Natural in archaeology

Archaeology

Archaeology, or archeology , is the study of human society, primarily through the recovery and analysis of the material culture and environmental data that they have left behind, which includes artifacts, architecture, biofacts and cultural landscapes...

 is a term to denote a horizon in the stratigraphic record representing the point before which there is no anthropogenic activity on site and the archaeological record

Archaeological record

The archaeological record is the body of physical evidence about the past. It is one of the most basic concepts in archaeology, the academic discipline concerned with documenting and interpreting the archaeological record....

 ends. Natural is often the underlying geological makeup of the site and is formed by geological processes. It is the goal of complete excavation to remove the entirety of the archaeological record all the way to "natural", thus leaving only the natural deposits of pre-human activity on site. If the excavation is related to development, the impact assessment may stipulate excavation will cease at a certain depth, because the nature of the development will not disturb remains below a certain level; such an excavation may not reach natural or sterile.

Issues of definition

Natural can be a relative term. On urban sites where research interests may make a detailed examination of the earliest part of the record impractical, prehistoric or rudimentary human activity may go unrecorded compared to an equivalent horizon on a rural site for which the study team's agenda is to look for prehistoric evidence. The visibility of features in natural is to some extent a function of chemical and soil process over time, usually causing decomposition of cultural materials. Additionally, early prehistoric tools were manufactured from natural materials, such as bone, stone and fiber; they do not stand out as clearly as metal, glass and plastic. The effect of decompositional processes is that the older an archaeological deposit is, the more it will appear similar to the underlying geology. For some archaeologists, a basic rule of thumb is "the greater the contrast an context

Archaeological context

In archaeology, not only the context of a discovery is a significant fact, but the formation of the context is as well. An archaeological context is an event in time which has been preserved in the archaeological record. The cutting of a pit or ditch in the past is a context, whilst the material...

 has with the natural, the younger it is." Similarly, United States prehistoric archaeologists often rely on significantly diminished counts of lithic flake debitage

Debitage

The term debitage refers to all the waste material produced during lithic reduction and the production of chipped stone tools. This assemblage includes, but is not limited to, different kinds of lithic flakes, shatter, and production errors and rejects....

 to assess the excavation unit's trend toward natural stratigraphy. While a trend may be recognized, the stratum is not called natural or sterile, until it is void of cultural materials.

Geoarchaeology

Natural is becoming a blurred term in archaeology due to an increased understanding by researchers of natural processes. In addition, through the development of geoarchaeology

Geoarchaeology

Geoarchaeology is a multi-disciplinary approach which uses the techniques and subject matter of geography, geology and other Earth sciences to examine topics which inform archaeological knowledge and thought...

, scholars believe the natural landscape

Natural landscape

A natural landscape is a landscape that is unaffected by human activity. A natural landscape is intact when all living and nonliving elements are free to move and change. The nonliving elements distinguish a natural landscape from a wilderness. A wilderness includes areas within which natural...

 has a bearing on interpretation of subsequent human activity on any given site. As geoarchaeology is influencing the interpretation of processes that occur within the archaeological record, the term "natural" becomes less of a distinct horizon in the record.

See also

• Geoarchaeology
  Geoarchaeology
  Geoarchaeology is a multi-disciplinary approach which uses the techniques and subject matter of geography, geology and other Earth sciences to examine topics which inform archaeological knowledge and thought...
  
  
• Archaeological field survey
  Archaeological field survey
  Archaeological field survey is the method by which archaeologists search for archaeological sites and collect information about the location, distribution and organization of past human cultures across a large area...
  
  
• Archaeological context
  Archaeological context
  In archaeology, not only the context of a discovery is a significant fact, but the formation of the context is as well. An archaeological context is an event in time which has been preserved in the archaeological record. The cutting of a pit or ditch in the past is a context, whilst the material...
  
  
• Archaeological association
  Archaeological association
  Association in archaeology has more than one meaning and is confusing to the layman. Archaeology has been critiqued as a soft science with a somewhat poor standardization of terms.-Finds and objects:...
  
  
• Relationship (archaeology)
  Relationship (archaeology)
  An archaeological relationship is the position in space and by implication, in time, of an object or context with respect to another. This is determined, not by linear measurement but by determining the sequence of their deposition - which arrived before the other...
  
  
• Archaeological section
  Archaeological section
  In archaeology a section is a view in part of the archaeological sequence showing it in the vertical plane, as a cross section, and thereby illustrating its profile and stratigraphy. This may make it easier to view and interpret as it developed over time....
  
  
• Archaeological horizon
• Harris matrix
  Harris matrix
  The Harris matrix is a tool used to depict the temporal succession of archaeological contexts and thus the sequence of deposition on a 'dry land' archaeological site. The matrix reflects the relative position and stratigraphic contacts of observable stratigraphic units, or contexts. The Matrix was...
  
  
• Excavation (archaeology)
• Deposit model
  Deposit model
  In the field of archaeology a deposit model is a method of identifying the character and degree of survival of buried archaeological remains over a specified area without necessarily excavating the whole area....