Sherd Shatter Patterns Experiment

In field archaeology, the importance of non-diagnostic sherds is often overlooked. This archaeological experiment suggests that archaeologists should take into greater consideration, contexts where sherds are found grouped together in close proximity. The authors tested a series of experimental drop...

Description complète

Enregistré dans:
Détails bibliographiques
Auteurs principaux: S. Evans, S. Barrera
Format: article
Langue:EN
Publié: EXARC 2017
Sujets:
Accès en ligne:https://doaj.org/article/4fada76994f24d7cb3384e87b0699e02
Tags: Ajouter un tag
Pas de tags, Soyez le premier à ajouter un tag!
Description
Résumé:In field archaeology, the importance of non-diagnostic sherds is often overlooked. This archaeological experiment suggests that archaeologists should take into greater consideration, contexts where sherds are found grouped together in close proximity. The authors tested a series of experimental drops of modern pots which were treated as substitutions for ancient examples. Dispersion patterns of the pot sherds were analyzed to determine if it was possible to understand how vessels were used, and thus broken and discarded by people in ancient times. Amongst the variables tested were various vessel sizes filled with different contents which were dropped from varying heights. The results produced interesting findings that could indeed prove useful to archaeologists if they were applied in the field and laboratory. Due to budget constraints and the narrow scope of the project, only preliminary findings were addressed. In future, the authors would encourage other scholars to build upon their promising research which could be beneficial to archaeologists around the world.