid in dry land groundwater is calcium carbonate. When deposited, this mineral forms the hard, calcareous cement known as caliche. Caliche is a crust of calcium carbonate often present in semiarid or arid areas, either on top of or within the soil.
caliche or caliché: CATEGORY: artifact; geology
DEFINITION: An encrustation or deposit of hard, calcareous cement made up of nitrates, sulfates, halides, and sand. It appears on the surface of materials such as bone, ceramic, or stone after they have been buried or exposed to moisture for an extended time. These layers of calcium carbonate (lime accumulation) are often present in semiarid or arid areas, either on top of or within the soil -- as in the desert basins of southern Arizona.
catena: CATEGORY: geology
DEFINITION: A sequence of soils formed by the same parent material but from different landscape positions have taken on differing characteristics. Seeing these difference may assist interpretation of archaeological sites.
ceramic analysis: CATEGORY: technique
DEFINITION: Any of various techniques used to study artifacts made from fired clay to obtain archaeological data. Color is objectively described by reference to the Munsell soil color charts. Examination under the microscope may reveal the technique of manufacture and allow the identification of mineral grains in the tempering, which will identify the area of manufacture. Refiring experiments often show how the original baking was done.
charred, charring: CATEGORY: term
DEFINITION: Converted to charcoal or carbon usually by heat, organic materials may be preserved. Partial burning reduces the materials to a carbon-rich residue. In the case of wood, this residue is charcoal. Many organic materials may not retain their structure and become an amorphous residue. Charred remains are preserved on archaeological sites because carbon is relatively inert in the soil and the microorganisms which would normally break down organic material are unable to make use of this form of carbon. Charred remains are a particularly good material for radiocarbon dating.
chemical anomaly: CATEGORY: technique
DEFINITION: Any change in the chemical constituency of the soils underlying a habitation, creates by the common activities of human beings.
Chevdar: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: Cevdar
CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: An early Neolithic tell site in Bulgaria. It was the target of one of the earliest uses of flotation in European archaeology, on soil samples from floors and ovens.
chinampa: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: chinampas; floating garden
CATEGORY: geography; term
DEFINITION: A system of cultivation on small, stationary, artificial islands made of vegetation and mud in shallow freshwater lakes, created in the Valley of Mexico (Xochimilco). These very fertile fields were created by massive Aztec reclamation projects and consisted of little islands, each averaging 6 to 10 m (19.7 to 32.8 feet) wide and 100 to 200 m (30.5 to 656.2 feet) long, with fertilization from the organic wastes in mud and aquatic life. Periodic renewal of this mud layer created a permanent supply of fertile soil so that as one crop was harvested it could be immediately replaced with another. Much of Aztecs' Tenochtitlan utilized such intensively farmed, reclaimed land. The champas were normally separated by a system of canals which allowed both access and water circulation.
clay: CATEGORY: geology
DEFINITION: Soil particles of less than 0.005 millimeters in diameter or rock composed mainly of clay particles. There are ceramic clays, clay shales, mudstones, glacial clays, deep-sea clays, and soils -- which are plastic when wet and hard when dry. No other natural material has so wide an importance or such extended uses as does clay. The use of clay in potterymaking antedates recorded human history, and pottery remains provide a record of past civilizations. As building materials, bricks (baked and as adobe) have been used in construction since earliest time.
colluvial: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: colluvium
CATEGORY: geology
DEFINITION: A deposit resulting from soil erosion, usually at the foot of a slope and containing rock detritus or talus. At the bottom of slopes, soils lose their structure and become eroded due to clearance of forest, plowing, or cultivation. Colluvial material typically gathers in the dry valleys of chalklands and also at the foot of escarpments or valley sides.
consistency: CATEGORY: geology
DEFINITION: A property of soil that is defined by cohesion and adhesian -- or by resistance to deformation. Consistency varies greatly with soil-water and clay content.
core borer: CATEGORY: tool
DEFINITION: A hollow tubelike instrument used to collect samples of soils, pollens, and other materials from below the surface. The cylinder of soil etc. that is collected is called the core. The core is undisturbed and the sediment contacts, soil boundaries, and structures are intact and can be described accurately.
coring: CATEGORY: technique
DEFINITION: Driving a hollow tube into the ground to get a stratigraphic sample of the subsoil.
corn mummy: CATEGORY: artifact
DEFINITION: A type of anthropomorphic funerary object made of soil mixed with grains of corn, which was usually wrapped up in linen bandages and had a face mask.
crop mark: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: cropmark
CATEGORY: feature
DEFINITION: Variations in the color or growth of surface vegetation that indicate the outline of buried archaeological features, such as walls, pits, or buildings; visible by aerial observation or photography. These indications are revealed by the abnormal growth of overlying crops. Buried archaeological features such as walls stunt crop growth; ditches increase crop growth. Buried pits and ditches may retain moisture better than the surrounding subsoil and during a dry spell plant growth is often enhanced over such features.
cryoturbation: CATEGORY: geology
DEFINITION: The disturbing or mixing of soil by frost action and the freezing of the active layer of permafrost late in the melting season. The soil in regions close to an ice sheet contains a good deal of water, and when it refreezes after the seasonal thaw the pressure of growing ice crystals tends to rotate and rearrange the stones. The presence of such a structured soil indicates former cold climatic episodes.
Cyrene: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: A Greek colony in Libya founded c 630-650 BC by settlers from Thera; it was located halfway between Egypt and Tunisia on the African coast. Its fertile soil made it a great African city in Roman times. Cyrene was also famous in antiquity for its horses and the production of the plant silphium which was used by the Greeks to prepare certain medicines. The extensive remains still visible today are mostly Roman, laid out on an Hellenistic plan. Evidence exists for earlier buildings, including the 6th-century BC Temple of Apollo with stone columns and mainly mud-brick walls. Imported Greek pottery of the Archaic period has been found in the sanctuary of Demeter.
desert pavement: CATEGORY: geography
DEFINITION: Terrain that is thickly covered -- or paved -- with small rocks. Vegetation is scarce, so soil, sand, and gravel have not been held in place. Wind and rain leave only rocks too large to move. This type of terrain is part of many Southwestern US archaeological finds.
diamicton: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: diamict
CATEGORY: geology
DEFINITION: A sediment or soil texture larger than sand-sized clasts. It is a matrix of sand, silt, and clay and are glacial debris-flow and colluvial deposits.
disconformity: CATEGORY: geology
DEFINITION: A geological term referring to a weathered surface of a soil or rock stratum covered by an overlying stratum. This type of unconformity separates two parallel strata is characterized by the weathered surface of the older stratum and indicates a lapse of time before the deposition of the younger stratum. Its recognition is important in site stratigraphy.
ditch: CATEGORY: feature
DEFINITION: A common feature of archaeological sites in association with defensive structures, as a means of drainage, or as a construction trench. A ditch was usually dug outside the walls of forts, fortresses and so on, as part of the defenses, and was often filled with water. Ditches which are allowed to erode, without much interference, go through three phases of infilling. Primary fill accumulates as the sides of the ditch collapse. Vegetation then begins at the bottom of the ditch and the secondary fill starts to build up. This material has a much finer texture than primary fill. The rate of secondary fill deposition is related to soil erosion in the surrounding area. If the land by the ditch is plowed, thick colluvial deposits, called tertiary fill, may bury the secondary fill.
dry screening: CATEGORY: technique
DEFINITION: The sieving of excavated soil and sediment through (usually) 1/4-inch mesh, to recover artifacts not found in excavation.
earth: CATEGORY: geology
DEFINITION: A general term used to describe mixed material which dug from an excavation. Earth is not really the same as soil, which has a more precise definition, although earth may include material from soils in addition to material from other sources.
earthworm: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: angleworm
CATEGORY: fauna
DEFINITION: Any of nearly 2000 species of terrestrial worms which act as one of the main agents by which plant litter, humus, and minerals are incorporated and mixed in soil. Earthworms are responsible for the maintenance and stability of various types of soil, especially the brown forest soils. The character of a soil may change markedly if the plant litter made by the vegetation changes to a kind which is unpalatable to earthworms. The effects of earthworm sorting may be seen on archaeological sites in the blurring of layers and the development of worm-sorted layers in the top of buried soils. Earthworms usually remain near the soil surface, but they are known to tunnel as deep as 6 feet during periods of dryness or in winter. Indirectly they provide food for man by aerating the soil, promoting drainage, and drawing organic material into their burrows where it decomposes faster, thus producing more nutritive materials for growing plants.
ecology: CATEGORY: related field
DEFINITION: The study of entire assemblages of living organisms and their physical milieus, which together constitute an integrated system. In archaeology, ecology seeks to reconstruct the past environment of man and his impact upon it. The term encompasses the relationship of plants and animals with their environment -- climate, geology, soils, vegetation, other animals, man-made structures. Environmental archaeology is concerned with the ecology of man, but also with the ecology of other animals and plants living in the same environment.
edaphic: CATEGORY: geology
DEFINITION: Of or pertaining to the soil; resulting from or influenced by the soil rather than the climate. Edaphic factors are those ecological factors associated with the properties of soil and underlying rock which, along with climate, determine the characteristics of the surrounding plant and animal life.
electromagnetic surveying: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: electromagnetic prospecting
CATEGORY: technique
DEFINITION: A geophysical surveying method used to locate archaeological features and differences in sediment or soil textures. A pulsed induction meter or soil conductivity meter generate electromagnetic waves at the surface of the earth, penetrating it and inducing currents in conducting ore bodies, thereby generating new waves that are detected by instruments at the surface or by a receiving coil lowered into a borehole. This technique only works at a very shallow level, and no electromagnetic instrument is as accurate as the resistivity meter or a proton magnetometer.
