Field Analysis:Why Artefacts

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Why record anthropogenic inclusions and artefacts?
Artefacts and inclusions are seen as integral parts of the archaeological record, but can themselves provide information about the depositional environment, reworking of deposits, and post-depositional conditions, including the loss of stratigraphy to bioturbation (mixing by soil fauna).

In natural deposits where anthropogenic inclusions have been redeposited, their frequency, size, shape, distribution and orientation can provide information on the nature of the depositional environment and the distance the artefact has travelled.

A mixed artefact assemblage may suggest redeposition or in-situ loss of stratigraphy through for example bioturbation. Whilst in some cases, for example in acid soils where wireworms are more prevalent than earthworms, a ‘stratified’ distribution of coarse inclusions in an otherwise homogenised soil may be the only indication of lost stratigraphy.

Preservation (chemical and physical) can provide information about erosion and redeposition, the relative length of time a deposit was exposed at the surface before being buried, or conditions in the burial environment. For example, poorly preserved decalcified shell is an indicator of an acid environment that may not have been conducive to bone survival, however, if shell is well preserved it is likely that any bone would also have been well preserved.

As well as recording the range and frequency of artefacts, their distribution, any preferred orientation, and preservation (including size and rounding) can be very useful when investigating taphanomic processes, for example if shell survives in a state of good preservation, it is unlikely that an absence of bone is due to decomposition processes, whilst fragmentation of inclusions suggests disturbance such as trampling, bioturbation or cultivation, and rounding may suggest transport in water.

More information on how to record anthropogenic inclusions and artefacts can be found here.

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