Chapter 5 Terminology

Question 1

A horizon

Answer 1

The upper part of a soil where active organic and mechanical decomposition of geological and organic material occurs.

Question 2

Alluvial sediments

Answer 2

Sediments transported by flowing water.

Question 3

Archaeological context

Answer 3

Once artifacts enter the ground, they are part of the archaeological context, where they continue to be affected by human action, but where they also are affected by natural processes.

Question 4

Agrilliturbation

Answer 4

A natural formation process in which wet/dry cycles in clay-rich soils push artifacts upward (προς τα άνω) as the sediment swells (φουσκώνει) and then moves them down as cracks form during dry cycles.

Question 5

B horizon

Answer 5

A layer found below the A horizon where clays accumulate that are transported downward by water.

Question 6

C horizon

Answer 6

A layer found below the B horizon that consists of the unaltered or slightly altered parent material; bedrock (βραχώδες υπόστρωμα) lies below the C horizon.

Question 7

Colluvial sediments

Answer 7

Sediments deposed primarily through the action of gravity on geological material lying on the hillsides.

Question 8

Cryoturbation

Answer 8

A natural formation process in which freeze/thaw (τήξη) in a soil selectively pushes larger artifacts to the surface of a site.

Question 9

Cultural depositional processes

Answer 9

Human behaviors by which artifacts enter the archaeological record, including discard, loss, caching, and ritual interment.

Question 10

Cultural disturbance processes

Answer 10

Human behaviors that modify artifacts in their archaeological context, for instance, digging pits and hearths, canals and houses.

Question 11

Eolian sediments

Answer 11

Materials transported and accumulated by wind (for example, dunes).

Question 12

Faunalturbation

Answer 12

A natural formation process in which animals, from large game to earthworms, affect the distribution of material within an archaeological site.

Question 13

Floralturbation

Answer 13

A natural formation process in which trees and other plants affect the distribution of artifacts within an archaeological site.

Question 14

Formation process

Answer 14

The ways which human behaviors and natural actions operate to produce the archaeological record.

Question 15

Geoarchaeology

Answer 15

The field of study that applies the concepts and methods of the geosciences to archaeological research.

Question 16

Geomorphology

Answer 16

The geological study of landforms and landscapes, for instance, soils, rivers, hills, sand dunes, deltas, glacial deposits and marshes.

Question 17

Graviturbation

Answer 17

A natural process in which artifacts are moved downslope through gravity, sometimes assisted by precipitation runoff.

Question 18

Hominins

Answer 18

Members of the evolutionary line that contains humans and our early bipedal ancestors.

Question 19

Imbrication (συναρμογή)

Answer 19

A fluvial (ποτάμιος) process through which stones in a stream - or riverbed come to rest overlapping like shingles on a roof, with their upstream ends lying slightly lower in elevation than their downstream ends.

Question 20

Krotovina

Answer 20

A filled-in animal burrow.

Question 21

Law of supervision

Answer 21

The geological principle stating that, in any pile sedimentary rocks that have not been disturbed by folding or overturning, each bed is older than the layers above and younger than they layers below; also known as Steno’s law.

Question 22

Marker bed

Answer 22

An easily identified geologic layer whose age has been independently confirmed at numerous locations and whose presence can therefore be used to date archaeological and geological sediments.

Question 23

Pithouse

Answer 23

Semi-subterranean structures with heavy log roofs, covered with sod (χλοοτάπητας).

Question 24

Reclamation process

Answer 24

Human behaviors that result in moving artifacts from the archaeological context back to systemic context,as in scavenging beams from an abandoned structure to use them in a new one.

Question 25

Reuse process

Answer 25

Human behaviors that recycle and reuse artifacts before they enter an archaeological context.

Question 26

Reverse stratigraphy

Answer 26

The result when one sediment is unearthed by human or natural actions and moved elsewhere, whereby the latest material will be deposited on the bottom of the new sediment, and progressively earlier material will be deposited higher and higher in the stratigraphy.

Question 27

Sediment rock

Answer 27

Rock formed when the weathered products of pre-existing rocks have been transported by and deposited in water and are turned once again to stone.

Question 28

Site formation

Answer 28

The human and natural actions that work together to create an archaeological site.

Question 29

Soil

Answer 29

Sediments that have undergone in situ chemical and mechanical alteration

Question 30

Systematic context

Answer 30

A living behavioral system wherein artifacts are part of the ongoing system of manufacture, use, re-use and discard.