eluvial horizon: CATEGORY: geology
DEFINITION: A soil horizon from which minerals, humus, or plant nutrients have been lost. It has lost the material in solution or suspension by pedogenesic processes. The most common eluvial horizon is E.
environment: CATEGORY: term
DEFINITION: The complex of physical, chemical, and biological factors that act upon an organism or an ecological community and ultimately determine its form and survival. The pace of environmental change quickened dramatically with the introduction of agriculture from 7000 years ago onwards: forests were cut down and cultivation led to soil degradation and erosion. New species were introduced, both as crops and weeds, and the relentless growth of population ensured that man's activities made an ever-increasing impact on the landscape.
environmental archaeology: CATEGORY: branch
DEFINITION: A subfield of archaeology which is the study of the environment in archaeological contexts. It includes not only the study of past flora (pollen analysis, palaeobotany, palaeoethnobotany, archaeobotany), and fauna (archaeozoology), but also that of insects (insect analysis), fish (fish bone analysis), and snail shells (molluscan analysis). All are studied in an attempt to recover the total environment of a past society and to understand man's impact on, and changes to, that environment. It is a field in which interdisciplinary research, involving archaeologists and natural scientists. Many disciplines are involved in this study: climatology, Quaternary geology, soil science, palaeobotany, zoology, and human biology.
environmental indicator(s): CATEGORY: technique
DEFINITION: A method in which species of plants and animals are used to indicate a feature of the environment. If the modern environmental requirements are known, the presence of preserved remains of the same species in ancient deposits and soils may suggest that similar conditions prevailed in the past. Many such indicator fossils are used to reconstruct temperature. However, the absence of an environmental indicator does not imply lack of the conditions which it is supposed to indicate. The method is only reliable when whole communities, comprising many different species, all indicate the existence of a particular environment.
erosion: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: weathering
CATEGORY: geology
DEFINITION: The wearing away or loosening and transportation of soil or rock by water, wind, and ice. A group of processes are involved in the physical breakdown or chemical solution, removal, and transportation of the materials. Erosion can be accelerated by activities on the landscape. Three forms that can have significant impact on the archaeological record are soil erosion, gully erosion, and wind erosion.
excavation: CATEGORY: technique
DEFINITION: The systematic and scientific recovery of cultural, material remains of people as a means of obtaining data about past human activity. Excavation is digging or related types of salvage work, scientifically controlled so as to yield the maximum amount of data. It is the main tool of the archaeologist. The excavation of a site, however, involves the destruction of the primary evidence, which can never be recovered. Excavation should therefore never be undertaken lightly or without an understanding of the obligations of the excavator to the evidence he destroys. The first decision is whether to excavate a site at all, a question of particular interest when sites are being rapidly destroyed by farming methods and road and town building. The nature and scale of the undertaking is the next decision. If time and/or money is short, sampling of the site may be all that is possible. If a large-scale excavation is to be undertaken, the approach will be either area (open) excavation, grid method, quadrant method, rabotage, sondage, etc. Removal of the topsoil will either be carried out by hand or machine. After an initial plan has been made of all visible features before excavation, digging proceeds according to the dictates of the site: sections may be taken across areas of feature intersection, or across individual features. A permanent record of the whole process should be kept: plans, drawings, notes, photographs. Excavation is only the first part of the process. For years, excavation was regarded as merely a method of collecting artifacts. Pitt Rivers in Britain and Petrie in the Near East first placed emphasis on evidence rather than artifacts, not what is found but where it was found relative to the layers of deposit (stratigraphy) and to other objects (association) -- the context. The excavator can only justify his destruction if it is done with meticulous care so that every artifact, be it an ax or a posthole, is discovered and if possible preserved; if it is recorded accurately enough for all information to remain available after the site has disappeared; and if this record is quickly made available by publication. In short, excavation is the digging of archaeological sites, removal of the matrix, and observance of the provenience and context of the finds therein, and the recording of them in a three-dimensional way.
facie: CATEGORY: culture; term
DEFINITION: Any subgroup of elements within an industry or main culture tradition that is distinguished from the whole on the basis of some aspect of appearance or composition. A major division of a cultural sequence, such as the Mousterian culture of the European Palaeolithic, is often described as having different facies -- for example, the Quina Mousterian or the Mousterian of Acheulian tradition -- though these may reflect different industries or cultures. It is also a geological term used to describe the characters of any part of a formation which is differentiated by its appearance or composition, especially by the fossils it contains, its constituent rocks, or its texture. The term has also been applied to pedology (soil).
facies: CATEGORY: culture; term
DEFINITION: Any subgroup of elements within an industry or main culture tradition that is distinguished from the whole on the basis of some aspect of appearance or composition. A major division of a cultural sequence, such as the Mousterian culture of the European Palaeolithic, is often described as having different facies -- for example, the Quina Mousterian or the Mousterian of Acheulian tradition -- though these may reflect different industries or cultures. It is also a geological term used to describe the characters of any part of a formation which is differentiated by its appearance or composition, especially by the fossils it contains, its constituent rocks, or its texture. The term has also been applied to pedology (soil).
false color infra-red photography: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: false-color satellite imagery
CATEGORY: technique
DEFINITION: A technique of aerial photography used in archaeology, especially in the Americas. Infra-red film reacts to the varying water absorption qualities of different features, thus allowing changes in vegetation, the occurrence of buried features filled with disturbed soil, the presence of otherwise invisible roadways to be detected. The false color refers to the accentuation of specific features in red, pink, yellow, blue, etc., which emphasize the contrasts but which are not the true colors of the features. Also, this technique often achieves greater resolution than conventional photography because the wavelengths are unaffected by atmospheric haze.
faunalturbation: CATEGORY: term; geology; fauna
DEFINITION: A disturbance of the soil surface by animals, especially by the burrowing and tunneling of gophers, mice, rabbits, etc.
feature interface: CATEGORY: feature
DEFINITION: Unit of stratification resulting from the destruction of pre-existing stratification, rather than by the deposition of soils.
flint scatter: CATEGORY: artifact
DEFINITION: A general term applied to collections of worked flint, stone, debitage, and associated raw material gathered up from the surface of ploughed fields or disturbed ground. Such collections range in size from a few dozen through to many thousands of pieces, and may have been collected from areas of any size from a few metres across to several hectares. As such they do not represent distinct kinds of archaeological site but rather the archaeological manifestation of many different kinds of activity; their unity is a product of the way material has been recovered rather than the processes by which it was created in the first place. Much work has been devoted to characterizing flint scatters in terms of what they represent. It is now clear that some are caused by the erosion of underlying features and deposits which relate to a vast range of activities including settlements, stoneworking sites, and middens. In other cases the scatters reflect episodes of activity in the past that involved little more than the deposition of material on the contemporary ground surface which has subsequently become incorporated into the topsoil through natural and anthropogenic formation processes.
floralturbation: CATEGORY: geology; flora
DEFINITION: The disturbance of the soil surface by plants, especially by tree fall and by root growth or decay.
flotation: CATEGORY: technique
DEFINITION: A technique developed to assist in the recovery of plant, insect, and molluscan remains from archaeological deposits; a method of screening in which minute pieces of flora are separated from the soil by agitation with water. The technique works on the principle that organic material such as carbonized seeds, snail-shells, and beetle wing-cases have a lower specific gravity than inorganic materials such as soil and stone, and will thus float on the top of a suitable liquid medium while the rest will sink. Water is commonly used for flotation, though there are disadvantages since it has a fairly low specific gravity and heavier material such as fruit stones will sink. Other media have been used, such as carbon tetrachloride solution or zinc chloride solution. Flotation of samples by hand is called wet sieving. Samples of material are slowly poured into water, any lumps are broken up, and the flot is drawn off with a sieve. The method is more controlled than flotation by machine, and the recovery rate is better. For large-scale excavations, machines are used. Operating principles vary: samples are poured into a large container of water, or water and paraffin, which is agitated by air injection or by currents of inflowing water. The addition of a floculating agent increases surface tension, though not all machines are 'froth flotation' machines. The flot is carried off the surface through a mesh, or series of meshes to allow preliminary sorting. Samples retrieved are sent away for specialist identification and analysis by an archaeobotanist.
formation process: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: site formation process
CATEGORY: term; technique
DEFINITION: The total of the processes -- natural and cultural, individual and combined -- that affected the formation and development of the archaeological record. Natural formation processes refer to natural or environmental events which govern the burial and survival of the archaeological record. Cultural formation processes include the deliberate or accidental activities of humans. On a settlement site, for example, the nature of human occupation, the activities carried out, the pattern of breakage and loss of material, rubbish disposal, rebuilding, or re-use of the same area will all influence the surviving archaeological deposits. After the site's abandonment, it will be further affected by such factors as erosion, glaciation, later agriculture, the activities of plants and animals, as well as the natural processes of chemical action in the soil. Reconstruction of these processes helps to relate the observed evidence of an archaeological site to the human activity responsible for it.
fossil ice wedges: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: foliated ground ice, wedge ice
CATEGORY: geology
DEFINITION: Soil features caused when the ground freezes and contracts, opening up fissures in the permafrost that fill with wedges of ice. The fossil wedges are proof of past cooling of climate and of the depth of permafrost. Foliated ground ice, or wedge ice, is the term for large masses of ice growing in thermal contraction cracks in permafrost.
froth flotation: CATEGORY: technique
DEFINITION: Flotation in which the separation is enhanced by using a liquid to which a frothing agent, such as a detergent, has been added and bubbling air through it, forming a froth in which certain lightweight materials collect. Soil samples agitated in froth flotation, such as seeds and charcoal fragments, can be more easily separated from the matrix by this method.
geoarchaeology: CATEGORY: branch
DEFINITION: The techniques of geology applied to archaeological issues, such as dating methodology, mineral identification, soil and stratification analysis; the investigation of the relationship between archaeological and geological processes. It is an ecological approach to archaeology with the goal of understanding the physical context of archaeological remains and the emphasis on the interrelationships among cultural and land systems.
geochemical analysis: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: geochemical survey
CATEGORY: technique
DEFINITION: An investigatory technique which involves taking soil samples at regular intervals from the surface of a site, and measuring their phosphate content and other chemical properties to determine the natural separation and concentration of elements by Earth processes.
geophysical prospecting: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: geophysical survey
CATEGORY: technique
DEFINITION: The location and recording of buried sites by detecting variations in the magnetic properties or resistance to an electrical current of the soil. Many archaeological surveying techniques designed to identify features without excavation use instruments that measure physical properties of surface materials.
