![Phase](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bd/Phase.001.png)
In
archaeology
Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landsca ...
, a phase refers to the logical reduction of
context
Context may refer to:
* Context (language use), the relevant constraints of the communicative situation that influence language use, language variation, and discourse summary
Computing
* Context (computing), the virtual environment required to su ...
s recorded during
excavation to nearly contemporary
archaeological horizon
In archaeology, the general meaning of horizon is a distinctive type of sediment, artefact, style, or other cultural trait that is found across a large geographical area from a limited time period. The term derives from similar ones in geology, ...
s 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 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
An archaeological site is a place (or group of physical sites) in which evidence of past activity is preserved (either prehistoric or historic or contemporary), and which has been, or may be, investigated using the discipline of archaeology a ...
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 over time. Phase is an extremely important concept in archeological excavation and
post-excavation work. Phasing is achieved by compiling smaller groups of contexts together through the use of
stratification
Stratification may refer to:
Mathematics
* Stratification (mathematics), any consistent assignment of numbers to predicate symbols
* Data stratification in statistics
Earth sciences
* Stable and unstable stratification
* Stratification, or st ...
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 from "digging in phase". Digging in phase is the process of stratigraphic removal of archaeological remains not to avoid removing contexts that are earlier in time lower in the
sequence
In mathematics, a sequence is an enumerated collection of objects in which repetitions are allowed and order matters. Like a set, it contains members (also called ''elements'', or ''terms''). The number of elements (possibly infinite) is calle ...
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 that 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
The Harris matrix is a tool used to depict the temporal succession of archaeological contexts and thus the sequence of depositions and surfaces on a 'dry land' archaeological site, otherwise called a 'stratigraphic sequence'. The matrix reflec ...
. Phase is sometimes termed differently depending on practitioner, examples include the term period but in the main phase is universal.
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 horizon
In archaeology, the general meaning of horizon is a distinctive type of sediment, artefact, style, or other cultural trait that is found across a large geographical area from a limited time period. The term derives from similar ones in geology, ...
s 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. However, the block of stratigraphy may have many phases within it as defined by the more rigorous definition of phase.
See also
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Archaeological association
This page is a glossary of archaeology, the study of the human past from material remains.
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B
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F
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Archaeological context
This page is a glossary of archaeology, the study of the human past from material remains.
A
B
C
D
E
F
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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 ...
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Chronological dating
Chronological dating, or simply dating, is the process of attributing to an object or event a date in the past, allowing such object or event to be located in a previously established chronology. This usually requires what is commonly known as a "d ...
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Cut (archaeology)
In archaeology and archaeological 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. In layman's terms, a c ...
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Excavation (archaeology)
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Feature (archaeology)
In archaeological excavation, a feature is a collection of one or more contexts representing some human non-portable activity, such as a hearth or wall. Features serve as an indication that the area in which they are found has been interfered wit ...
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Fill (archaeology)
In archaeology a fill is the material that has accumulated or has been deposited into a cut feature such as ditch or pit of some kind of a later date than the feature itself. Fills are an important part of the archaeological record as their forma ...
*
Harris matrix
The Harris matrix is a tool used to depict the temporal succession of archaeological contexts and thus the sequence of depositions and surfaces on a 'dry land' archaeological site, otherwise called a 'stratigraphic sequence'. The matrix reflec ...
*
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 arriv ...
References
Sources
*Principles of Archaeological Stratigraphy. 40 figs. 1 pl. 136 pp. London & New York: Academic Press. {{ISBN, 0-12-326650-5
*A quick Guide to Preliminary Phasing. https://ucl.academia.edu/ReubenThorpe/Papers/189559/A-Quick-Guide-to-Preliminary-Phasing
Methods in archaeology