Sequence and Date in Field Archaeology

Introduction

For the field researcher, a primary task is assigning a date and a sequence (order of occurrence) to the features and structures they record. Occasionally an archaeological site has already been recorded in history, for example, the celebrated urban excavation at Five Points, New York City, exposed a plan of buildings and streets that had appeared on a map in 1855. Even sites mentioned in documentary references seldom offer a date as precise as this, and dated events which might seem to refer to an excavated site have to be used with great caution.

In general, very few objects, activities, or structures discovered by fieldwork can be given a precise calendar date, and archaeologists are obliged to build a chronological model, which balances all the available information (Fig. 1).

Sequence and Date in Field Archaeology, Fig. 1

The business of chronology (Carver 2009: 267)