I first learned archaeology excavating ishallow, uniform, sandy alluvial
deposits laid down over thousands of years and then reworked by
weathering. In such situations, there are no obvious strata discernible by
visible, tactile, or chemical means. The present-day distributions of
sediment particle sizes and organic matter in these deposits was almost
entirely a product of post-occupational processes. Excavating such
deposits in arbitrary levels made perfect sense and, albeit imperfectly,
returned reasonably good contex and association information. At least, the
10,000 year old artifacts were kept somewhat separate from the 1000 year
old artifacts. In many cases, we have been able to hypothesize or confirm
ceramics sequences in late prehistory using such methods. Not to use
arbitrary-level excavation would have been criminal.
Now I have also watched associates trained in historical archaeology or
Old World archaeology, in which "levels" mean clearly defined deposits
which are primarily created by human action, and which are rich with human
debris. Digging such deposits in arbitrary levels would usually be stupid,
unless they were thought to be accretional middens or something
similar--in which case, arbitrary levels might well be appropriate
*within* strata. However, some folks used to seeing such deposits will
come to a screeching halt and stop digging altogether when they hit the
"sterile" or "natural" underlying layers. But unless these are truncated
ancient subsoils, such folks might be writing off thousands of years of
prehistory beneath their middens.
As someone who was properly and well-trained as an
*archaeologist*--neither "historical" nor otherwise--I know I was taught
the principals of stratigraphy as well as the wisdom of arbitrary level
excavation--and I was taught these by folks who had undoubtedly never
heard of Ivor Noel Hume.
Dan Mouer
Virginia Commonwealth University
[log in to unmask]
http://saturn.vcu.edu/~dmouer/homepage.htm
On Wed, 22 Mar 2000, David L. Browman wrote:
> Bob
>
> The first use of arbitrary levels in a regular sense was done by Nels
> Nelson in the Southwest in 1915 or 1916. The California work is nothing
> more than acouple decades later "me too", but obviously re-inforced by the
> fact that Sir Mortimer Wheeler was just re-popularizing the idea across
> the Atlantic.
>
> dave browman
>
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