Stratigraphy

Stratigraphy is the study of spatial and temporal relationships between sediments and soils (Waters 1992).
Soils are the weathering profiles developed by the inplace physical and chemical alteration of preexisting sediments (Waters 1992).

A soil is the result of the complex interaction of a variety of physical, chemical, and biological processes acting on rock or sediment over time (Holliday ).

Stratigraphy
Stratigraphy comes from two root words: Latin stratum and the Greek word graphia. Broadly defined stratigraphy is the descriptive science of strata. Stratum is singular while Strata are plural Stratum - is a layer characterized by certain unifying characteristics, properties or attributes that distinguish if from adjacent layers.

Stratigraphy
Why is it important??

1) Stratigraphy provides time and space framework for working with the context of the archaeological site.
1) Vertical and horizontal relationships between sediments, soils, and their contacts preserve the temporal and spatial record of the site.

Stratigraphy
Stratigraphic objectives at archaeological sites include the following from Waters (1992:) 1) to subdivide and group sediments and soils into meaningful packages and to record the nature of the contacts between strata
2) to order the stratigraphic units in their relative temporal sequence 3) to determine the absolute age of the stratigraphic units along with amount of time represented by accumulation, stability or erosion

4) to correlate stratigraphic units with regional stratigraphy

Stratigraphy
The concept of geological stratigraphy was introduced by an engineer and surveyor in England in the late 1700s and early 1800s, named William (Strata) Smith Archaeological stratigraphy on the other hand may have been first practiced by an American (again not an archaeologist) in 1784. Thomas Jefferson used stratigraphy to answer questions about the origin of the barrows or burial mounds in Virginia. Sir Mortimer Wheeler labeled Jeffersons work the first scientific excavation in the history of archaeology.

Stratigraphy
Nicholaus Steno (Danish) in the mid-1600s recognized that rocks were once soft sediments. Laws of Sedimentary Stratigraphy (Stenos Laws)

Three important Laws: Law of Superposition Law of Horizontality Law of Original Continuity

Stenos Laws
The law of superposition: This law states that the oldest rock layer is the layer on the bottom and the youngest layer is the layer on top. Unless rocks have been overturned by extreme mountain building, the layers are in the same order that they formed.
Youngest

Oldest

Stenos Laws
Steno's second law is the Law of Original Horizontality, which states that sediments are deposited in flat, horizontal layers. We can recognize this easily if we consider a sedimentary environment such as the sea floor or the bottom of a lake. Any storm or flood bringing sediment to these environments will deposit it in a flat layer on the bottom because of the sedimentary particles settling under the influence of gravity. As a result, a flat, horizontal layer of sediment will be deposited.

Stenos Laws
Law of Original Continuity - sedimentary layers normally form continuous sheets that covered the entire earth or were bounded by solid substances. Discontinuous layers that are similar on either side of a valley must have been separated by erosion from their original continuous state.

Stratigraphy
Digging Practices Darkmold Site Strata (Plural of Stratum) The major natural (geologic) or/cultural units not located within a feature or structure
Levels Arbitrary units of thickness such as 5cm, 10cm, or 20cm

Layers Cultural fill within structures or features

With Slope Mirroring the present or original ground surface

10cm levels

Excavation in arbitrary levels

10 cm levels

Excavation in arbitrary levels

Basketmaker III
Archaic Excavation in arbitrary levels

Basketmaker III
Archaic Excavation in arbitrary levels

Excavation in arbitrary Levels

Stratum 1

Level 1 Level 2 Level Level Level 3,3Stratum 1 Level 4

Stratum K Stratum 2

Level 5
L Level Level 66 Level 1, Stratum 3 Level 2, Stratum 3

Stratum 3

Excavation in Strata and in Levels

Level 1 Level 2 Level Level Level 3,3Stratum 1 Level 4

Stratum K

Level 2, Stratum 2
Level 3, Stratum 2 L Level1, 1,Stratum Stratum 3 3 Level Level Stratum Level 2,2, Stratum 33

Excavation with the ground surface

Level Stratum 1 Stratum K Stratum 2 Level 3, Stratum 1

L Stratum 3

Level 1, Stratum 3 Level 2, Stratum 3