A photographer taking a record shot of a horse burial in a Roman ditch re-cut. A re-cut is a type of feature.

In archaeological excavation, a feature is a collection of one or more contexts representing some human non-portable activity, such as a hearth or wall.[1] Features serve as an indication that the area in which they are found has been interfered with in the past, usually by humans.[2]

Features are distinguished from artifacts in that they cannot be separated from their location without changing their form. Artifacts are portable, while features are non-portable.[3] Artifacts and features can both be made from any available material, with the primary distinction being portability.[1]

Features and artifacts differ from ecofacts. Ecofacts are natural remains, such as plants and animals.[4]

Types

Features are categorized by the time period, as either historic or prehistoric. Prehistoric archaeology refers to the time in history before human life was recorded or documented, while historic archaeology refers to the time period where there was a documented human past.[5]

In relation to site stratigraphy, features generally have a vertical characteristic, such as pits, walls, or ditches. On the contrary, elements that have horizontal characteristic, such as a layer, dump, or surface, is not a feature. General horizontal elements are part of the stratigraphic sequence. Features tend to have an intrusive characteristic or associated cuts. This is not definitive as surfaces can be referred to as features of a building and free standing structures with no construction cut can still be features. Middens (dump deposits) are also referred to as features due to their discrete boundaries. This is seen in comparison to leveling dumps, which stretch out over a substantial portion of a site. The concept of a feature is, to a certain degree, abstract, as it will change depending on the scale of excavation.

Context

Features have a specific stratigraphic context as well as helping to provide details of context for artifacts. Often times an artifact's provenience can be defined in part by the feature it is associated with (if such a feature exists).[2] In circumstances where a stratigraphic layer cannot be defined by soil color or consistency, such as in the excavation of several features such as wells or cisterns, arbitrary layers can be defined by an archaeologist based on equal levels of depth, allowing for the categorization of artifacts based on relative placement within a feature.[2]

Examples

A saxon pit, another type of feature
A lynchet is a type of archaeological feature. They are terraces formed on the side of a hill.

Features specific to certain architecture types or eras such as trilithon for the purposes of this article are not considered generic. Generic features are feature types that can come from a broad section in time of the archaeological record if not all of it. Generic types can include:

  1. Cuts
  2. Re-cuts
  3. Pits
  4. Post holes
  5. Stake holes
  6. Construction cuts
  7. Robber trenches
  8. Walls
  9. Foundations
  10. Ditches
  11. Drains
  12. Wells
  13. Cisterns
  14. Hearths
  15. Stairs and steps
  16. Enclosures
  17. Lynchets
  18. Graves
  19. Burials
  20. Middens
  21. Pit-houses
  22. Fire pits

See also

References

  1. 1 2 Emery, Katy Meyers (2011-10-04). "Archaeology 101: Artifact versus Feature". MSU Campus Archaeology Program. Retrieved 2020-07-21.
  2. 1 2 3 "Archaeological Process". www.alexandriava.gov. Archived from the original on 2021-03-03. Retrieved 2020-07-21.
  3. ↑ Jones, James (November 1993). "ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITES" (PDF). {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  4. ↑ "What is Archaeology?". Society for American Archaeology. Retrieved 2020-07-21.
  5. ↑ "What is Archaeology?". archaeology.elpasotexas.gov. Retrieved 2020-07-21.
  • The MoLAS archaeological site manual MoLAS, London 1994. ISBN 0-904818-40-3. Rb 128pp. bl/w
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