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.
geosol: CATEGORY: geology
DEFINITION: A unit of classification for a sediment or rock body with one or more soil horizons. A geosol is a recognized soil or palaeosol.
glaciation: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: glacial
CATEGORY: chronology; geography
DEFINITION: The process by which land is covered by continental and alpine glacier ice sheets or the period of time during which such covering occurred; several glaciations are required to make up an Ice Age (as the Pleistocene). The land is subject to erosion and deposition by this process, which occurred repeatedly during the Quaternary; the process modifies landscapes and affects the level of ocean basins. These periods of colder weather are also called glacials, and the warmer periods between them interglacials. At the onset of colder weather, water is taken up into the ice-sheets and glaciers, causing a drop in sea level. Landscapes covered by ice can be recognized by the smooth rock surfaces and the U-shaped valleys formed by the ice-sheets and glaciers and the rock rubble carried along in them. As the climate warmed, the glaciers retreated, the ice melted, and the sea-level rose. The ice also deposited various forms of boulder clays, and banks of debris at the sides and ends of glaciers, known as moraines. Beyond the limits of glaciers and ice-sheets, extensive layers of outwash sands and gravels were deposited; where these deposits occur in lakes they are called varves. The periglacial zone around the margin of an ice sheet has permanently frozen subsoil, and is occupied by cold-loving plants and animals. Erosion was mainly brought about by solifluxion. The low temperatures and the constant freezing and thawing also affect the soil; these frost effects are called cryoturbation. Particularly characteristic are ice-wedges, polygonal cracks in the ground frequently recognizable in air photographs. They were caused by the shrinking of the ground at low temperatures and the filling of the cracks with water, which subsequently expanded on freezing to open the crack still further. The last two million years have been marked by a series of such glaciations. Broad correlations between the glaciation schemes in different parts of Europe and North America exist. Four Ice Ages have been figured; in Europe, the First Glaciation was at a climax 550,000 years ago. This gradually gave way to the First Interglacial (Gunz-Mindel) Period lasting about 60,000 years in which warm conditions again prevailed. The Second Glaciation came along with its climax 450,000 years ago, and the Second Interglacial Period (Mindel-Riss) followed, lasting 200,000 years. The Third Glacial Period (Riss) climax 185,000 years ago was relieved by 60,000 years of interglacial warmth. The Fourth (Wurm) and last Ice Age was at its height 72,000 years ago. The term has also commonly been used to describe the periods of generally cold climate which occurred at intervals during the Quaternary period. It is, however, now clear that ice-sheets grew only during parts of these so-called 'glacials' (e.g., the Devensian). For this reason, the term 'cold stage' is preferable.
gley horizon: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: gleying
CATEGORY: geology
DEFINITION: A soil horizon characterized by blue, gray, or olive coloring due to excessive moisture in anaerobic conditions; a waterlogging of soil. Gleying may result from a raised water table or from impeded drainage within the soil profile; the latter condition occurs in some podzols. Gley horizons and gley soils are conducive to preservation of organic remains.
gleying: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: gley horizon
CATEGORY: geology
DEFINITION: The process of waterlogging of soil in which iron is bacterially reduced under anaerobic conditions. Gleying may result from a raised water table or from impeded drainage within the soil profile -- especially in bogs, fens, floodplains, lakes, and swamps. The soil is blue, gray, or olive in coloring and forms gley horizons.
Graveney Boat: CATEGORY: artifact
DEFINITION: A well-preserved Anglo-Saxon timber boat found in 1970 in the Graveney marshes in Kent, England. It is the only vessel of this period from the British Isles which has left more than an impression in the soil. Radiocarbon and dendrochronology have effectively dated it to the late 9th century AD. The well-constructed Graveney Boat was a cross-Channel cargo; it has been restored and is in The National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, England.
ground-penetrating radar: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: GPR, georadar
CATEGORY: tool
DEFINITION: A remote sensing device used in subsurface detection that transmits a radar pulse into the soil and records differential reflection of the pulses from buried strata and features. When a discontinuity is encountered, an echo returns to the radar receiving unit, where it is recorded.
halophytic: CATEGORY: flora
DEFINITION: Plants (such as saltbush, sea lavender) which can tolerate the absorption of a certain amount of mineral salts present in the soil in which they grow. These salts impregnate the plant tissues. Halophytes usually has a physiological resemblance to a true xerophyte.
hearth: CATEGORY: feature
DEFINITION: Any place where a pit was dug and a fire built, sometimes identified by charcoal, baked earth, ash, discoloration, or an outline of stones or clay footing. The site of an open domestic fire might have served as kiln or oven. Hearths often appear in one layer of soil after another as an archaeologist digs down through a site, and they are an indication of a succession of camps or habitations. Charcoal from a hearth can be dated by the radiocarbon method. Baked clay in a hearth can be dated by the palaeomagnetic method. Burnt earthen rims may provide oxidized material for archaeomagnetic dating. The hearth is often centrally located and has a variety of shapes and sizes.
hillslope: CATEGORY: geology
DEFINITION: The flanks of valleys and the margins of eroding uplands, the major zones where rock and soil are loosened by weathering processes and then transported down gradient, often to a river channel. They are produced by erosion and deposition and are unstable.
horizon: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: horizon style
CATEGORY: term; artifact
DEFINITION: Any artifact, art style, or other cultural trait that has extensive geographical distribution but a limited time span. The term, in anthropology, refers to the spread of certain levels of cultural development and, in geology, the layers of natural features in a region; in soil science a horizon is a layer formed in a soil profile by soil-forming processes. The main meaning, however, refers to a phase, characterized by a particular artifact or artistic style that is introduced to a wide area and which may cross cultural boundaries. Provided that these 'horizon markers' were diffused rapidly and remained in use for only a short time, the local regional cultures in which they occur will be roughly contemporary. The term is less commonly used now that chronometric dating techniques allow accurate local chronologies to be built. Examples of art styles which fulfill these conditions is called a 'horizon style' -- such as Tiahuanaco or Chavín.
humus: CATEGORY: geology
DEFINITION: Decomposed organic matter which becomes incorporated into soil. Litter from plants (organic matter) on or near the surface of the earth is slowly broken down by soil organisms (decomposed and oxidized) into fine particles, which may then by incorporated into the soil by earthworms and other soil organisms. It may be combined with the products of the decomposition of various rocks and then forms the soil in which plants grow.
illuvial horizon: CATEGORY: geology
DEFINITION: A soil horizon resulting from the deposition of minerals, humus, or plant nutrients, washed down from higher up in the profile. The most common illuvial horizon is the B horizon. Its opposite is eluvial horizon.
induced polarization technique: CATEGORY: technique
DEFINITION: A technique similar to resistivity surveying used for the location of archaeological features. It involves the measurement of transient induced polarization voltage which results from the passing of direct current through the ground via electrodes. The method requires the presence of an electrolytic solution and thus it is the greater or lesser water content of the features, in contrast to the surrounding soil, that allows their detection. A ditch would have a high induced polarization response, while a wall would have a low one.
inorganic ecofacts: CATEGORY: flora; fauna
DEFINITION: Ecofacts (faunal or flora material) derived from nonbiological remains (matter other than plant or animal), including soils, minerals, and the like.
insect analysis: CATEGORY: technique
DEFINITION: Any studies of insect remains in an attempt to reconstruct past environments. Pollen analysis and molluscan analysis can reveal information on climate, the environment and, sometimes, the activities of man. Insect remains are usually found in the form of the exoskeleton, parts such as the wing-cases of beetles, and they always come from anaerobic deposits such as ditches, wells, pits, and peat bogs; many of the parts of insects that are species-distinctive do not survive in archaeological deposits. They can be separated from the soil sample by flotation. Insects respond more quickly than plants to climatic change, and may therefore assist in the identification of micro-climatic phases. Insects also have habitat preferences, which is helpful in identifying specific environments.
instrument anomaly: CATEGORY: technique
DEFINITION: Any change in soil resistivity to an induced electric current or variations in the magnetic characteristics of soil due to human activities, such as pit or trench digging, wall construction, and fire.
interface: CATEGORY: technique
DEFINITION: The point of contact between two layers or features in an excavation, stratigraphically important. An example is the point between the fill of a buried ditch and the soil through which it was dug.
interglacial: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: adj interglacial
CATEGORY: chronology
DEFINITION: A warm period between two glaciations during with little or no glacial ice, warm climate processes, deposits, flora and fauna, and increased soil formation. The ice sheets diminish in area, and the improved climate allows the growth of temperate types of vegetation. The last 10,000 years (the Holocene) is probably an interglacial. During the Quaternary, interglacials have been considerably shorter than glacials.
krotovina: CATEGORY: geology
DEFINITION: A soil feature made up of an animal burrow filled with soil or sediment. That soil or sediment is often different from the material around the burrow and is derived from overlying soil horizons or sediment strata.
laterite: CATEGORY: geology
DEFINITION: A soil layer that is rich in iron oxide and derived from a wide variety of rocks weathering under strongly oxidizing and leaching conditions. It forms in tropical and subtropical regions where the climate is humid.
