Feature (archaeology) - Wikipedia

Term defining human-built architecture

In archaeological excavation, a feature is a collection of one or more contexts representing some human non-portable activity, such as a hearth or wall.[1] Features serve as an indication that the area in which they are found has been interfered with in the past, usually by humans.[2]

Features are distinguished from artifacts in that they cannot be separated from their location without changing their form. Artifacts are portable, while features are non-portable.[3] Artifacts and features can both be made from any available material, with the primary distinction being portability.[1]

Features and artifacts differ from ecofacts. Ecofacts are natural remains, such as plants and animals.[4]

Types

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Features are categorized by the time period, as either historic or prehistoric. Prehistoric archaeology refers to the time in history before human life was recorded or documented, while historic archaeology refers to the time period where there was a documented human past.[5]

In relation to site stratigraphy, features generally have a vertical characteristic, such as pits, walls, or ditches. On the contrary, elements that have horizontal characteristic, such as a layer, dump, or surface, is not a feature. General horizontal elements are part of the stratigraphic sequence. Features tend to have an intrusive characteristic or associated cuts. This is not definitive as surfaces can be referred to as features of a building and free standing structures with no construction cut can still be features. Middens (dump deposits) are also referred to as features due to their discrete boundaries. This is seen in comparison to leveling dumps, which stretch out over a substantial portion of a site. The concept of a feature is, to a certain degree, abstract, as it will change depending on the scale of excavation.

Context

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Features have a specific stratigraphic context as well as helping to provide details of context for artifacts. Often times an artifact's provenience can be defined in part by the feature it is associated with (if such a feature exists).[2] In circumstances where a stratigraphic layer cannot be defined by soil color or consistency, such as in the excavation of several features such as wells or cisterns, arbitrary layers can be defined by an archaeologist based on equal levels of depth, allowing for the categorization of artifacts based on relative placement within a feature.[2]

Examples

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Features specific to certain architecture types or eras such as trilithon for the purposes of this article are not considered generic. Generic features are feature types that can come from a broad section in time of the archaeological record if not all of it. Generic types can include:

1. Cuts
2. Re-cuts
3. Pits
4. Post holes
5. Stake holes
6. Construction cuts
7. Robber trenches
8. Walls
9. Foundations
10. Ditches
11. Drains
12. Wells
13. Cisterns
14. Hearths
15. Stairs and steps
16. Enclosures
17. Lynchets
18. Graves
19. Burials
20. Middens
21. Pit-houses
22. Fire pits

See also

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• Archaeological association
• Archaeological context
• Archaeological field survey
• Archaeological plan
• Archaeological section
• Cut (archaeology)
• Excavation
• Fill (archaeology)
• Harris matrix
• Relationship (archaeology)
• Single context recording

References

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1. ^ a b Emery, Katy Meyers (4 October 2011). "Archaeology 101: Artifact versus Feature". MSU Campus Archaeology Program. Archived from the original on 6 June 2024. Retrieved 21 July 2020.
2. ^ a b c "Archaeological Process". www.alexandriava.gov. Archived from the original on 2021-03-03. Retrieved 2020-07-21.
3. ^ Jones, James (November 1993). "ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITES" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2020-09-23. Retrieved 2020-07-21. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
4. ^ "What is Archaeology?". Society for American Archaeology. Retrieved 2020-07-21.
5. ^ "What is Archaeology?". archaeology.elpasotexas.gov. Archived from the original on 2020-07-15. Retrieved 2020-07-21.

