Archaeological phase and phasing refers to the logical reduction of 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...

s recorded during excavation to near contemporary archaeological horizons that represent a distinct "phase" of previous land use. These often but not always will be a representation of a former land surface or occupation level  and all associated features

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:...

 that were created into or from this point in time. A simplified description of phase would be that" a phase is a view of a given Archaeological site

Archaeological site

An archaeological site is a place in which evidence of past activity is preserved , and which has been, or may be, investigated using the discipline of archaeology and represents a part of the archaeological record.Beyond this, the definition and geographical extent of a 'site' can vary widely,...

 as it would have been at time X". examples of phases that would have no associated occupation surfaces are phases of a site that have been horizontally truncated by later phases and only elements surviving of the truncated phase are those that were below ground level and the subsequent truncation at that time. Subsequent or earlier Phases are representations in changing occupation patterns and land use use over time. Phase is an extremely important concept in Archeological excavation and post excavation

Post excavation

In archaeology once the archaeological record of given site has been excavated, or collected from surface surveys, it is necessary to gain as much data as possible and organize it into a coherent body of information. This process is known as post-excavation analysis, and is normally the most...

 work. Phasing is achieved by compiling smaller groups of contexts together through the use of stratification

Stratification (archeology)

Stratification is a paramount and base concept in archaeology, especially in the course of excavation. It is largely based on the Law of Superposition...

 and stratigraphic excavation into ever larger units of understanding. the terminology of these sub units or collections of contexts varies depending on practitioner but the terms; interface, sub-group, group, and feature are common. Phasing a site has a slightly different meaning to "digging in phase".Digging in phase is the process of stratigraphic removal of archaeological remains so as not to remove contexts that are earlier in time lower in the sequence

Sequence (archaeological)

The archaeological sequence or sequence for short, on a specific archaeological site can be defined on two levels of rigour.# Normally it is adequate to equate it to archaeological record. However, the two terms are not exactly interchangeable...

 before other contexts that have a latter physical stratigraphic relationship to them. Digging a site "in phase" is considered good practice and can be thought of as the process of removing the deposits on site in the reverse order they arrived. Phasing is achieved on site by many methods including intuition and experience but the main analytical tool post excavation is the 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...

. Phase is sometimes termed differently depending on practitioner, examples include the term period but in the main phase is universal.

Phase, component and focus

A less rigorous term phase is sometimes used to denote a wider period represented by the contexts that lie stratigraphically between two Archaeological horizons representing the start and end of a particular culture typology. Sometimes the term focus or component is used for such a grouping of stratigraphy.
An example of this use of Phase would be all the contexts between two horizons may represent the entirety of all Saxon occupation on a given site and could be termed as the Saxon phase of the site. Note however this block of stratigraphy may have many phases within it as defined by the more rigorous definition of phase.

See also

• 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...
  
  
• Cut (archaeology)
  Cut (archaeology)
  In Archaeology and archeological stratification a cut or truncation is a context that represents a moment in time when other archaeological deposits were removed for the creation of some feature such as a ditch or pit...
  
  
• 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....
  
  
• Feature (archaeology)
  Feature (archaeology)
  Feature in archaeology and especially excavation has several different but allied meanings. A feature is a collection of one or more contexts representing some human non-portable activity that generally has a vertical characteristic to it in relation to site stratigraphy. Examples of features are...
  
  
• 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...
  
  
• 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....
  
  
• Fill (archaeology)
  Fill (archaeology)
  In archaeology fills are contexts representing material that has accumulated or has been deposited into a cut feature such as ditch or pit of some kind...
  
  
• Excavation (archaeology)