List of illustrations ........................................ xiii
Acknowledgements and picture credits ....................... xxxiii
Preface .................................................... xxxvii
PART 1: PRINCIPLES .............................................. 1
How archaeological fieldwork relates to theory and the society
in which it is practised. The demands of research, the needs
of conservation and the rights of stakeholders - and how
these can be reconciled.
Chapter 1: The stuff ............................................ 3
A prodigious variety ............................................ 3
Methods of study ................................................ 7
Defining archaeological strata ................................. 15
Archaeological vocabulary ...................................... 19
Conclusion ..................................................... 22
Chapter 2: Approaches .......................................... 25
What do we want from fieldwork? ................................ 25
Empirical to reflexive: five approaches ........................ 27
Evaluative archaeology ......................................... 32
Field Research Procedure ....................................... 35
Chapter 3: Field Research Procedure: a framework ............... 39
A value-led project: the Sutton Hoo burial ground .............. 39
Stage 1 Reconnaissance ......................................... 41
Stage 2 Evaluation ............................................. 41
Stage 3 Project design ......................................... 48
Stage 4 Field investigation .................................... 52
Stage 5 Analysis ............................................... 55
Stage 6 Publication ............................................ 57
Reflection ..................................................... 57
PART 2: IN THE FIELD ........................................... 61
Here I review techniques and their applications for five
principal types of field operation.
Chapter 4: Landscape survey .................................... 63
First day in the field ......................................... 63
Techniques ..................................................... 65
Applications ................................................... 73
In sum ......................................................... 86
Chapter 5: Site survey ......................................... 89
Looking at sites ............................................... 89
Techniques ..................................................... 89
Applications .................................................. 102
In sum ........................................................ 109
Chapter 6: Excavation ......................................... 113
First day on a dig ............................................ 113
On method: three ways of dissecting strata .................... 117
On procedure: Recovery Levels ................................. 124
Recording ..................................................... 138
The course of an excavation ................................... 146
In sum ........................................................ 148
Chapter 7: Projects galore: Integrated Field Research ......... 151
A cave site in Greece ......................................... 152
A shell mound in Kentucky ..................................... 154
On the gravels: a timber palace in Northern England ........... 156
On the sand: a Neolithic village by the Seine ................. 159
A turf hall in Norway ......................................... 161
A stone fort in Sweden ........................................ 164
A tell site in Syria .......................................... 165
A terp site in Holland ........................................ 167
A Maya ruin in Belize ......................................... 170
Getting wet ................................................... 184
In a shallow Alpine lake ...................................... 185
Diving deep off Turkey ........................................ 188
A villa by the Adriatic ....................................... 171
Tomb tableaux in China ........................................ 173
Studying standing structures .................................. 174
Urban archaeology ............................................. 179
Getting wet: in Florida, France and Turkey .................... 184
In sum ........................................................ 191
PART 3: WRITING UP ............................................ 195
This shows how the records gathered in the field are studied
and reported to researchers, to clients and to the public.
Chapter 8: Analysis ........................................... 197
The tasks: manage, assess and analyse ......................... 197
The analytical programme ...................................... 202
Case study: Saddler Street, Durham ............................ 205
Conclusion .................................................... 215
Chapter 9: Assemblage ......................................... 217
Retrieval ..................................................... 217
Analysis ...................................................... 224
Artefacts ..................................................... 225
Biological (biota) samples .................................... 231
Interpreting site assemblages ................................. 238
Chapter 10: Space ............................................. 245
Scales of space ............................................... 245
Spatial patterns from excavation .............................. 246
Plotting objects .............................................. 247
Mapping features and structures ............................... 250
Spatial patterns from site survey ............................. 252
Spatial patterns in the landscape ............................. 256
Pattern-seeking by computation ................................ 258
Chapter 11: Chronology ........................................ 267
The business of chronology .................................... 267
Typological dating of artefacts ............................... 268
Scientific dating of materials ................................ 269
Using objects to date contexts ................................ 272
Relative ordering of contexts ................................. 275
Ordering contexts by their assemblages ........................ 279
Chronology for poorly stratified sites ........................ 281
The chronology of well-stratified sites ....................... 287
Context seriation: assemblages and stratification working
together ...................................................... 288
Feature sequence diagrams ..................................... 291
Chapter 12: Synthesis ......................................... 297
Why write? .................................................... 297
Site models ................................................... 299
Interpretation ................................................ 302
The wider context ............................................. 310
Conclusion .................................................... 313
Chapter 13: Publication ....................................... 315
Types of output ............................................... 315
Archive ....................................................... 316
Client reports ................................................ 318
Research Reports .............................................. 319
Talking to the public ......................................... 325
Display of sites .............................................. 327
Conclusion .................................................... 330
PART 4: DESIGN ................................................ 333
Armed with the basic methods of archaeological
investigation, the reader is introduced to the design
process, and the context in which designs are prepared.
Design feeds the research community with new knowledge and
supplies the conservation profession with new protected
resources. These interests constitute the main employment
of archaeologists in the modern world.
Chapter 14: Evaluation and Project Design ..................... 335
Introduction .................................................. 335
Field Research Procedure and its design stages ................ 336
Evaluation in town and country ................................ 338
Making the resource model: rural sites ........................ 343
Resource modelling for urban sites ............................ 347
Contents of a Project Design .................................. 352
Implementation ................................................ 356
Conclusion .................................................... 359
Chapter 15: Our profession and its context .................... 362
What sort of a state are you in? .............................. 362
The research cycle ............................................ 368
The heritage cycle ............................................ 370
The creative spirit ........................................... 375
Glossary ...................................................... 379
Abbreviations ................................................. 387
Bibliography .................................................. 388
Index ......................................................... 413
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