E-Book Overview
This book is the only text devoted entirely to archaeological stratigraphy, a subject of fundamental importance to most studies in archaeology. The first edition appeared in 1979 as a result of the invention, by the author, of the Harris Matrix--a method for analyzing and presenting the stratigraphic sequences of archaeological sites. The method is now widely used in archaeology all over the world. The opening chapters of this edition discuss the historical development of the ideas of archaeological stratigraphy. The central chapters examine the laws and basic concepts of the subject, and the last few chapters look at methods of recording stratification, constructing stratigraphic sequences, and the analysis of stratification and artifacts. The final chapter, which is followed by a glossary of stratigraphic terms, gives an outline of a modern system for recording stratification on archaeological sites. This book is written in a simple style suitable for the student or amateur. The radical ideas set out should also give the professional archaeologist food for thought. Key Features * Covers a basic principle of all archaeological excavations * Provides a data description and analysis tool for all such digs, which is now widely accepted and used. * Gives extra information
E-Book Content
SECOND EDITION
Principles of archaeological stratigraphy
Principles of archaeological stratigraphy
Second edition
EDWARD C. HARRIS Bermuda Maritime Museum Mangrove Bay Bermuda
ACADEMIC PRESS Harcourt Brace & Company, Publishers London San Diego New York Boston Sydney Tokyo Toronto
ACADEMIC PRESS LIMITED 24/28 Oval Road London NW1 7DX
United States Edition published by ACADEMIC PRESS INC. San Diego, CA 92101
Copyright 1989 by ACADEMIC PRESS LIMITED Third printing 1997 First edition published 1979
All Rights Reserved No part of this book may be reproduced in any form by photostat, microfilm, or by any other means, without written permission from the publishers
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Harris, Edward C. Principles of archaeological stratigraphy. 2nd ed. 1. Antiquities. Excavation of remains. Applications of stratigraphy I. Title 930.1'028'3 ISBN 0-12-326651-3
Printed in Great Britain by St Edmundsbury Press Limited, Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk
Foreword
It is an honour for me to pen a few words introducing the second edition of Dr. Edward Harris' Principles of archaeological stratigraphy. The first edition and related articles comprise an incisive and immensely practical approach to the problems of archaeological stratigraphy. We may judge from the many and diverse examples furnished in the new edition of Principles, the Harris Matrix - which I have been teaching since 1978 - has been widely adopted. The only mystery is why a good number of investigators, especially in the United States, continue to believe that they can do without it. In this edition, Dr. Harris properly stresses that archaeological stratigraphy is not geological stratigraphy writ small. Rather, the principles of archaeological stratigraphy, made explicit below, are new and distinct, having taken shape over the decades of archaeological practice. Geologists and geoarchaeologists who reject Dr. Harris' claim for the existence of this body of archaeological principles perhaps have fallen victim to disciplinary chauvinism uninformed by thorough analyses of relevant cases. In any event, this volume decisively demonstrates that there is an archaeological stratigraphy. The new edition of Principles, which benefits from a decade of applications of the Harris Matrix, is a significant contribution to the science of archaeology. I hope that it succeeds in finally penetrating those last bastions where stratigraphy is still practiced - seemingly in the dark - as an