Archaeology Underwater: The NAS Guide to Principles and Practice

28 BASICPRINCIPLES – MAKING THEMOST OF THECLUES

ENVIRONMENT AND SITE-FORMATION

PROCESSES

This book has so far introduced both the sources of
evidence and some of the methods used to extract informa-

tion from those clues. In this section the site is viewed from

a different angle. Before using evidence to build up a

picture of the past, it is vital to develop an understand-

ing of the processes that shaped the clues.

The following questions should be considered:

• What are the fundamental factors which shaped
  the past that is now being studied?


• What affects the way in which an object becomes
  part of the site?


• How does the evidence survive until the site is
  investigated?


• What are the biases and imbalances that such pro-
  cesses introduce into the evidence?


• Are these processes detectable and so understandable?

All these questions have to be addressed in order to use

archaeological evidence to investigate complex aspects of

past societies such as behaviour and social organization.

These processes are not muddling factors to be filtered

out in the final report. Their study is fundamental to

archaeological research, not merely an interesting diver-

sion from the main lines of inquiry (figure 4.11).

Environment is important because it affects the way

people live and the survival of the clues they leave behind.

Knowledge of the environment is more than just an

aesthetic backdrop to events. Many human activities are

centred on solving problems set by their surroundings.

Therefore, much of the past being studied is a reaction

to the environment. Climate, vegetation, wild animals,

crops, water are all vital components that have to be

studied before human activities can be explained.

1 1 1

3 4

5

4

6

4 5

ABC

2

2 2

3 3

Figure 4.9 Stratigraphy: A) Context 1 is later than context 2. Absolute dates can be placed in the relative dating sequence.
B) A coin dated AD79 in context 3 indicates that 3, 2 and 1 arrived after AD79. C) A floor constructed in AD1322 indi-
cates that the contexts below it must have accumulated before then. (Based on original artwork by Ben Ferrari)

Figure 4.10 The undisciplined recovery of material destroys
evidence. This diver is only interested in the two metal objects.
Many other clues have been destroyed along with much of
the archaeological value of the finds themselves. (Drawing
by Graham Scott)