• The MoLAS archaeological site manual MoLAS, London 1994. ISBN 0-904818-40-3. Rb 128pp. bl/w

External links

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• Media related to Archaeological features at Wikimedia Commons

v t e Prehistoric technology
Prehistory Timeline Outline Stone Age Subdivisions New Stone Age Technology history Glossary
Tools Farming Neolithic Revolution Founder crops New World crops Ard / plough Celt Digging stick Domestication Goad Irrigation Secondary products Sickle Terracing Food processing(Paleolithic diet) Fire Basket Cooking Earth oven Granaries Grinding slab Ground stone Hearth Aşıklı Höyük Qesem Cave Manos Metate Mortar and pestle Pottery Quern-stone Storage pits Hunting Arrow Boomerang throwing stick Bow and arrow history Nets Spear spear-thrower baton harpoon Schöningen woomera Projectile points Arrowhead Transverse Bare Island Cascade Clovis Cresswell Cumberland Eden Folsom Lamoka Manis Mastodon Plano Systems Game drive system Buffalo jump Toolmaking Earliest toolmaking Oldowan Acheulean Mousterian Aurignacian Clovis culture Cupstone Fire hardening Gravettian culture Hafting Hand axe Grooves Langdale axe industry Levallois technique Lithic core Lithic reduction analysis debitage flake Lithic technology Magdalenian culture Metallurgy Microblade technology Mining Prepared-core technique Solutrean industry Striking platform Tool stone Uniface Yubetsu technique Other tools Adze Awl bone Axe Bannerstone Blade prismatic Bone tool Bow drill Burin Canoe Oar Pesse canoe Chopper tool Cleaver Denticulate tool Fire plough Fire-saw Hammerstone Knife Microlith Quern-stone Racloir Rope Scraper side Stone tool Tally stick Weapons Wheel illustration
Architecture Ceremonial Kiva Pyramid Standing stones megalith row Stonehenge Dwellings Neolithic architecture long house British megalith architecture Nordic megalith architecture Burdei Cave Cliff dwelling Dugout Hut Quiggly hole Jacal Longhouse Mudbrick Mehrgarh Pit-house Pueblitos Pueblo Rock shelter Blombos Cave Abri de la Madeleine Sibudu Cave Roundhouse Stilt house Alp pile dwellings Stone roof Wattle and daub Water management Check dam Cistern Flush toilet Reservoir Well Other architecture Archaeological features Broch Burnt mound fulacht fiadh Causewayed enclosure Tor enclosure Circular enclosure Goseck Cursus Henge Thornborough Megalithic architectural elements Midden Oldest extant buildings Timber circle Timber trackway Sweet Track
Arts and culture Material goods Baskets Beadwork Beds Chalcolithic Clothing/textiles timeline Cosmetics Glue Hides shoes Ötzi Jewelry amber use Mirrors Pottery Cardium Cord-marked Grooved ware Jōmon Linear Unstan ware Sewing needle Weaving Wine winery wine press Prehistoric art Art of the Upper Paleolithic Art of the Middle Paleolithic Blombos Cave List of Stone Age art Bird stone Cairn Carved stone balls Cave paintings Cup and ring mark Geoglyph Hill figure Golden hats Guardian stones Gwion Gwion rock paintings painting pigment Megalithic art Petroform Petroglyph Petrosomatoglyph Pictogram Rock art Rock cupule Stone carving Sculpture Statue menhir Stone circle list British Isles and Brittany Venus figurine Prehistoric music Evolutionary musicology music archaeology Alligator drum Paleolithic flute Divje Babe flute Gudi Prehistoric religion Evolutionary origin of religion Paleolithic religion Spiritual drug use Burial Burial mounds Bowl barrow Round barrow Mound Builders culture U.S. sites Chamber tomb Cotswold-Severn Cist Dartmoor kistvaens Clava cairn Court cairn Cremation Dolmen Great dolmen Funeral pyre Gallery grave transepted wedge-shaped Grave goods Jar burial Kuyavian long barrows Long barrow unchambered Grønsalen Megalithic tomb Mummy Passage grave Rectangular dolmen Ring cairn Simple dolmen Stone box grave Tor cairn Unchambered long cairn Other cultural Archaeoastronomy sites lunar calendar Behavioral modernity Origin of language Prehistoric counting Prehistoric medicine trepanning Prehistoric warfare Symbols symbolism

Authority control databases	GND