Unit 2 - Challenging Excavation Flashcards
1
Q
How are underwater sites found?
A
- Previous surveys
- Local knowledge (fishermen)
- Oral sources
- Literary sources
- Artefacts found (by locals)
- Previous excavations
2
Q
What equipment is used in underwater archaeology?
A
- Computing systems to display data, record position/altitude, create maps
- Side scan sonar
- DGPS
- Water dredge
- NMR magnetometer
- Remote operating vechicles with cameras to carry out surveys
- Deep rovers with robotic arms to pick up delicate objects
3
Q
What difficulties do underwater archaeologists face?
A
- Dispute over legal rights
- Expensive
- Dangerous
- Special techniques and equipment needed
- Can damage environment/habitats
4
Q
The Lost Palace of Cleopatra
A
- In Alexandra
- Literary sources
- Submurged in water over 1500yrs ago
- 10yrs of planning
- Lighthouse, vessel, palace
- Shallow water - site mapped with a plumbob attatched to a buoy rigged with GPS
- Jewlery, hairpins, rings, glasscup
5
Q
Jamacia Port Roal
A
- Piracy + privateering
- Earthquake
- Shipwrecks
- Preserved in situ
- Coins, cast iron skillets, pots, pewter plates, remains of children, barrels, ceramics, pocket watch
6
Q
What are the issues with urban excavation?
A
- Risk of sites become unstable - landslides can occur, foundations disturbed - may step sides of trenches or use cofferdams
- Concrete
- Water/sewage pipes
- Getting equipment in/out
- Removing spoil
- Public
- Permission
7
Q
Richard III
A
- Urban cs
- Leicester
- found in a carpark
- problems with permission
- geophys
- location - hard to locate
8
Q
Spitafields
A
- Urban cs
- London
- Human burials
- Threat of disease - smallpox, cholera, typhoid
- Vaccinations given
- Protective clothing
- Lack of fresh air, natural light, high levels of dust
- Psychological effects
- Lead poisoning
9
Q
The Olympic Park
A
- Brownfield site
- London
- 1 square mile of semi-derelict land
- 121 trenches
- 10000 artefacts
- 6000 yrs of activity
- Derelict buildings
- Construction waste
- 18th/19th domestic waste
- Chemical contamination
- Waterlogged
- Heavy construction equipment
- Step trenches
- Gas, water, sewage pipes
10
Q
Peak District
A
- Underground site
- Derbyshire
- Neolithic - Iron Age skeletons
- 15m below ground
- Specialists needed
- Unstable caves - rockfalls, collapses
- Unofficial previous excavaion
- Spoil
- CO2
- Calcified artefacts
11
Q
Star Carr
A
- Waterlogged site
- Yorkshire
- Drainage - antler poorly preserved
- Dry areas - little bone/antler
- Antler flattened
- Wet deposits delicate - wood deteriorated and fragile
- Mineral content of most bone disappeared
- Peat becoming acidic
12
Q
Seahenge
A
- Wetland
- Holme-next-the-sea
- Timber circle with upturned tree trunk
- Salt marsh
- Access - tides
- Protests
- Timber decaying
- Place in fresh water tanks
