"Excavation is the exposure, processing and recording of archaeological remains."
The physical removal of archaeological materials from the ground to study and interpret.
Introduction to Archaeology: Understanding the basic principles and methods of archaeology is essential for understanding archaeological excavation.
Archaeological sites: This topic involves learning about the different types of archaeological sites and their characteristics, such as settlements, burial grounds, and ritual sites.
Excavation planning: This involves the process of planning and conducting excavations, including site selection, surveying, mapping, and excavation strategies.
Excavation tools and techniques: This includes the tools and techniques used in excavation, such as trowels, shovels, brushes, screens, and sieves.
Archaeological stratigraphy: Understanding the importance of stratigraphy and the layers of soil and cultural debris provides a better understanding of the context of the artifacts.
Recording and documentation: This topic teaches the proper methods for recording and documenting excavations, such as field notes, photography, drawings, and mapping.
Artifact analysis: Understanding how to analyze artifacts is crucial for interpreting and dating archaeological excavations, including typology, seriation, and dating techniques.
Preservation and conservation: This topic focuses on the importance of preserving and conserving archaeological sites and artifacts, including storage, cleaning, and restoration techniques.
Archaeological ethics: This involves understanding the ethical responsibilities of archaeologists, including respecting the communities and cultures associated with archaeological sites.
Interpretation and publication: This topic focuses on the interpretation of archaeological data and the process of publishing archaeological findings, including academic articles and public outreach materials.
Open excavation: The site is exposed entirely to the surface level so that all the layers are visible and accessible to the archaeologists.
Step trenching: Digging trenches of different depths to investigate the layers of the site.
Test excavation: A small excavation area is created to see if there are any archaeological features or deposits present.
Rescue excavation: Done in the case of an imminent threat to a site or its destruction due to natural calamities or human activities.
Salvage excavation: Done in the case of an imminent threat or destruction to a site, and to record information about the site before its complete destruction.
Area excavation: A larger excavation area is created to explore the larger sections of the site.
Stratigraphic excavation: In this method, excavation proceeds layer by layer, and each previous layer is documented before excavating the next layer.
Vertical excavation: Excavating from the top soil to the bottom soil layers to investigate the site's timeline.
Horizontal excavation: Excavating in a horizontal pattern along the site to investigate the site's chronology.
Tunnel excavation: Excavating a long trench under a site to explore the site's features without disturbing the ground.
Underwater excavation: Excavation done below water bodies to investigate submerged archaeological sites.
Remote sensing excavation: A non-destructive method of excavation using technology like radar, sonar, or geophysical surveys to locate archaeological sites without digging.
Experimental archaeology excavation: Replicating ancient tools, materials, or techniques to understand how they work and how ancient people used them.
Ethnoarchaeological excavation: Studying present-day indigenous cultures and societies using archaeological methods to understand their past.
"An excavation site or 'dig' is the area being studied."
"These locations range from one to several areas at a time during a project and can be conducted over a few weeks to several years."
"This data includes artifacts, features, ecofacts, and archaeological context."
"Artifacts are portable objects made or modified by humans."
"Features are non-portable modifications to the site itself such as post molds, burials, and hearths."
"Ecofacts are evidence of human activity through organic remains such as animal bones, pollen, or charcoal."
"Archaeological context refers to the relationships among the other types of data."
"Non-intrusive remote sensing, such as ground-penetrating radar, can often suggest the presence or absence of archaeological remains."
"Basic information about the development of the site may be drawn from this work."
"Excavation via augering can be used."
"Archaeologists often use stratigraphic excavation to remove phases of the site one layer at a time."
"Stratigraphic excavation keeps the timeline of the material remains consistent with one another."
"Soil can be processed through methods such as mechanical sieving or water flotation."
"Afterwards, digital methods are then used to record the excavation process and its results."
"Ideally, data from the excavation should suffice to reconstruct the site completely in three-dimensional space."
"The processing and recording of archaeological remains is essential to obtain valuable information about past human activities."
"Mechanical sieving is used to process the soil and separate artifacts and other materials."
"Non-portable modifications of the site are studied through features such as post molds, burials, and hearths."
"Understanding the archaeological context is crucial to interpret the relationships among different types of data and gain insights into past human behavior."