Archaeological sites in their setting

While concerning themselves increasingly with the location of sites as well as the artefacts they yield, archaeologists still tend to pay scant attention to changes in the local physical land-scape. Yet there is much of archaeological value to be learned from a systematic examination of the setting. To take two examples: a team conducting a site survey will wish to allow for the shifts in the shoreline or in the course of rivers. before deciding where to concentrate its efforts. Again, an excavation may yield artefacts, buildings and organic remains which appear to indicate a. flourishing agricultural economy in an area now devoid of soil, and the archaeologists will be anxious to discover whether there is any evidence that more favourable conditions prevailed there in the past. Dr Vita-Finzi shows how, by starting with an appraisal of the lie of the land and moving on to a consideration of the soils and sediments by which it is mantled, it is possible to build up a telling picture of the physiographic evolution of a survey area or the setting occupied by a particular site.… (more)