GLOSSARY#
Archaeological archive: see definitions in Sections 3.1 and 4.1. In many European countries where the Guide has not been adopted, this term is used only to mean the records created during a project and excludes the material objects (finds.
Archaeological project: see definition in Sections 2.1 and 4.1.
Archive component: a specific part of the array of items that make up an archaeological archive, usually distinguished by their concomitant archive storage requirements; examples include the finds, written records, graphic images and digital data.
Analogue: for the purposes of the Guide the term analogue is used to describe data or documents created in non digital formats such as on paper or drafting film or as a photographic print, negative or transparency.
Artefact: something manufactured or given shape by a human being, such as a tool or a work of art; archaeological examples include pottery, stone tools, objects made of metal or worked bone, brick and tile. In some countries an artefact is any object whose formal properties and/or position have been intentionally created to support a specific purpose (practical function, social meaning, symbolic significance; cf. Neustupný 1998, 134). Artefacts can be moveable (like pottery, stone tools, etc.) or immoveable (like a house, burial mound, etc.).
Assemblage: for the purposes of the Guide, a group of finds found during the course of an archaeological project and thus associated with a specific context or site of human activity.
Back up: to duplicate digital data files as a reserve resource should the originals become unusable.
Born Digital: data or files originally created in digital form, such as a photograph taken with a digital camera, CAD files and GIS data.
Collection: a group of records and/or material objects owned, stored and curated by a single institution for the purposes of future study and enjoyment. Archaeological project archives are understood to be individual components of a collection, which represents a greater, unified resource.
Compile / compilation: used here to mean the activity of finally gathering together all archive materials and organizing them in readiness for transfer to a repository.
Conservation: used here to mean the procedures of cleaning, stabilising and examining sensitive objects in controlled conditions.
Context: a single stratigraphic unit recorded separately in the field; usually the extant structures, cut features and deposits that represent and contain archaeological evidence and finds.
Context record: the record of the details (such as location, dimensions, character and stratigraphic relationships) of a context identified during archaeological investigation.
Curation: the work of a curator.
Curator: the person who cares for and manages access to a collection.