leaching: CATEGORY: geology
DEFINITION: To dissolve or subject to the action of percolating liquid -- as water; i.e. water seeping through the soil and removing the soluble materials from it.
leaching cast: CATEGORY: geology
DEFINITION: Soil or sediment leached down from above by some mechanism.
living floor: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: living surface
CATEGORY: feature
DEFINITION: A layer of human occupation; this generic and imprecise term is applied to an assumed level of occupation within an archaeological site. It includes any surface that indicates use as a house or camp area, as evidenced by signs of cooking, sleeping, or working at household tasks. The area can be within a cave or structure or out in the open -- anywhere everyday human activities took place. Ancient living floors have occasionally been preserved through the accumulation of soil and debris over them.
loam: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: loehm, lehm
CATEGORY: geology
DEFINITION: A texture of soil used to describe a mixture of less than 52% sand, 28-50% silt, and 7-27% clay. Loams are agriculturally productive and have good drainage qualities. There are other loamy textures with different percentages of the materials.
loess: CATEGORY: geology
DEFINITION: A wind-borne rock dust (very fine sediments, silt) carried from outwash deposits and moraines and laid down as a thick stratum during periglacial conditions in the steppe country surrounding the ice sheets. Wind erosion was widespread in the periglacial zone that surrounded the large Quaternary ice sheets. Material was picked up by the wind from the large expanses of proglacial deposits at the ice sheet margins. Because of its exceptional fertility, areas of loess were chosen for settlement by early agriculturists. In central and eastern Europe, as well as Asia and North America, there are notable concentrations of sites on loess. It provided good grazing for the animals on which Palaeolithic man fed, was rich in nutrients for plants, and was later settled by Neolithic farmers who found it easy to till with primitive equipment. It is an essentially unconsolidated, unstratified calcareous silt; commonly it is homogeneous, permeable, and buff to gray in color, and contains calcareous concretions and fossils. Loess is important archaeologically as soil erosion in these regions during the Holocene caused substantial redeposition of this silt, often burying (deeply) and preserving archaeological sites. In semiarid regions people such as the Pueblo Indians made houses and fortresslike closed edifices from loess-based adobe.
Lower Egypt: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: The northern part of Egypt, land around the Nile delta and Memphis, from modern Cairo to the Mediterranean coast. This geographic and cultural division of Egypt was bounded generally by the 30th parallel north in the south and by the Mediterranean Sea in the north. The boundary between Lower and Upper Egypt was somewhere between Lisht and Meidum on the west bank of the Nile. On the east bank, the second nome of Upper Egypt existed further to the north. Characterized by broad expanses of fertile soil, Lower Egypt contrasts sharply with Upper Egypt, where the centers of habitation along the Nile valley are close to the desert. Lower Egypt in late predynastic times constituted a political entity separate from Upper Egypt. Menes (fl. 3100 BC) joined the two regions, using the royal title, King of Upper and Lower Egypt.""
lynchet: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: terracette
CATEGORY: feature
DEFINITION: A bank of earth which accumulates on the downhill side of an ancient plowed field as the disturbed soil moves down the slope under the action of gravity. It is a small-scale terracing effect visible particularly in ancient field systems which is caused by accumulation of soil against an obstruction such as a field boundary. Field boundaries, such as banks or walls, become enlarged and overlaid by material loosened in the cultivation process. A corresponding erosion from the downslope side of the boundary creates a negative lynchet. Lynchets are conspicuous in the square Celtic fields (Bronze Age to Romano-British in date) and in the long rectangular fields, the so-called strip lynchets, laid out on sloping terrain in post-Roman and medieval times.
magnetic susceptibility: CATEGORY: geology
DEFINITION: A property of soil and sediment, measured as a ratio of intensity of magnetization of the material to the strength of an applied magnetic field. Topsoil often has a somewhat enhanced 'magnetic susceptibility' due to magnetic minerals in the material, especially compared with the subsoil. The filling of a ditch or a pit has greater susceptibility than the surrounding area because of higher humus content and perhaps the presence of burnt occupation material. On the basis that contrast between feature and surroundings locates the features, walls, and other stone settings can also be located since they have less susceptibility than the area around them, i.e. they exhibit a reverse anomaly.
magnetometer: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: proton magnetometer
CATEGORY: tool
DEFINITION: A geophysical instrument that measures the intensity and sometimes direction of the Earth's magnetic field. It is used in electromagnetic surveying to identify changes in the field within soil or sediment that might be caused by subsurface features, hearths, kilns, or metal artifacts. When a current is passed through a coil in a bottle of water or alcohol the protons of the hydrogen atoms align themselves to its magnetic field. When the current is cut off, the protons realign themselves according to the earth's field, its strength being indicated by the frequency of their gyration on realignment. This sets up a weak current which is transmitted back from the bottle to the instrument and there registered on dials. The resulting figures are plotted to reveal anomalies in field strength -- usually due to buried iron, kilns, hearths, or to pits or ditches. These features can thus be rapidly located without disturbance of the ground, and excavation can be directed to the most promising areas. Magnetrometry is the use of a magnetometer for mapping subsurface anomalies. There are a number of designs, but two are particularly widely used. The proton magnetometer makes an absolute measurement of field strength, but is intermittent in operation: each reading is initiated by the push of a button, and takes some seconds to appear on the display of the instrument. Fluxgate magnetometers work on a different principle, and give a continuous reading, which makes surveying less time-consuming. Most fluxgate machines do not however measure field strength directly, but rather are gradiometers, measuring the vertical gradient of the earth's' magnetic field, i.e. how fast the field strength changes with vertical distance from the earth's magnetic field Gradient measurements can also be used in archaeological surveys and have an advantage over absolute measurements. The earth's field strength varies continuously during the day at any one location. Absolute measurements taken at different times have to be calibrated for this effect if they are to be comparable. Gradient measurements are not affected by this diurnal drift in field strength, and so do not need to be calibrated. Proton gradiometers are also available. The fluxgate, differential fluxgate, and proton gradiometer take continuous measurements of relative vertical change in the intensity of field strength.
magnetometry: CATEGORY: technique
DEFINITION: Detecting buried remains through magnetic variations between them and the surrounding soil.
marl: CATEGORY: geology
DEFINITION: A soil of fine-grained minerals, mainly composed of clay and carbonate of lime. The term is applied to a great variety of sediments and rocks with a considerable range of composition. Calcareous marls grade into clays. Marl is valuable as a fertilizer and in making bricks.
matrix: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: plural matrices or matrixes
CATEGORY: feature; term
DEFINITION: The soil or physical material in which an excavation is conducted, or within which artifacts or fossils are embedded or supported. The term also refers to the surrounding deposit in which archaeological finds are situated. Originally the term described the grains in sediments or rocks that are finer than the coarsest material in the sediment or rock. Matrix is the material within which cultural debris is contained.
matrix sorting: CATEGORY: technique
DEFINITION: The hand-sorting of processed bulk soil samples to find very small artifacts and ecofacts
microclimate: CATEGORY: term; geography
DEFINITION: The specific and uniform local climate of a small site or habitat brought about by hills, slopes, woodland, lakes, or other features of the landscape. These features modify the general climate of the region. The term also is applied to any climatic condition in a relatively small area, within a few meters or less above and below the Earth's surface and within canopies of vegetation. The microclimates of a region are strongly tied to the average moisture, temperature, and winds of the climate and to latitude, elevation, and season. Weather and climate are sometimes, in turn, influenced by microclimatic conditions, especially by variations in surface characteristics. Wet ground, for example, promotes evaporation and increases humidity. The drying of bare soil, on the other hand, creates a surface crust that inhibits ground moisture from diffusing upward, which promotes the persistence of dry atmosphere. Microclimates control evaporation from surfaces and influence precipitation and so are important to the hydrologic cycle (the circulation of the Earth's waters). The effect of soil types on microclimates is considerable. Also strongly influencing the microclimate is the ability of the soil to absorb and retain moisture, which depends on the composition of the soil and its use.
mixed farming: CATEGORY: term
DEFINITION: A form of intensive agriculture consisting of domesticated animal and crop production as food sources where the maintenance of soil fertility results from the use of animal manure as fertilizer.
motte: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: motte and bailey, motte-and-bailey castle
CATEGORY: structure
DEFINITION: An elevated mound of earth, part of the motte-and-bailey castle, which was crowned with a timber palisade and surrounded by a defensive ditch that also separated the motte from a palisaded outer compound, called the bailey. Access to the motte was by means of an elevated bridge across the ditch from the bailey. This structure appeared in the 10th and 11th centuries between the Rhine and Loire rivers and eventually spread to most of western Europe. The motte was usually made of earth, but sometimes of stone. Attached to it may be one or more baileys, which are enclosures surrounded by ramparts or stone walls. Motte should not be confused with moat; the latter was a ditch. The motte was formed from the soil originally dug from the ditch. It was the mound on which the wooden castle of the motte and bailey was built in early Norman times. Motte-and-bailey was the type of wooden castle first erected by Norman conquerors and it was an expedient, quickly erected, medieval fortification. Several classic examples of motte and bailey castles are illustrated in the Bayeaux tapestry, with wooden towers and palisades on top of the motte.
Munsell Color Chart: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: Munsell
CATEGORY: artifact
DEFINITION: A color identification system for sediment, soil, chert, pottery, and rock; an aid used in the physical examination and recording of objects where color is felt to be an essential or at least a significant aspect of the analysis. Devised by Albert H. Munsell, the three factors of hue, value, and chroma are taken into consideration, all rated on a scale of 0-10 and expressed quantitatively. Hue describes the colors of the spectrum present, value their concentration, and chroma their purity. The color of soil or, for example, pottery, can be matched in the chart and given a value, so that anyone with a similar set of charts can understand the exact color of the material. The method allows direct comparison of colors without physically moving the material, and is clearly preferable to the use of such subjective descriptions as 'reddish-brown' or 'yellowish-gray'. The charts are contained in a loose-leaf notebook with pages of hundreds of standardized color chips, each perforated with a hole through which the color of the soil or other material can be compared with the standard sample.
