World Archaeol 1

The scientific study of the archaeology of the historic period in France is as yet a relatively new discipline. The Centre for Medieval Archaeological Research at Caen has developed fresh techniques for both teaching and research in this field. Courses available at undergraduate and graduate level are described; these include medieval excavation techniques, bibliographical and documentary research, geology and pedology, air photography, resistivity and magnetometer survey, recording of excavations and working knowledge of scientific techniques such as dendrochronology and remanent magnetism. Practical work in the laboratory and the field is emphasised. The work of the Centre includes search for all published records of mottes in France and the classification of burial finds in Normandy made since 1800. In particular a project to record all medieval ceramic remains is intended to provide a sound chronological basis for future work; details of the sherds, including chemical and other laboratory analyses, are recorded by the Gardin system on facet-classified punched cards.

Details of digital filtering techniques for magnetic measurements made on archaeological sites are disclosed. These permit the removal of some sources of disturbance which make otherwise useful data difficult to interpret. Several other methods for improving the appearance of data via simple arithmetic operations are also discussed. For full data treatment a computer is a necessity. Au

This paper underlines the necessity for employing a broad and integrated approach to the construction of chronologies. Simple local archaeological sequences are not sufficient by themselves, nor can they be completely satisfactory even when combined with relative chronologies mechanically arrived at by distribution studies of inadequate data. General interregional coordination in historical terms is essential to the reconstruction of culture history. Batteries of techniques derived from different disciplines must complement and control each other if an adequate synthesis is to be achieved. Some cautions are raised in regard to the use of radiocarbon determination, now the direct and indirect foundation of most chronometric dating. Au

The value of coins as dating evidence for the medieval archaeologist in Great Britain and Ireland has increased with recent discoveries. In assessing the value, for this purpose, of individual coin issues, the author discusses the monetary policies of successive Anglo-Saxon and post-Conquest kings. England, Scotland and Ireland are considered in turn, with comments on current research in each. The need for close liaison between the archaeologist and the numismatist is stressed. Au

At Hen Domen (medieval) and Wroxeter (Roman), open-area excavation with detailed plotting of every stone and artefact has permitted the identification of vestigial remains of final-period timber structures in the uppermost soil layers. At Hen Domen, two building periods lay within 6in of the turf-line, where a single ploughing would have destroyed both these late periods, leaving only postholes of earlier periods. A rampart tower revealed itself more by the area of its destruction by burning than by its posthole pattern. Here, as so often, a combination of sill-beam and posthole construction must have been used. At Wroxeter, where a timber and wattle building with curved sides was revealed, even the penultimate layer appears to have contained nine sub-periods. Trenching or gridding at sites like these would have led to gross misinterpretation. Scientific aids, particularly soil science, will have to be employed more often to determine not only contemporaneity of postholes, but functions of buildings.

Archaeological funerary remains are discussed in the light of ethnographic funerary practices. It is argued that only with the widest possible approach to the archaeological material is it possible to appreciate the full significance of excavated remains. Not all burials reflect a deep concern with an afterworld or ancestor cult, and not all burial offerings need have been placed in the grave for the use of the deceased. Different burial practices may be adopted for particular categories of the population within a culture, and it is argued that the relevant proportions of different burial forms may be more diagnostic of a culture than one type of funerary practice. Examples are discussed where the number of funerary offerings may not reflect the wealth of the deceased, and where the large and expensive tomb may not be the prerogative of a ruling class or noble lineage. Variety and variability is a feature of the ethnographic funerary record, which contrasts strangely with some of the archaeological assumptions about burial practices. Au

Cluster analysis uses numerical methods to divide a group of units into homogeneous sub-groups. Various methods of Cluster Analysis - Single Linkage Average Linkage, Double Linkage and the k-means approach - are demonstrated on a small set of archaeological data and an attempt is made to assess their potential value for archaeologists. The general strategy of clustering is discussed and compared with seriation. Au

A common way of summarising archaeological data is to present it as frequency distributions, that is, as tables or graphs classifying the objects concerned according to the magnitude of some common dimension. In this paper some methods of handling such frequency distributions are examined and a particularly useful statistical test for comparing them (the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test) is described. The assumptions underlying a statistical approach are discussed, together with the nature of the conclusions to be drawn. The whole is illustrated by reference to a study of waster rim-sherds from an RB kiln site in Highgate Wood, London. Au