Methodology

Question 1

What is an archaeological site?

Answer 1

any place where humans have built or altered the natural surface/resources for their needs

Question 2

How do we find archaeological sites?

Answer 2

through historical sources, visible on the ground, discovered sometimes during development of infrastructures, societies….

Question 3

What are the different reasons for digging? (3)

Answer 3

• Rescue excavation: a site that will be destroyed in development
• Research excavation
• Adventure excavations: No adventure excavations nowadays aimed at random findings - must have a specific research question or purpose

Question 4

How do we select a location for digging?

Answer 4

• must develop a research interest,
• then select the excavation site - researching the place (geographically & historically)
• checking & surveying the site

Question 5

What is the general digging procedure? (5)

Answer 5

1. Team of diggers and experts come togethe
2. Grid of squares with banquets is prepared, with partitions (mehitzot) between them for archaeological digging
3. Direction of the wind is observed -
4. Area is cleaned and top soil removed
5. Stratigraphic digging: digging gradually by layers

Question 6

What do we do after we have our archaeological findings?

Answer 6

• Healing & restoration (ripui & shichzur): gluing together different parts, filling in missing parts, cleaning up…
• Photographing, drawing and verbal description of the findings
• Research on the various findings
• Scientific testing: carbon-14 test, petrography
• Analysis: writing a scientific report and publishing the findings (ethical obligation)

Question 7

Define the following terms:

• Tel
• Locus
• Layer/strata
• Complex (michlol)
• In situ
• Drifting find (mimstah sachuf)
• Secondary use

Answer 7

• Tel: artifical hill created from the remains of settlements from different periods built on top of each other
• Locus: a small/basic space with a defined function of e.g. room, cooking area, wall, water well
• Layer/strata: a set of loci belonging to the same time period
• Complex (michlol): collection of findings related to each other (in time, space, function etc…)
• In situ: a finding found in its original place
• Drifting find (mimtsah sachuf): a finding that was swept away by water from its original place to another location
• Secondary use (shimush mishni): use of an on object in a different way that intended

Question 8

What is stratigraphy?

Answer 8

• Stratigraphy (dating & digging method): each stratum on tel has architectural and material themes that characterize the period - this principle allows us to date strata from the earliest to the late (the deeper strata/layer - the earlier it is)

Question 9

What is typology?

Answer 9

Typology: dating of archaeological finding according to structure/shape, style, and decoration of an object - the most indicative part is the opening/mouth of the object - the shape, style and decoration of a specific object/tool changes over time and according to this, we date the various tools & layers

Question 10

What is Carbon-14 dating?

Answer 10

measuring amount of carbon-14 present in the sample (materials that originated from living organisms) and comparing this against an international reference standard - to provide an age estimation of the material/object

Question 11

What is dendrochronology?

Answer 11

• Dendochronology (method for calibrating carbon-14 dating - shitat kiul) analysing tree rings (tabaot etzim)to determine the age of ancient settlement sand artifacts