Nasca lines: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: geoglyphs; Nazca lines
CATEGORY: feature
DEFINITION: In the Peruvian desert or Nasca region of the southern coast, geometric and geomorphic patterns created by the removal of surface stones to reveal the pale earth beneath. The lines were made by clearing the surface of small red/brown stones and exposing the lighter-colored soil underneath. The straight lines radiate to points in small hills and suggest a ceremonial function. The straight lines date to the Early Intermediate as well as to later periods. Maria Reiche, a researcher, believes that the figures represent constellations and the straight lines have astronomical significance. Others believe the lines pointed toward sacred places. The Nasca lines are virtually indecipherable from ground level, but are plainly visible from the air. The lines have been preserved by the extreme dryness of the climate of the region.
neutron scattering: CATEGORY: technique
DEFINITION: A remote sensing technique involving the placing of a probe into the soil in order to measure the relative rates of neutron flows through the soil. A beam of neutrons is aimed at the target material and the resultant scattering of the neutrons yields information about that material's atomic structure. Since stone produces a lower count rate than soil, buried features can often be detected.
Newgrange: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: New Grange
CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: The most famous and splendidly decorated of the Irish passage graves, part of the Boyne Valley cemetery, in Meath County. The kidney-shaped mound, dated to c 3100 BC, is over 100 meters in diameter and 13 meters high. The cairn itself was carefully made of alternate layers of stones and turf. A kerb of large stones carved with wavy lines, lozenges, triangles, etc. encloses the base of the mound. On either side of the entrance the green kerbstones were topped by a retaining wall of white quartz. Some distance from the original base of the mound is a surrounding circle of free-standing stones. The burial chamber, cruciform in plan, is roofed by corbelling and has three subsidiary cells; the tomb has a very long passage, 19 meters in length, and built of orthostats. Midwinter sunrise shines through an opening above the door to illuminate the central chamber, the clearest example of an astronomical orientation recorded from a European prehistoric monument. Many stones of both chamber and passage carry pecked designs including an unusual triple spiral. Excavation has shown that the upper surfaces of the capstones had drainage channels, as well as art which would have been invisible once the overlying cairn had been built. Traces of cremation burials were found in the cells of the chamber, and soil from a habitation site, possibly close to the tomb, had been used to pack the interstices of the passage roof. There are two radiocarbon dates around 3200 BC and the site was reoccupied after the tomb-builders had left it and the cairn had begun to slump by a group which used Late Neolithic and Beaker pottery.
nodule: CATEGORY: geology
DEFINITION: A hard mass of mineral, usually rounded, found in various forms in soil created by the deposition of minerals from solution. The way nodules are formed can assist in palaeoenvironmental reconstruction and the age of the conditions under which they formed. Nodules are often elongate with a knobby irregular surface; they usually are oriented parallel to the bedding. Chert and flint often occur as dense and structureless nodules of nearly pure silica in limestone or chalk, where they seem to be replacements of the carbonate rock by silica.
overburden: CATEGORY: geology
DEFINITION: Soil and rock overlying a bed of clay or other base to be dug, excavated, mined, or quarried.
ox-scapula shovel: CATEGORY: artifact
DEFINITION: The shoulder-blade of an ox or large cow which has been used to shovel up broken rock and soil. Discarded and broken examples of such shovels are well represented at Neolithic and early Bronze Age sites in the British Isles, usually in association with ANTLER PICKS and antler rakes which, together perhaps with baskets, leather ropes, and wooden levers, comprising the main tool kit of those responsible for earthmoving.
palaeosol: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: paleosol
CATEGORY: geology
DEFINITION: A fossil soil preserved within a sequence of deposits. They come from a period when cold conditions had improved enough for vegetation to colonize and for a soil to be formed. Palaeosols are widespread within the Pleistocene loess sequences of the Netherlands, Germany, and Denmark. The Interstadials of the Weichselian have been reconstructed from the northern European palaeosol and loess succession; extensive palaeosols also characterize interglacials and interstadials of North America. It is a source of much palaeoenvironmental information.
paleopedology: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: palaeopedology
CATEGORY: related field
DEFINITION: The study of the creation, character, stratigraphy of buried fossil soils (palaeosols), which includes material in both geological and archaeological contexts and their geomorphic, temporal, and palaeoenvironmental significance. Soil scientists can assist archaeologists by explaining the natural and man-influenced processes on sites, such as the manner of filling of certain types of feature. Information may be deduced about climatic and environmental variation, which can lead to conclusions about the manipulation of the land by man.
paleosol: CATEGORY: geology
DEFINITION: A soil profile that is buried under subsequently deposited sediment.
palynology: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: pollen analysis
CATEGORY: related field; technique
DEFINITION: The study of fossil and living spores (of lichens and mosses) and pollen (of flowering plants); the technique through which the fossil pollen grains and spores from archaeological sites are studied. The examination of their production, dispersal, and applications is an aid to the reconstruction of past vegetation and climates and developing relative chronologies. Each kind of flowering plant produces pollen that is unique and pollen grains have tough coverings that can last a long time. The resilient exine of the pollen and spores is preserved in anaerobic environments, such as lakes and bogs, and some acidic and dry soils, as in caves. Palynology helps archaeologists find out what plant resources were available to ancient peoples and what the climate was at those times. Palynology was developed by Swedish botanist Lennart von Post.
patination: CATEGORY: artifact
DEFINITION: The altered surface and coloring of an artifact made by natural weathering or exposure to soil acids.
peat bog: CATEGORY: geography
DEFINITION: Wet spongy ground of decomposing vegetation which has poorer drainage than a swamp; soil is unfit for cultivation but can be cut and dried and used for fuel.
ped: CATEGORY: geology
DEFINITION: A unit of soil structure such as a prism, block, or granule, which is formed by natural processes, in contrast with a clod, which is formed artificially.
pedestaling or pedestalling: CATEGORY: technique
DEFINITION: An excavation technique in which excavated items are left in place (in situ) on columns of soil until the entire unit is excavated.
pedogenesis: CATEGORY: term
DEFINITION: The interaction of the physical, chemical, and biological factors, processes, and conditions that cause a soil to evolve into a soil horizon.
pedological unit: CATEGORY: geology
DEFINITION: Subdivisions of the earth's crust created by alteration of its mineral and organic materials through soil-forming processes rather than depositional events.
pedology: CATEGORY: related field
DEFINITION: The study of soils and their structure, especially the creation, characteristics, distribution, and uses of soils. Archaeology depends an identification of soils to come up with the proper interpretation of the context and integrity of deposits. This scientific discipline is concerned with all aspects of soils, including their physical and chemical properties, the role of organisms in soil production and in relation to soil character, the description and mapping of soil units, and the origin and formation of soils.
pedoturbation: CATEGORY: term
DEFINITION: Any of the various processes by which soils are disturbed, mixed, sorted, etc., such as by the burrowing of animals.
peds: CATEGORY: geology
DEFINITION: Aggregates of soil or sediment particles.
permafrost: CATEGORY: geology
DEFINITION: Permanently frozen subsoil with a temperature below 0 C (32 F) continuously for two or more years. The permafrost line is a line demarcating regions where the subsoil is permanently frozen. Permafrost is overlain by a surface layer that is subject to thawing during the warmer seasons of the year. This zone of seasonal freezing and thawing is termed the active layer. Permafrost is related to the tree line, because the frozen ground prevents tree roots from penetrating deeply and inhibits the subsurface drainage of meltwater. Permafrost is estimated to underlie 20 percent of the Earth's land surface and reaches depths of 1,500 meters (5,000 feet) in northern Siberia. It occurs in 85 percent of Alaska, more than half of Russia and Canada, and probably all of Antarctica. Permafrost has preserved the carcasses of extinct Ice Age mammals; one or two almost complete, frozen mammoths dating from at least 10,000 years ago have been reported from Siberia.
pH analysis: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: pH test
CATEGORY: technique
DEFINITION: A technique used for measuring the pH (acidity/alkalinity) -- hydrogen ion concentration of a soil or sediment. The results of the test may suggest what type of remains are to be expected on a site. In an acid soil, bone, shell, and carbonate lithic debris will not survive, but pollen grains will; in an alkaline soil, there will be only rare occurrences of pollen, but calcareous material should be more plentiful. The pH is tested by moistening a sample of soil with neutral distilled water and dipping indicator paper into it. The resulting color, which depends on the pH content, can be matched against prepared charts of known pH values.
phosphate analysis: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: phosphate surveying, phosphorus survey
CATEGORY: technique
DEFINITION: The examination of phosphates from decayed organic matter; a technique for detecting the presence of phosphate in soil and for using phosphorus concentrations to determine human settlements and activity within sites. Phosphate is a natural constituent of soil, however, it is concentrated by animals' bones, excrement, and food refuse. The technique has been employed particularly in the study of cave deposits (to show human or animal occupation), settlement sites (to identify the uses to which different areas were put) and burials (to show the former existence of bodies completely decayed). Once phosphate is in the soil, it is usually converted into an insoluble form, so that it does not tend to move down profile nor to be redistributed sideways in the soil. For this reason, settlements and farms tend to leave high concentrations of phosphate in the soil, which often remain stable over long periods, sometimes thousands of years. Much preliminary work must be done on the distribution and range of naturally occurring phosphorus because variations are caused by vegetation abundance and type and by soil horizon.
picking: CATEGORY: technique
DEFINITION: An excavation technique which employs a small pickax, usually with a 5-7 inch pick, to loosen the soil, which is then shoveled out of the unit and screened.
