Some common terms we use in archaeology that are useful for reference (this page in constantly work in progress, we are updating it as we start to use and come across new terms):
A
Airborne Remote Sensing – Mapping of archaeology from the air, usually through aerial photographs and LiDAR.
Amadou – Spongy material derived from certain types of fungi. Used as tinder for fire making by ancient peoples.
Analytical earthwork survey – Accurate mapping and analysis of archaeological features visible above ground.
Antemortem – Before death
Archaeothanatology – Study of the changes to the position of skeletal elements after burial. Bone positions for example will be subtly different between a body buried in a coffin and a body buried in the ground directly.
Assemblage – A group of artefacts found together in a specific context, such as a site or layer, that are believed to have been deposited during the same period or related activity.
Axe – Tool for chopping and cutting. Often talked about in Stone Age archaeology when made from flint nodules or larger flints.
Awl – A tool used for piercing or drilling
B
Barbed Point – Projectile tip, typically made from bone, stone, antler, with one or more backward facing barbs along it edges.
Baulk – An unexcavated strip left between trenches, used to preserve a cross-section of the site’s stratigraphy for later recording and analysis.
Bodkin – A blunt needle
Bulk Finds – Anything classified as an artefact, and doesn’t need special treatment or conservation (e.g. pottery, animal bone, glass, worked stone/flint). Usually washed on site, depending on the material.
Burin – Tool often used for scoring antlers or boring holes
C
D
Desktop Survey – Examination of standard archives and already published data relating to a site and it’s surrounding area
Diaphysis – Shaft, or long middle section of a long bone, which sits between the two epiphyses
E
Epiphyses – The ends of long bones
Epiphyseal fusion – The process by which the epihyses of long bones fuse to the shaft, as a result of aging. Used to estimate the age of a skeleton, as unfused ends indicate the bones are still growing.
F
Fieldwalking – See Surface artefact mapping
Flint – sedimentary stone, usually found as nodules in chalk. Range of colours, glassy appearance once broken. Flakes when struck, sharper than surgical steel when struck off.
Flotation – A technique used to recover small artifacts and organic materials (e.g seeds, small bones, insect remains). Soil samples are immersed in water, and the light material float to the surface for collection.
G
Geophysics – A number of techniques used to measure different physical properties of the ground (such as it’s magnetic field), in order to identify buried features.
Grooved Ware – Name given to a style of pottery from the British Neolithic.
H
I
Iron pyrites – Mineral, also known as fool’s gold. When struck with flint or steel, produces sparks, therefore used in fire lighting.
J
K
Knapping – Working a flint nodule or larger piece of flint to produce other tools
L
M
Meche de foret – A flint blade, with a sharp strong tip. Used for drilling.
Microlith – Small piece of flint, created out of a blade, often triangular in form. Often associated with hunting but not exclusively.
N
O
Osteoarchaeology – The study of human skeletal remains within an archaeological context
P
Perimortem – At or near the time of death
Phytolith – Microscopic silica structures in plants, which can survive in most conditions where other parts of the plant would have been lost.
Project Design – Planning document written prior to an excavation. This will include elements such a detailed programme of work, excavation methodology (size and location of trenches for example, how they will be excavated and recorded etc), reason for selecting the site or location. This should also include post-excavation – processing, recording, archiving, publishing, storage of finds etc.
Q
R
Radiocarbon Dating – Living things absorb carbon 14 isotopes during their lifetime. After death, C14 undergoes radioactive decay according to a known timetable. This can be used to deduce time since death.
S
Scraper – Flint tool (usually). Used for scraping hides
Small Finds – Anything that is not a bulk find, usually having different conservation requirements (e.g. metals), or may have special significance to the site/context.
Strike-a-light – Flint used for making fire
Spatial patterning – Distribution of finds across a site, looking for patterns where different areas of use can be discerned. For example, a specific area used for flint tool making, or butchery.
Stable Isotope analysis – A technique that examines teeth and bones to unearth information about a person, e.g. their diet and origin. Stable isotopes have a nucleus that does not decay, and so they remain over time. Different isotopes occur in different ratios between different substances, like food types, and eco-systems, like between land and sea. Isotopes in food and drink are absorbed into our skeletons and can be measured and analyzed. The most widely analyzed isotopes in archaeology are carbon and nitrogen (for looking at questions of diet) and oxygen and strontium (for looking at migration patterns).
Stratigraphy – The layered deposition of soil and materials over time. Basic principles is that lower layers are older, upper layers more recent.
Surface artefact mapping – The collection and mapping of artefacts from the ground’s surface and the study of their distribution patterns. Often called fieldwalking.
T
Taphonomy – Study of what happens to remains after death but before recovery.
Till – Glacial clay
U
Usewear analysis – Microscopic analysis to ascertain usage of a stone tool. Compare archaeological tools for wear to replica tools which have been used for various purposes (skinning, scraping, plant working etc).
V
W
X
Y
Z