General archaeology

General archaeology

Terms and definitions of archaeology -- the study of human society through the analysis of artifacts, architecture, biofacts and cultural landscapes.

Industry: Archaeology

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General archaeology

Surveying

Archaeology; General archaeology

(1) in archaeology, the process of locating archaeological sites. (2) more generally, the process of mapping and measuring points on the ground surface (e.g. "legal" or topographic surveying").

Stratified society

Archaeology; General archaeology

A society in which extensive subpopulations are accorded differential treatment.

Level bag

Archaeology; General archaeology

A bag containing excavated materials from a single level of a single excavation unit.

Vertical datum

Archaeology; General archaeology

A base measurement point from which all elevations are determined.

Atomic absorption spectrometry (AAS)

Archaeology; General archaeology

A method of analysing artefact composition similar to optical emission spectrometry (OES) in that it measures energy in the form of visible light waves. It is capable of measuring up to 40 different ...

Mosaic evolution

Archaeology; General archaeology

The concept that major evolutionary changes tend to take place in stages, not all at once. Human evolution shows a mosaic pattern in the fact that small canine teeth, large brains, and tool use did ...

X-ray fluorescence spectrometry (XRF)

Archaeology; General archaeology

A method used in the analysis of artefact composition, in which the sample is irradiated with a beam of X-rays which excite electrons associated with atoms on the surface.