In einer eMail from 16.06.98 14:44:50 MEZ, Linda Derry wrote:
 
<< How fair is it to leave us with the challenge:
 
 >>All of you have been talking about digging: I will be waiting and reading
 >>to see if one of the Harris Matrix advocates can come up with the real
 >>issue in the discussion, for it is that issue against which there no
 >>winning argument from the opponents of the Harris Matrix and its
 >>associated methods.
 
 and not leave us with even one clue?
 
 
 
Well..................
even without a clue (and I may be completely wrong and yes I have read Douglas
Frink's mail), I'd like to try this for starters:
 
Whichever way you dig (but not whichever way you think) The Harris Matrix is a
method or tool for recording and DISPLAYING stratigraphy (i.e. the excavators
perception of the stratification). It shows each unit of stratification and
each immiediate stratigraphical relationship. In its raw form it does nothing
more than this, but also nothing less: it is the only method known to me at
least, where the WHOLE stratigraphy of a site can be shown at once in a
coherent way without having to refer to a myriad of plans sections and fotos.
Because it is made up of the whole site stratigraphy the Harris Matrix is an
ideal tool to assist the periodization of a site, wherby the attempt is made
to correlate by non-stratigraphic means units of stratification with no direct
stratigraphic relationships with each other (i.e. on different relativ
chronological lines or branches of the matrix)and set them at the same
(temporal) level in the matrix. Easier said than done!
 
David I. Bibby