What Are The Types Of Archaeological Excavation?

by | Last updated on January 24, 2024

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  • Research excavation – when time and resources are available to excavate the site fully and at a leisurely pace. ...
  • Development-led excavation – undertaken by professional archaeologists when the site is threatened by building development.

What are the methods of archaeological excavation?

Techniques used to find a site may include remote sensing (for example, by aerial photography), soil surveys, and walk-through or surface surveys. The digging of shovel tests, augured core samples and, less commonly, trenches may also be used to locate archaeological sites.

What are the types of excavation?

  • Earth excavation is removal of the layer of soil immediately under the topsoil and on top of rock. ...
  • Muck excavation is removal of material that contains an excessive amount of water and undesirable soil. ...
  • Unclassified excavation is removal of any combination of topsoil, earth, rock, and muck.

What are three archaeological excavations?

  • Pompeii. After a devastating volcanic eruption of Mt. ...
  • Tutankhamun’s tomb. The great Tutankhamun owes his fame to Howard Carter and George Herbert’s discovery of his tomb in 1922. ...
  • Rosetta Stone. ...
  • Terracotta Army. ...
  • Richard III’s grave. ...
  • Olduvai Gorge. ...
  • Cave of Altamira. ...
  • Dead Sea Scrolls.

What is archaeological excavation?

Archaeological excavation is the procedure by which archaeologists define, retrieve, and record cultural and biological remains found in the ground . Past activities leave traces in the form of house foundations, graves, artifacts, bones, seeds, and numerous other traces indicative of human experience.

What are three types of excavation?

  • Mass Excavation. A form of earthwork, mass excavation involves extensive quantities of soil, which has been excavated from the ground at the depth required for the garage or basement. ...
  • Structural Excavating. ...
  • Site Cut and Fill.

What are the steps of excavation?

  1. setting corner benchmarks.
  2. surveying ground and top levels.
  3. excavation to the approved depth.
  4. dressing the loose soil.
  5. marking up the cut off level.
  6. the construction of dewatering wells and interconnecting trenches.
  7. marking the boundaries of the building.

What are the four types of archaeological evidence?

All archaeological materials can be grouped into four main categories: (1) artifacts, (2) ecofacts, (3) structures, and (4) features associated with human activity . Artifacts and ecofacts are portable and thus can be removed from the site to be analyzed by specialists.

What are the methods of Archaeology?

  • Google Earth. ...
  • LIDAR. ...
  • Drones. ...
  • Shallow geophysics. ...
  • Soil geochemistry. ...
  • Ground penetrating radar.

What are the basic steps in processing archaeological materials recovered from an excavation?

  • Selecting the Site.
  • Conducting Research.
  • Excavating the Site.
  • Cleaning and Cataloguing Artifacts.
  • Reporting the Results.

What are the 5 archaeological sites?

The Union government has proposed to set up an Indian Institute of Heritage and Conservation under the Ministry of Culture, and develop five archaeological sites as “iconic sites” with onsite museums in Rakhigarhi (Haryana), Hastinapur (Uttar Pradesh), Sivsagar (Assam), Dholavira (Gujarat) and Adichanallur (Tamil Nadu) ...

Which archaeological site is best?

  • STONEHENGE, UNITED KINGDOM.
  • THE GREAT WALL, CHINA.
  • MOAI STATUES OF EASTER ISLAND, CHILE.
  • CHICHEN ITZA, MEXICO.
  • ACROPOLIS OF ATHENS, GREECE.
  • GIZA PYRAMIDS, EGYPT.
  • PETRA, JORDAN.
  • TIKAL, GUATEMALA.

What are 3 examples of artifacts?

Examples include stone tools, pottery vessels , metal objects such as weapons and items of personal adornment such as buttons, jewelry and clothing. Bones that show signs of human modification are also examples.

What is another name for archaeological excavation?

excavation hole ditch mine shaft trough burrow dig quarry crater

Why is archaeological excavation important?

Excavations can be classified, from the point of view of their purpose, as planned, rescue, or accidental. Most important excavations are the result of a prepared plan—that is to say, their purpose is to locate buried evidence about an archaeological site.

What happens on an archaeological dig?

Archaeologists dig up and study the physical (material) remains of people who lived long ago , including their public architecture, private houses, art, objects of daily life, trash, food, and more, to answer questions about who the people were, how they lived, what they ate, and what their lives were like.

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David Martineau
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