Archaeology Terminology

an ideas or explanations for something that is based on known facts but have not yet been proved

• Hypotheses

• Bias

• Perspective

• Evidence

the action of supporting or opposing a particular person or thing in an unfair way, by allowing personal opinions to influence judgements

• bias

• perspective

• context

• authentication

particular ways of considering something

• bias

• perspective

• context

• authentication

objects that are made by a person, such as a tool or a decoration, especially one that is of historical interest

• ecofacts

• vitrified

• artefacts

• relative

any flora or fauna material found at an archaeological site; non-artefactual evidence that has not been technologically altered but that has cultural relevance, such as a shell carried from the ocean to an inland settlement

• artefacts

• stratigraphy

• midden

• ecofacts

the situation within which something exists or happens, and that can help explain it

• context

• provenance

• midden

• stratigraphy

the study of history and how it is written

• ethnographic

• historiography

• iconography

• epigraphy

in reference to archaeology, it is the analysis and position of layers of archaeological remains

• iconography

• historiography

• stratigraphy

• epigraphy

refers to something changed into glass, or into a substance that is like glass, usually with the use of heat

• provenance

• seriation

• vitrified

• midden

a relative dating method in which assemblages or artefacts from numerous sites, in the same culture, are placed in chronological order

• vitrified

• provenance

• artefacts

• seriation