plow: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: plough
CATEGORY: artifact
DEFINITION: A tool designed to be drawn through the ground to break it up for cultivation, often powered by a yoke (or more) of oxen, other animals, or men. The earliest type of plow, developed from the hoe and digging stick, is the ard or scratch plow, which stirs the soil without turning it. Cross-plowing, the result of a second plowing at right angles to the first, is usually necessary. This type was of Near Eastern origin c 4th millennium BC. The later plow, heavier and wheeled, did not appear until the early centuries AD. It is more suited to the heavier soils of Europe. Prehistoric America, lacking suitable draft animals, did not have a plow. The 18th-century addition of the moldboard, which turned the furrow slice cut by the plowshare, was an important advance. The plow is considered the most important agricultural implement of history, used to turn and break up soil, to bury crop residues, and to help control weeds.
plow marks: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: plough marks, plowmarks, plow scars
CATEGORY: feature
DEFINITION: Marks left in buried soil indicating that the land has been plowed at some remote time, giving evidence of ancient agricultural activity. Plow marks have been found, for example, under several British Neolithic monuments and are valuable evidence for ancient clearance and cultivation. They are identified by sharp physical discontinuities in soil color and texture as seen in excavation profiles or plan-view.
plow zone: CATEGORY: geology
DEFINITION: The top layer of the soil to the depth at which a plow will penetrate and disturb archaeological deposits.
plowhshare: CATEGORY: artifact
DEFINITION: The part of a plough that goes into the ground to disturb or turn the soil. These often become detached from the main mechanism of the plough while working and are subsequently lost. For this reason many ploughsoils, both ancient and modern, contain within them broken or lost ploughshares as a tell-tale sign of past or ongoing agricultural practices.
plowshare: CATEGORY: artifact
DEFINITION: The part of a plough that goes into the ground to disturb or turn the soil. These often become detached from the main mechanism of the plough while working and are subsequently lost. For this reason many plowsoils, both ancient and modern, contain within them broken or lost ploughshares as a tell-tale sign of past or ongoing agricultural practices.
plowwash: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: ploughwash
CATEGORY: geology
DEFINITION: A sediment caused by farming activities in breaking up the soil on hills or slopes. The cultivation of soil for crops, or the intensive pasturing of animals, causes a change in the structure of the soil which may result in poor drainage; combined with the lack of vegetation, causing the soil to move downhill.
pollen analysis: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: palynology
CATEGORY: technique
DEFINITION: The study of pollen grains in soil samples from an archaeological site which provides information on ancient human use of plants and plant resources. This technique, which is used in establishing relative chronologies as well as in environmental archaeology, was developed primarily as a technique for the relative dating of natural horizons. Pollen grains are produced in vast quantities by all plants, especially the wind-pollinated tree species. The outer skin (exine) of these grains is remarkably resistant to decay, and on wet ground or on a buried surface, it will be preserved, locked in the humus content. The pollen grains of trees, shrubs, grasses, and flowers are preserved in either anaerobic conditions or in acid soils. Samples can be taken from the deposits by means of a core or from individual layers at frequent intervals in a section face on an archaeological site. The pollen is extracted and then concentrated and stained and examined under a microscope. Pollen grains are identifiable by their shape, and the percentages of the different species present in each sample are recorded on a pollen diagram. A comparison of the pollen diagrams for different levels within a deposit allows the identification of changes in the percentages of species and thus changes in the environment. As a dating technique, pollen has been used to identify different zones of arboreal vegetation which often correspond to climatic changes. The technique is invaluable for disclosing the environment of early man's sites and can even, over and series of samples, reveal man's influence on his environment by, for example, forest clearance. The sediments most frequently investigated are peat and lake deposits, but the more acid soils, such as podsols, are also analyzed. Radiocarbon dates may be taken at intervals in the sequence, and it is possible to reconstruct the history of vegetation in the area around the site where the samples were taken. Palynology plays an important role in the investigation of ancient climates, particularly through studies of deposits formed during glacial and interglacial stages of the Pleistocene epoch.
pollen core: CATEGORY: technique
DEFINITION: A stratified sample of soil or sediment that is taken to recover the plant pollen, and hence to discover changes in the local vegetation over time. A column of soil or peat is extracted from the ground containing a continuous record of pollen grains representative of changing vegetation over a period of time -- and the deeper the core, the older the pollen.
pollen diagram: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: pollen spectrum
CATEGORY: technique
DEFINITION: A diagram produced after the analysis of the pollen from a column of peat or other soil. Pollen diagrams consist of a number of graphs, showing the fluctuations of different pollen types through a sediment or soil. The vertical axis of the diagram represents depth through the deposit and is therefore roughly related to time, as the deeper layers are the oldest. Each small graph represents the changing frequency of one pollen type, either as a percentage (proportional pollen counting) or as an absolute frequency (absolute pollen counting). It is often possible to split the diagram up into a number of pollen zones, each dominated by high frequencies of a particular pollen type or types.
post mold: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: posthole, post hole
CATEGORY: feature
DEFINITION: The circular remains of a wooden post that was part of a prehistoric structure, often just a dark stain in soil.
profile: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: section
CATEGORY: feature
DEFINITION: A vertical wall, section, or face of an excavation pit that exposes the lateral relationships, archaeological features, structures, stratigraphy -- and their relationships. By extension, a profile is a record or graphic representation of these, including color, soil type, features, and content. Soil profiles consist of a number of layers, or horizons, which result from soil-forming processes.
proton magnetometer: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: proton precession magnetometer
CATEGORY: tool
DEFINITION: An instrument used in magnetic surveying for detecting changes in magnetic field intensity; it takes intermittent measurements of absolute field strength. The detector consists of a bottle of alcohol or water around which is wound an electrical coil of 1,000 turns. The protons, which form the nuclei of hydrogen atoms in the liquid, spin and gyrate in their attempt to align themselves in the direction of the earth's magnetic field intensity. A current of one amp is passed through the coil for three seconds, which aligns the majority of the protons in the direction of the magnetic field thus produced. When this current is cut off, the protons attempt to realign in the direction of the earth's magnetic field; the speed of gyration, or frequency of precession, is amplified and measured in the instrument. This measurement reflects any alteration in the magnetic intensity caused by the presence of fired structures, soil disturbances (e.g. pits, ditches, etc.), or iron objects. It is a highly sensitive magnetometer, used in subsurface detection to record variations in the earth's magnetic field caused by buried iron, kilns, hearths, pits, or ditches.
pulsed induction meter: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: pulse radar
CATEGORY: tool
DEFINITION: An instrument used in electromagnetic surveying, mainly for the detection of metals, though on a limited scale it can be used to locate archaeological features. The instrument has a transmitter coil, which sends pulses of magnetic field to the ground: the continuous rising and falling of the field produces eddy currents in metal objects, and magnetic fields in susceptible soil. These are detected by a receiver coil. Only shallow features can be satisfactorily located, and it can be used to find metals, graves, and pottery.
rabotage: CATEGORY: technique
DEFINITION: The process of carefully scraping a horizontal surface to reveal features in it distinguished by color differences. It is particularly useful in sandy soils and gravels, revealing surprising detail.
rampart: CATEGORY: feature
DEFINITION: An earthwork built to defend a site, such as a fort. It was the mound of earth on the inner side of the ditch or an elongated bank, often forming an enclosure. Often a palisade of stakes were on top. A rampart made it difficult to attack a castle or fort. Combinations of ramparts and ditches made up the defenses of hillforts in prehistoric Europe. Roman legion camps always built a rampart of ditches, earth walls, and wooden palisades, within which the space was divided into headquarters, supply, and troop areas. Indications of the construction of the rampart may occur as tip-lines or turf-lines, which may represent pauses in the work or different phases of building. Buried soils are frequently found underneath mounds and ramparts, a source of information for environmental archaeology.
realistic section: CATEGORY: term
DEFINITION: A means of drawing sections to give an artistic impression of a soil profile, in which no interfacial lines or layer numbers appear.
rendsina: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: rendzina
CATEGORY: geology
DEFINITION: A soil type characteristic of chalk or limestone subsoils; any of a group of dark grayish brown intrazonal soils developed in grasslands on soft calcareous marl, soft limestone, or chalk. Rendzinas are one of a group of soils known as primitive soils. Unlike mature soils, which have three or more horizons in their profile, rendzinas have only a mixed mineral/humus horizon which rests directly on the weathered parent material. They represent an early stage in soil development. This fertile lime-rich soil is characterized by a dark friable humus-rich surface layer above a softer pale calcareous layer.
resistivity: CATEGORY: geology; technique
DEFINITION: The resistance of soil or buried features to the passage of an electrical current, measured during geophysical surveying. Different materials offer varying resistance to electrical currents, depending on the amount of water present. Resistivity is a method used to identify underlying deposits without excavation.
resistivity meter: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: resistivity detector
CATEGORY: tool
DEFINITION: A geophysical instrument used to measure the electrical resistivity of the earth to identify buried features and structures. Since the resistivity of the soil changes with humidity, humus content, etc., the machine can detect pits, ditches, roads, floors, etc. This is generally done through an array of four electrodes, pushed into the ground surface. Despite their name, resistivity meters do not actually measure resistivity, but ground resistance. Resistivity is this resistance, standardized for the distance between the electrodes in the ground. The instrument consists of a source of electricity (a handle-operated dynamo in the megger earth tester, batteries in the tellohm, a transistor oscillator in the Martin-Clark meter) and a meter to record the results. All systems employ four steel probes connected by cable to the meter, two to carry the activating current, two to pick up the current passing through the ground. Also, the resistance between two roving probes is now compared with that between two distant static ones. Different spacing between the probes is employed in different conditions; where the probes are spaced equally, as in the Wenner configuration, features up to a depth equal to the probe-separation can be detected. Anomalous readings may indicate the presence of archaeological material.
