Concise Oxford Dictionary of Archaeology (244 page)

Industrial phase of the British later Bronze Age, named after a hoard of metalwork found at Ewart Park, Northumberland. Dating to 800–700 bc, the Ewart Park Phase succeeds the Wilberton Phase and precedes the Llyn Fawr Phase that equates with Hallstatt C. During the Ewart Park Phase lead-alloyed metal becomes very widespread and scrap hoards and founder's hoards proliferate. Horse harness and vehicle fittings begin to appear. Regional traditions abound, including the Carp's Tongue Complex in southeastern England, the Llantwit-Stogursey Tradition of south Wales, the Broadward Complex of the Welsh Marches, the Heathery Burn Tradition of northern England, the Duddington, Covesea, and Ballimore traditions in Scotland, and the Dowris Phase in Ireland.

 
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Series of Archaic Stage communities living on the coast of southern California in North America during the period 6000–1000 bc. Through this period the sea level in the area was rising and accordingly subsistence economies were changing. In the Ex phase exploitation of shell-fish and gathered plant food predominated, but in later phases deer and sea mammals became an increasingly common part of the diet. These changes coincided with a transition from crude percussion-flaked lanceolate projectile heads to side-notched and stemmed heads. Bone gouges and multi-part barbed fish-hooks also come into use. Houses of these phases include some sunken-floor buildings.

 
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The exposure of human corpses to the elements to facilitate the decomposition of the flesh before the bones are gathered up for burial or disposal.

 
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One of the principal means by which archaeological data is captured and recorded, excavation involves the systematic exposure of deposits that are then taken apart. There are a number of different techniques of excavation, such as
OPEN AREA EXCAVATION
,
PLANUM METHOD
,
QUADRANT METHOD
, and
WHEELER METHOD
, each having its own strengths and weaknesses. Selecting a method that suits the kind of site under investigation and the questions being asked is an important preliminary to any excavation project. A widely held principle, however, is that excavation should proceed by removing the layers and deposits within the site in the reverse order to which they were laid down in the first place. The different methods also carry with them implications for the way things are recorded, although plans, sections, photographs, notebooks, finds indexes, context records, and sample logs will be found in almost all of them. Not all studies can be done on site (desirable though that is), and samples of material and finds have to be cross-referenced to the deposits from which they came so that they can be examined later in the laboratory. Excavation is destructive, and it is costly in time and resources. New technology such as digital recording systems is playing an increasing role on fieldwork projects, and frees the archaeologists to spend more time interpreting what they are finding as they go along.

 
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See
UNIT
.

 
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Transfer of goods, services, or information between individuals or groups of individuals. Such transfers may not necessarily involve payments or reciprocation with equivalence. The term is often used by prehistorians wishing to avoid the modern connotations of the word ‘trade’.

 
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