Excavation: Virtual Archaeology

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Pages: 6
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ANTH 345
Kalee Campbell
05APR2015

Virtual Archaeology Report

Pre-excavation is a necessary step before jumping into the real archeological investigation. During the pre-excavation of a site it is important to choose a reference point. This is known as the datum. This will be the area of excavation in which everything is measured and all data is recorded by. I started my datum at 240R00. The excavation point spanned vertically from 320L10 to 240L10. This continued horizontally across 320L10 to 320R70 and from 240L10 over to 240R70. Surveying of the site is important when investigating as archaeologists. Surveying gives us ample time to provide a hypothesis for our expected finds and analysis of the excavation site. Hypothesis can also …show more content…
When doing an excavation it is first important to remove the topsoil also know as the plow zone. The plow zone is about one foot deep and is typically a dark color. This indicates that it may have been turned in repetitive succession. This soil will be dug up and thrown on to a screening device to find small artifacts. Excavating of the plow zone will reveal lighter color subsoil that is normally tan in color. This is evident of stiff clay like substances and must be subjected to troweling. Troweling is significant part of excavating in archaeological finds. Troweling works by gently and accurately scraping or shaving the soil. This is done to remove any roots or soil from the ground. Troweling will reveal any archaeological traces of the existence of ancient civilizations. The stains that appear on the ground can identify a wide arrangement of behavior in these ancient …show more content…
Feature 48 linked from square 240R10 to 270R10. Further investigation of the trench issued a common trend of fired clay. This was specified in the artifact inventory as having been in posthole 1, 2, and 3. Zone 1 which stretched from 240R10-270R10 also showed a development of fired clay, animal bones, and glass beads in each square. There are other various items not included, but it seems like the trench was used as a dumping site. The trench looked like it was made by a force of nature and not dug by those of human hands. However, the irregular trench of feature 48 was filled in with darker brown soil. This shows the civilization that inhabited the area must have found a reason to close in the trench. It was perhaps because it no longer had any use. It has been distinguished as a common practice that when pits are no longer of use they are to be filled
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