Important Archaeological Facts and Terms to Know

In my times in the field, in the lab, and in the classroom, there are specific terms that we as archaeologists use that we INSIST on using.  When we hear any mispronunciations or read any intentional or unintentional spelling or technical errors, we feel the need to twitch and potentially foam at the mouth.  We also have a wave of entitlement wash over us, and we feel the need to correct and belittle you in every possible way.  For example, when you see broken pieces of ceramic, it is called a pottery SHERD, but SHARD.  

Piece of pottery strap handle SHERD

That is one of the most directly important distinctions that must be made, and if you fail to appease us, then you will get attacked without mercy.  Now that that has been settled, let’s move on to other terminology.  The area that we excavate at is called the site (in paleontology, it’s called a locality).  Broken pieces of flint are called flakes or chert, which can cut you really deep when you are working on the screens and are not wearing gloves, so caution!  Flint that has been worked on both sides is called a biface, and not all bifaces are arrowheads; there is a variety of bifaces such as projectile points, spearheads, scrapers, and drills.  

Flint scraper (one of my favorite finds)

We find a lot of bone that gets worked on (which you can tell from cut marks and reshaping and polishing).  Some deer antlers are tapered and pointed to be turned into an awl for both sewing and making holes in leather that has been scraped by a bone beamer (usually a humerus broken in half).  

Bone pin - another favorite find

The units we excavate in are typically 2x2 meters in size, as I said in a previous post, and the most important things to know about units are that you must keep everything level, map the features, and keep your walls straight.  Believe me, it sounds easy, but it is an art everyone has difficulty perfecting. 

As you can see, units can get bumpy from all the bones and features etc.

And last, but not least, we archaeologists get really excited about rocks, because archaeologists are the people that study rocks, right?  Wrong.  That’s geologists.  And when we find a silly or unusually-shaped rocks that individuals think are of some importance, then we call those AFR, or “Another F***ing Rock.”   Hopefully you have been enlightened with this information and I will spare you from the attack of skilled archaeologists looking for fresh meat to torture in the field.