Archaeological Terminology

Like with most of the sciences, there is a specific language that accompanies archaeology. I am going to define the meaning of some of the most common kinds of language that can be found in archaeological publications, as well as what I will be using in this blog.

Basic categories of the kinds of archaeological evidence include...

• Artifacts - objects that were used, modified or made by humans.
• Ecofacts - organic and environmental remains that are associated with human activity (such as a ditch system).
• Features - non-portable artifacts, such as the remains of a fire.
• Sites - areas of human activity. These are arbitrarily assigned by archaeologists and don't necessarily correspond to the areas the ancient peoples would have defined.

Stratigraphy - this is big one. A lot of writing about archaeology will include information about the stratigraphy, or stratigraphic layers. This refers to the order in which the layers (strata) of a site are found, and how that relates to the time scale of the site. These different layers could be natural, or man made. The idea of stratigraphy was taken from geology, and like geographic layers, they follow the law of superposition, which states that in an undisturbed context, the oldest layers are at the bottom. This helps archaeologists create a relative timeline, knowing which artifacts or features are older than the others.




Example of stratigraphic layers - taken from http://www.travelingclassroom.org/wp-content/uploads/2008/04/stratigraphy.jpg.

 

Lithics - another common term used by archaeologists is lithics. Basically, this just means stone tools and the leftover materials from making the tools. From periods of history that pre-date the invention of metals (or areas like the Americas where metal was rarely made into tools), stone tools are some of the most common kinds of artifacts found. That isn't to say that other materials (like bone and wood) were not used, they just don't survive the test of time nearly as well as rock does.
 Stone tools can be made from knapping (breaking the rock to form specific shapes - look it up on Youtube, its pretty awesome!) or grinding the rock into different shapes. Both have their advantages - ground stone tools are generally heavier and more durable, while knapped stone can be very sharp and used for hunting or cutting tools.

Middens - middens are very important archaeological features (especially here in BC) and can give researchers a ton of information. Often, middens are called garbage dumps, and while that can be technically true, that description does not give the proper justice to these awesome sites. In coastal BC, shell (from hunted shellfish) middens are very common. These are often found along beaches. In fact, many of the beaches of BC that are white are actually shell deposits. The soils neutralize, and so the shell doesn't decompose, but gets broken down into finer and finer powder. Middens are a sign that an area was inhabited, and can represent thousands of years of occupation.
A great example of a midden comes from Namu, BC which has an archaeological record that spans over 10,000 years. A section of a midden profile was taken from the site, and is on display at the Museum of Archaeology & Ethnology and Simon Fraser University, and represents about 5,000 years of cultural and natural accumulation.

 
 



This picture is only part of the section, but even in this small part, it is easy to see the different stratigraphic layers that the midden is made of. To find out more about the Namu Profile and other awesome, check out The Museum of Archaeology & Ethnography here https://www.sfu.ca/archaeology/museum.html or in person.