ANTHR206 Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: Side-Scan Sonar, Geophysical Survey, Geoarchaeology

• School: University of Alberta
• Department: Anthropology
• Course: ANTHR206
• Professor: Andrew Lints

Document Summary

Stages: site survey, non-intrusive, aerial reconnaissance, detection, pedestrian survey. Intrusive testing, coring: assess size of site, test units, not fully excavating, excavation. In-field recording: record units, layers, provenience, planimetric maps, etc, processing and classification, most laborious part of fieldwork, sorting artifacts based on. Shape: creating assemblages and assigning things to times or cultures. Law of association (all artifacts in the same layer were formed at the same time. Superposition - in a sequence of strata, the top layer is newer: uniformitarianism - the same processes of change that were happening before are still happening today, documentation. Spray soil with water to maintain colour and consistency: document root and rodent disturbance, thicker layers do not necessarily indicate longer time spans. Identify and record soil types and sedimentation: harris matrix (sequentially numbered diagram) Identification of human disturbances (cuts/holes, fills/what fills the holes) Mazama ash (in alberta) - created from a volcanic eruption.