Post-excavation analysis
[2] This trend is directly reflected in the increasing application of the scientific method to post-excavation analysis.
By studying temper in more detail, pottery can be sourced to specific manufacturers or geographic locations.
Re-firing experiments and ethnology can also provide clues to fabric color and hardness, which inform understandings of manufacturing techniques.
Though this can be problematic at times, it does give a good measure of the relative proportion and distribution of artifacts on a given site.
[9] Stone tools are frequently the subject of archaeological analyses as they exhibit exceptional preservation and are often the most numerous artifact at early prehistoric sites.
Categorization organizes observations into “a limited set of groupings that can be said to be alike in a defined way.” [12] Categorization can either be achieved by: Factors measured include, but are not limited to, size, shape, level of reduction, color, raw material, and technological or typological category.
[14][15] Archaeologists must make decisions about how to measure these factors in order to achieve the highest possible level of objectivity.
Sometimes, stone tools are continually modified and keen attention to surfaces is necessary to recognize each stage of the manufacture process.
Additionally, one garner information pretianing to casting errors, mould seams and decorative work.
Metallography exams the size and shape of the grains of minerals in the materials for traces of heating, working and alloying.
Scanning electron microscopes are also utilized to explore manufacturing techniques used for jewellery and weapons making.
This is because they enable fine detail to be identified, such as when they examine the hammering of folded layers of metal to create a sword.
Additionally the identification of the marks of the tools that were used to make the artifact can inform studies of manufacturing techniques.
Postcranial skeletons mature slower in boys than girls, whereas the rate of calcification in teeth is about the same for both sexes.
[21] With subadults, the development of teeth, length of long bones, and union of epiphyses are used to estimate age.
[22] By measuring the lengths of relevant bones, adding a factor for the non-bone contribution, and comparing them to historical numbers, one can estimate the stature of a skeleton.
Through using beetles, information such as ground surface conditions, vegetation and climate, and stored products and plant utilization can be found.
[28] Utilizing this type of strategy avoids the problem of ignoring the collection of smaller shells, an issue that can result from hand-picking.
[31] Each standardized sample is then placed in a plastic bowl (labeled with stratigraphic information) and covered with hot water.
[40] Botanical remains can give information about past climate, economic practices and changes within the environment.
[48] The process to analyzing phytoliths includes several, well-standardized steps:[49] Wood can serve as physical evidence for structure.
[51] Analysis of all of the previous types of botanical remains is typically completed by specialists that study paleoethnobotany.
[53] Sediments can provide clues to reconstructing past natural and cultural processes in a similar manner as artifacts.
Professionals that study geoarchaeology are trained to use changes in soils and geomorphology to interpret human behavior.
Laboratories of sediments tend to focus on studying mineralogy, micromorphology, granulometry, pH, organic matter, calcium carbonate, and phosphorus levels.
For example, both petrography and x-ray diffraction can be used to examine mineralogy, but the choice of method will depend on the specific minerals one aims to detect.
[54] After excavations are complete, sometimes archaeologists need to use additional sources of evidence to form new conclusions or complement findings derived from the most common artifact types.
One must be careful not to base interpretations of a site on historical sources, but to use them to complement or contradict trends examined in the archaeological material alone.