resistivity surveying: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: resistivity survey
CATEGORY: technique
DEFINITION: A geosurvey survey technique that measures the electrical resistance of the ground for the location of buried features and structures. Any electrical exploration method in which current is introduced in the ground by two contact electrodes and potential differences are measured between two or more other electrodes. It relies on the principle that different deposits offer different resistance to the passage of an electric current depending largely on the amount of water present. A damp pit or ditch fill will offer less resistance, stone wall foundations more, than the surrounding soil. It is one of the most commonly used and least expensive geophysical surveying methods. Readings are taken in a grid-pattern of points all over a suspected site. Variation of resistance through a site is caused mainly by differences in the amount of water contained in pore spaces of deposits and structures. The outline of features may be seen if the readings are plotted as a plan. Although the technique is generally known as 'resistivity surveying', most archaeological surveys use only the ground resistance (in ohms). It compares well with magnetic surveying, as the instruments are simple and cheap and also because modern features such as power cables, iron scrap, and standing buildings do not affect the readings.
road: CATEGORY: feature
DEFINITION: A traveled way on which people, animals, or wheeled vehicles move. The earliest roads developed from the paths and trails of prehistoric peoples; their construction was concurrent with the appearance of wheeled vehicles, which was probably in the area between the Caucasus Mountains and the Persian Gulf sometime before 3000 BC. Road systems were developed that connected the civilizations of Mesopotamia and Egypt and facilitated trade. The first major road was the Persian Royal Road, which extended from the Persian Gulf to the Aegean Sea over a distance of 1,775 miles (2,857 km) and was used from about 3500-300 BC. Originally made for the use of troops and their supplies, were eventually much used by the civilian population for the carriage of goods. This encouraged free trade, helped the advance of civilization, and the subjugation and unification of the tribes. Early roads were about 20 feet wide and had ditches along both sides for drainage purposes. Large stones were laid on the foundation, then smaller ones, or gravel, on top. Traffic and weather blended the road material and helped to form the surface. Stone kerbs were made to hold the road surface together and sometimes a line of stone was laid in the middle too, to help in the binding. The Romans were the first to construct roads scientifically. Their roads were characteristically straight, and the best ones were composed of a graded soil foundation that was topped by four layers: a bedding of sand or mortar; rows of large, flat stones; a thin layer of gravel mixed with lime; and a thin wearing surface of flintlike lava. Roman roads varied in thickness from 3-5 feet, and their design remained the most sophisticated until the modern road-building technology in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Along the Roman roads were rest houses / mansiones and horse-changing stations / mutationes.
rye: CATEGORY: flora
DEFINITION: A cereal grass and its edible grain that is used to make rye bread and rye whiskey. Rye cultivation probably originated in southwestern Asia about 6500 BC, migrating westward across the Balkan Peninsula and over Europe. Today rye is grown extensively in Europe, Asia, and North America. It is mainly cultivated where climate and soil are unfavorable for other cereals and as a winter crop where temperatures are too cool for winter wheat. The plant, which thrives in high altitudes, has the greatest winter hardiness of all small grains, growing as far north as the Arctic Circle.
sand: CATEGORY: geology
DEFINITION: A term describing the size of sediment or soil particles, 0.06-2 mm in diameter (BS 1377). The term has no implications of color, organic content, or any property other than particle size or texture.
section: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: sectioning, section drawing
CATEGORY: technique
DEFINITION: In excavation, the exposing of a deposit vertically to reveal the stratigraphy of a site or details of a particular feature. A balk is left across a feature or a complex of features, or a hole is cut out of a feature and trimmed to a flat face in which layers and changes in soil color may be examined. Sections automatically occur when the grid method of excavation is used, on all four sides of each trench. The term is also applied to the drawing of the vertical record of the stratification of a site or feature. A section drawing is a two-dimensional rendering, at a constant scale, depicting archaeological data and matrix as seen in the wall of an excavation. Advocates of open-area excavation prefer not to have standing sections on the site; instead of drawing sections after the whole area has been excavated, they record the profile of each deposit as it is excavated and construct what are known as 'cumulative' or 'running sections'.
sediment: CATEGORY: geology
DEFINITION: A layer of soil, organic material, or rock particles which are no longer in the place where they were formed geologically but which have been redeposited away from their source. The agents of redeposition can be weathering, erosion, decay, soil-forming processes, and man himself. The material is carried by, suspended in, or dropped by air, water, or ice; or a mass that is accumulated by any other natural agent and that forms in layers on the earth's surface such as sand, gravel, silt, mud, fill, or loess. Thus an archaeological site is a complicated sequence of various sediments and soils. The study of such sequences is called stratigraphy.
shifting cultivation: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: swidden agriculture
CATEGORY: term
DEFINITION: A primitive and widespread form of agriculture in which forest was cleared, commonly by chopping and burning small trees. It is one of the earliest forms of cultivation. The clearance would be followed by planting of crops in the clearance -- seeds planted in holes poked into the ashes -- and their harvesting and replanting for a few years. Without fertilizers, however, the land soon loses its nutritional value and the clearance must be left fallow, to grow over again, while other areas of forest are cleared. A return to the original plot may be made after a reasonable length of time, hence it is also called shifting cultivation and cyclic agriculture. In temperate regions it is a wasteful method since soil fertility and crop yields, though initially high, decline rapidly, after which a new stretch of forest must be cleared.
shovel test: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: shovel testing, shovel pit testing
CATEGORY: technique
DEFINITION: A subsurface detection technique using either posthole diggers or shovels to quickly determine the density and distribution of archaeological remains. Samples of soil from carefully selected test pits that are sieved for artifacts. Also, a shovel-sized sample taken at various intervals across a site.
sieving: CATEGORY: technique
DEFINITION: A technique of particle size analysis used to determine the size grades of pebble gravel, sand, and coarse silt in sediment and soils of archaeological deposits. The archaeologist processes all the earth from the site through a fine mesh, then does dry screening in a shaker frame or wet sieving with flowing water. It improves the recovery rate of artifacts. For lighter soils, dry sieving may be effective. Wet sieving is used for more claylike material and for recovering bones, shells, seeds, and other biological remains. The sieved residues are then dried and sorted by hand. The sample is placed on the top sieve of a series of nested sieves. Sieve mesh sizes are standardized. Wet sieving as part of a flotation technique is used to recover small remains from sites.
silhouette: CATEGORY: feature
DEFINITION: A stain or shadow left in soils under certain environmental conditions by organic or other objects. Silhouettes of timber, for example the shadow of a post in a posthole, are relatively common. Where the soil is too acid to preserve bone, the mineral component of bone may result in an iron manganese stain which frequently has the shape of a skeleton.
silt: CATEGORY: geology
DEFINITION: Sediment or soil particles ranging from 0.002/0.004-0.05/0.06 mm in diameter. Sediments are seldom composed entirely of silt but rather are a mixture of clay, silt, and sand. Silt is extremely fine grains of soil or sediment usually carried along in river water. Silt deposits formed by wind are known as loess, a yellow, unconsolidated rock. The term has no implications of color, organic content, or any property other than particle size or texture.
site-formation processes: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: site formation process; formation process
CATEGORY: term
DEFINITION: The total of the processes -- natural and cultural, individual and combined -- that affected the formation and development of the archaeological record. Natural formation processes refer to natural or environmental events which govern the burial and survival of the archaeological record. Cultural formation processes include the deliberate or accidental activities of humans. On a settlement site, for example, the nature of human occupation, the activities carried out, the pattern of breakage and loss of material, rubbish disposal, rebuilding, or re-use of the same area will all influence the surviving archaeological deposits. After the site's abandonment, it will be further affected by such factors as erosion, glaciation, later agriculture, the activities of plants and animals, as well as the natural processes of chemical action in the soil. Reconstruction of these processes helps to relate the observed evidence of an archaeological site to the human activity responsible for it.
slash and burn: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: slash-and-burn agriculture, swidden (North American), shifting cultivation, roza (Spanish American), Brandwirtschaft (German), slash and burn agriculture, swidden agriculture
CATEGORY: term
DEFINITION: A primitive and widespread form of agriculture in which forest was cleared by chopping and burning small trees. It is one of the earliest forms of cultivation. The clearance would be followed by planting of crops in the clearance -- seeds planted in holes poked into the ashes -- and their harvesting and replanting for a few years. Without fertilizers, however, the land soon loses its nutritional value and the clearance must be left fallow, to grow over again, while other areas of forest are cleared. A return to the original plot may be made after a reasonable length of time, hence it is also called shifting cultivation and cyclic agriculture. In temperate regions it is a wasteful method since soil fertility and crop yields, though initially high, decline rapidly, after which a new stretch of forest must be cleared.
slopewash: CATEGORY: geology
DEFINITION: A type of sediment formed by soil and rubble being moved down hillslopes. The deposit may be caused by solifluxion or by plowwash. The poorly sorted deposit can sometimes carry the remains of archaeological sites downhill with it, resulting in a false location and mixed material.
snail: CATEGORY: fauna
DEFINITION: A gastropod, especially one having an enclosing shell, into which it may retract completely for protection. Land snail shells are frequently preserved in buried soils, the fills of ditches, and other deposits over limestone subsoils and sometimes fill a gap in environmental reconstruction. Other species are: shade-loving snails, open-country snails, and intermediate or catholic species that live in a variety of habitats -- including many of the more common species of snail. Using these categories of snail ecology, the relative frequencies of shell fragments from different species, extracted from deposits and soils, can be used to reconstruct ancient environments.
sounding: CATEGORY: term
DEFINITION: A very deep test pit, often dug to find sterile soil.
