1st June 2009, 10:25 AM
Quote:quote:Originally posted by kevin wooldridge
David - I think that residuality and context is a problem that we need to address with any artefact type. In fact the examples that you suggest combined with the new dating technique, may be very helpful in dealing with dating structures rather than finds i.e a pit full of 'medieval' tile that the new technique dates to AD1941 is almost certainly a modern-pit irrespective of the apparent age of the finds assemblage.
Us old-school stratigraphists would welcome that distinction being re-mphasised.....sometimes the glee of 'artefactists' triumphing the singularity of objects rather than the context in which they are found, can be hurtful to our sensitive, stratified, Faustian souls.....
With peace and consolation hath dismist, And calm of mind all passion spent...
I agree - especially important when you find 'reversed' stratigraphy - as we did with an old WWII bomb crater a while back. Newest stuff at the bottom, oldest at the top - looks like they bulldozed the archaeology into the hole then! That's not what the people who dug the original test pit thought though. They just looked at what they'd found, not where they found it......