Archaeology Glossary

Any portable object made, modified, or used by humans, such as stone tools, pottery, metal implements, or ornaments. Artifacts are the primary objects of archaeological study.

The total collection of artifacts and ecofacts recovered from a particular archaeological context such as a layer, feature, or site, analyzed together to identify patterns of behavior.

The applied practice of archaeology focused on identifying, evaluating, and protecting sites and cultural heritage threatened by development, governed by laws such as the NHPA in the United States.

A dating method that matches patterns of annual tree-ring widths in archaeological wood samples to established master chronologies, providing calendar-year precision.

Natural objects found in archaeological contexts that were not manufactured by humans but provide information about past environments and subsistence, such as animal bones, plant seeds, and pollen.

A non-portable archaeological element that cannot be removed from a site without destroying its context, such as a hearth, wall foundation, posthole, pit, or burial.

A laboratory recovery technique in which soil samples are processed in water so that lightweight organic materials like seeds and charcoal float to the surface for collection and analysis.

A geophysical survey method that transmits radar pulses into the ground and records reflections from subsurface features, producing images of buried structures without excavation.

A diagrammatic representation of the stratigraphic relationships between all depositional units at an excavation site, showing their sequential order of formation.

A laboratory technique measuring ratios of stable or radioactive isotopes in archaeological materials to determine diet, geographic origin, mobility patterns, and dating of past populations.

A geophysical prospection technique that detects variations in the earth's magnetic field caused by buried features such as kilns, hearths, ditches, and walls, enabling non-invasive site mapping.

An archaeological refuse deposit or garbage heap containing discarded food remains, broken objects, ash, and other debris that provides evidence of diet, technology, and daily life.

The study of plant remains recovered from archaeological contexts to understand past agricultural systems, diet, plant use, and environmental conditions.

The study of fossil pollen and spores from sedimentary deposits used to reconstruct past vegetation, climate, and human impact on landscapes over time.

A set of interpretive theoretical approaches from the 1980s onward that critique processual archaeology's positivism, emphasizing agency, meaning, multiple interpretations, and reflexivity.

A theoretical approach that emerged in the 1960s emphasizing scientific method, hypothesis testing, and the search for general laws governing cultural processes and human adaptation.

The documented ownership or custody history of an artifact or antiquity from its point of discovery to the present, important for establishing legal ownership and authenticity.

The exact three-dimensional location where an artifact or ecofact is found during excavation, including its horizontal coordinates and vertical position within the stratigraphic sequence.

An absolute dating technique that measures the decay of carbon-14 in organic materials to determine their age, effective for samples up to approximately 50,000 years old.

The return of cultural objects, human remains, and sacred items to their communities or countries of origin, a central ethical issue in modern archaeology governed by laws like NAGPRA.

A relative dating method that orders artifacts or assemblages chronologically based on the assumption that stylistic attributes change in popularity over time in predictable patterns.

The study of soil and deposit layers at archaeological sites used to establish relative chronological sequences based on the principle that undisturbed lower layers are older than upper ones.

The study of processes that affect remains after deposition, including decomposition, erosion, bioturbation, and chemical alteration, critical for understanding site formation and preservation.

A dating method that measures accumulated radiation in crystalline materials such as pottery to determine when the material was last heated, useful for dating ceramics and burnt stones.

The classification of artifacts into types based on shared attributes of form, material, and manufacturing technique, used to create chronological sequences and identify cultural traditions.

The analysis of animal remains from archaeological sites to reconstruct past diets, subsistence strategies, husbandry practices, environmental conditions, and human-animal relationships.