spoil pile: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: back dirt
CATEGORY: term
DEFINITION: The soil and other materials that accumulate as a result of excavations at an archaeological site, used to refill units when excavations are complete.
stake-hole: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: stakehole
CATEGORY: feature
DEFINITION: The small hole left in the ground after the removal or decay of a stake or post, which would usually have been part of a structure or fence. The cavity becomes filled with soil of a slightly different color or texture from that into which the stake-hole was originally cut, thus allowing its detection by archaeologists. They were put into the ground by hammering. They may be distinguished from postholes mainly by their shape and size.
steppe: CATEGORY: geography
DEFINITION: Vast level and usually treeless tracts in southeastern Europe or Asia or the arid land with vegetation found in regions of extreme temperature range and loess soil. This open grassland region is bounded on the north by forest, on the south by the Black Sea, the Caspian, and the mountains of central Asia. It supported nomadic pastoralists such as the Indo-Europeans, the Scythians, the Huns, and the Mongols. Their nomadic movements across the steppes spread cultural traits widely. The rich burials from Pazyryk are one of the few examples illustrating their wealth of material culture.
stone line: CATEGORY: geology
DEFINITION: A subsurface sheet of stones one layer thick within a soil which appears as a line parallel to the soil surface. Stone lines of geologic origin may contribute to the formation of ferruginous horizons; they may contain archaeological debris. The interpretation of archaeological debris within a stone line context depends on proper interpretation of the origin of the stone line.
stone zone: CATEGORY: geology
DEFINITION: A subsurface bed of stones or stone material within a soil that is larger than one layer thick; they may contain archaeological debris. Similar to stone lines, the origin of a stone zone is necessary for interpretation of the archaeological debris within this context.
stratigraphy: CATEGORY: technique
DEFINITION: The study and interpretation of the stratification of rocks, sediments, soils, or cultural debris, based on the principle that the lowest layer is the oldest and the uppermost in the youngest -- a major tool in establishing a relative dating sequence. The sequence of deposition can be assessed by a study of the relationships of different layers. Dateable artifacts found within layers, and layers or structures which are themselves dateable, can be used to date parts of stratigraphic sequences. An archaeologist has to master the skill to recognize it -- to distinguish one deposit from another by its color, texture, smell, or contents; to understand it -- to explain how each layer came to be added, whether by natural accumulation, deliberate fill, or collapse of higher-standing buildings; and to record it in measured drawings of the section. There can be problems where a feature filled with one type of material cuts into layers of the same material. Unless the later feature is recognized, objects of two different phases may appear to be stratified together. The underlying principles are: law of superposition, law of cross-cutting relationships, included fragments, and correlation by fossil inclusions. The stratigraphy principle was adopted from geology and is the basis of reconstructing the history of an archaeological site.
stylized section: CATEGORY: term
DEFINITION: A section showing all the interfaces and layers of a soil profile, with the units of stratification numbered.
Sutton Hoo: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: Sixth and seventh century AD burial mounds in Suffolk, England, the richest treasure found in British soil. It was the royal cemetery of the Wuffingas, early Anglo-Saxon kings of East Anglia. The largest of the burial mounds was found to cover a Saxon boat, its form preserved only by the impression left in the sand by its vanished timbers, with their iron bolts still in their original positions. The boat had been propelled by 38 oars; there was no mast. The grave goods include a decorated helmet, sword, and shield; ceremonial whetstone; gold belt buckle; purse and cloak clasps; Millefiori glass; cloisonné garnets; Merovingian gold coins; and Byzantium silver vessels and spoons. It is likely to have been prepared as a cenotaph in honor of Redwald (d. 625). He was the most important East Anglian king. The treasure shows a higher cultural level and wider commercial contacts than had previously been figured for the early Saxon period in England. This type of funerary ritual is known from Migration Period Europe and is described in the Anglo-Saxon poem Beowulf. The ship and artifacts are now housed in the British Museum.
swidden agriculture: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: swidden farming; slash-and-burn agriculture; swidden; shifting cultivation; swidden cultivation
CATEGORY: term
DEFINITION: Agricultural technique whereby forest vegetation is cut down annually, let dry and burned to prepare fields for crops. The method enriches the soil with nutrients from the ash, but the fields are only productive for a few years -- at which time it is necessary to change fields. Swidden agriculture is most common to Mesoamerica. The foremost benefit of this procedure is that the plot will be relatively weed free at first.
Tarsus: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: Prehistoric settlement in coastal Cilicia, southeast Turkey (Anatolia), the site of the Mound of Gözlüküle (Gözlü Kale). It was occupied from the 5th-1st millennia BC with a sequence paralleling that of Mersin. This included a late Neolithic, Chalcolithic, Early Bronze Age, Middle Bronze Age, Late Bronze Age, Iron Age, and early medieval period occupations. . Tarsus' prosperity between the 5th century BC and the Arab invasions in the 7th century AD was based primarily on its fertile soil, its position at the southern end of the Cilician Gates, and the great harbor of Rhegma, which enabled Tarsus to establish strong connections with the Levant.
texture: CATEGORY: geology; artifact
DEFINITION: The size, shape, and arrangement of grains or crystals in rocks and also a property of soil, sediment, or similar material. Soil texture class names are assigned to indicate specific ranges of percentage of sand, silt, and clay. As with particle size, several different systems of texture classification are in use, including the British Standard 1377 system and the United States Department of Agriculture system. For rocks, there are also classification schemes. The texture of artifacts is one property used to help identify the source material, conditions and environment of deposition or crystallization and recrystallization, and subsequent geologic history and change.
thermography: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: thermal prospection
CATEGORY: technique
DEFINITION: Non-photographic technique which uses thermal or heat sensors from aircraft to record the temperature of the soil surface. Temperatures can be mapped using thermography to provide a graphic or visual representation of the temperature conditions on the surface of an object or land area. Variations in soil temperature can be the result of the presence of buried structures.
thin sectioning: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: thin-section analysis; thin-section; thin section
CATEGORY: technique
DEFINITION: The removal of a very thin slice of material from an object, typically pottery or stone, for the purpose of examination under the petrological microscope. The sample chip may have to be ground down to 0.03 mm before mounting on a slide. The sample must be thin enough to determine the details of crystals and other structures. It is then possible to identify the source of the raw materials from which the object was made. The technique is also applied to soil, bone, and dental tissues.
till: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: boulder clay
CATEGORY: geology
DEFINITION: An aggregate of material -- unsorted soil consisting of sand, gravel, clay, and unsorted stones, and deposited directly by a glacier or ice sheet. All grades of particle size may be found. Till is sometimes called boulder clay because it is composed of clay, boulders of intermediate sizes, or a mixture of these. Ice does not sort the material it carries and the range of particle sizes, as well as the range of rock types, depends on the geology over which the ice-sheet or glacier has flowed. There are two types of till, basal and ablation. Basal till is that which was carried in the base of the glacier and commonly set under it. Ablation till is that which was carried on or near the surface of the glacier and came down as the glacier melted.
trace element: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: accessory element, guest element
CATEGORY: geology
DEFINITION: Elements present in a mineral in minor proportions (between 0.1-2.0%) but which are frequently characteristic of the original source of the material. Trace elements occur naturally in minerals in soils and sediment and are not added deliberately to a substance. Minute amounts of chemical elements found in minerals emit characteristic wavelengths of light when heated to incandescence. Quantitative analyses of metal, clay, obsidian, etc. can show the amounts of the trace elements present and may suggest a source. Source identification can lead to further interpretations of trade and economic systems.
tree line: CATEGORY: geography
DEFINITION: A line marking the point in the Arctic north where trees do not grow because the subsoil is permanently frozen. Proceeding northward or as the elevation increases, the height of the trees gradually decreases while the spacing between them increases until a point is finally reached where the trees give way to tundra, i.e. the tree line.
tundra: CATEGORY: geography
DEFINITION: An almost treeless region adjacent to polar ice; the region between ice caps and the tree line in lower Arctic latitudes. All but the top few inches of soil are permanently frozen, and so only a few plants can grow -- mosses, lichens, sedges, grasses, and stunted shrubs. There are two types: on level or rolling ground in polar regions (arctic tundra) or on high mountains (alpine tundra).
turf line: CATEGORY: geology
DEFINITION: A layer of soil rich in organic material which indicates a stratum or buried turf. A turf line may be the remains of a buried land surface or an artificial structure, possibly the cap of a mound or a layer of sod consolidating a barrow or rampart. It may also be the remains of vegetation which grew on the soil before burial. A real turf line indicates a pause in construction long enough for a soil to have developed.
upward migration: CATEGORY: term
DEFINITION: The movement of previously deposited objects to the soil surface as a result of plowing, bulldozing, or other nonarchaeological processes.
vertical face trenching: CATEGORY: technique
DEFINITION: An excavation strategy in which archaeologists expose a vertical face from the ground surface to sterile soil before excavating individual strata across the length of the trench.
West Kennet: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: A Neolithic long barrow, the largest of the Severn-Cotswold group of megalithic tombs, in Wiltshire, England, of c 3500 BC. The tomb has two pairs of transepts and a terminal chamber; the entrance opens from a crescent-shaped forecourt blocked by a straight facade of sarsen slabs. The burial was of 46 disarticulated inhumations and the chambers were filled with a mixture of soil, charcoal, sherds of Peterborough ware, and grooved ware and beaker fragments. That material has a date of 2500/2000 BC.
wet sieving: CATEGORY: technique
DEFINITION: A method used to separate organic material (seeds, snails, insects, etc.) from soil before drying, identification, and analysis. It is a more time-consuming method of extraction than flotation by machine, but has the advantage of being more accurate in its results since there is more control over extraction from the sample. The sample is poured into a sieve in a bowl of water, the lumps of soil are carefully broken up, and the organic material is trapped in the mesh while the soil particles are removed.

Another Dictionary Search