Concise Oxford Dictionary of Archaeology (474 page)

A soil in which the surface layer is neither acid nor alkaline in reaction, typically with a pH value around 7.

 
Back
  -  
 
New Search

A method used to determine the chemical composition of various substances such as flint, obsidian, pottery, and metal found in archaeological contexts. It is generally non-destructive as it involves exciting the atomic nuclei rather than their electrons. The specimen is irradiated inside a nuclear reactor so that the neutrons will interact with nuclei in the sample to form radioactive isotopes that emit gamma rays as they decay. The energy spectrum of the emitted rays is detected by a scintillation or semiconductor counter. Constituent elements are identified by the characteristic energy spectrum of emitted rays while their intensity provides a measure of concentration. The time between the neutron activation of the sample and the measurement of the resultant gamma rays depends on the half-lives of the radioactive isotopes which range from seconds through to thousands of years. Generally a few weeks is allowed before measurement takes place.
Neutron activation analysis has an advantage over X-ray fluorescence spectrometry because it analyses the whole specimen as opposed to the surface only. However, care must be taken that the neutron dose is not so great as to make the specimen radioactive and therefore unsafe for handling. The technique is used less frequently than it might be because of the increasingly limited availability of suitable nuclear reactors.

 
Back
  -  
 
New Search

The site of the first English settlement on the west coast of North America established by Sir Francis Drake in ad 1579 during his circumnavigation of the world aboard the
Golden Hind
. Controversy surrounds the location of the settlement. Traditionally, it was believed to lie near San Francisco in California, but Bob Ward , an English amateur historian, has shown that a site on the east side of Whale Cove, Oregon, is more likely. Geophysical surveys have revealed traces of a stockaded enclosure.
[Sum.: J. Harlow , 1996, Drake's American colony is found.
The Sunday Times
, 28 January 1996, 1.8]

 
Back
  -  
 
New Search

A movement that began in America in the 1960s, aimed at making archaeology more scientific, with explicit theory and rigorous methodologies. At the heart of the thinking was a positivist belief in the principles of the scientific method (especially hypothesis testing or hypothetico-deductive reasoning). In the USA many of these ideas were set out by Lewis Binford in his book
New Perspectives in Archaeology
published in 1968. In it he stressed: the need to use new technologies such as the computer for statistical and matrix analyses of data; the concept of the ecosystem for the understanding of the economic and subsistence bases of prehistoric societies; an evolutionary view of culture; the use of models of cultures that could be viewed as systems; incorporating an evolutionary approach to culture change; and a close relationship between archaeology and anthropology. In Britain David
CLARKE'S
book
Analytical Archaeology
, also published in 1968, took up similar themes, emphasizing particularly the application of systems theory to archaeological modelling.
Although the proponents of the New Archaeology were heavily criticized by more traditionally minded scholars, especially for their use of jargon and for dehumanizing the discipline, the basic principles became widely accepted. The product of studies that implemented and developed the ideas set down under the rubric of the New Archaeology is what is now often referred to as
PROCESSUAL ARCHAEOLOGY
.

 
Back
  -  
 
New Search

Type of Roman pottery made in the New Forest area of southern England in the 3rd and 4th centuries
ad
. The most distinctive fabric is very hard, almost a
STONEWARE
, in a purple colour-coat with a metallic lustre. It is used especially for the production of indented
BEAKERS
. There are other wares in grey and white in a wide range of vessels, some with a very local distribution.

 
Back
  -  
 
New Search