Archaeological methodology 4

The course is made of three topics:

a) ARCHAEOLOGICAL STRATIGRAPHY AND STRUCTURAL ANALYSIS deals with the principles of identification and analysis of the elements of archaeological stratification. Using selected case studies, students learn about different techniques and procedures of archaeological excavation and recording, problems of post-deposition processes and interdisciplinary approach to archaeological stratigraphy. The architectural-stratigraphical method (structural analysis) includes and supplements knowledge from technical, natural and social sciences about the construction of objects. In historical architecture research, understanding of the historical context of the buildings is included.

b) ARCHAEOLOGICAL CERAMOLOGY. This topic includes more detailed knowledge of pottery raw materials, techniques of pottery making and shaping, surface finishing, refill techniques, the technology of clay firing, and other techniques of finalisation of ceramic objects. Other topics include conceptualisation and implementation of concrete typological classifications (based on different criteria), organisation of object and data archives, (standardised recording, descriptive statistics), and training for catalogue publishing.

c) DATA ANALYSES IN ARCHAEOLOGY is aimed at teaching major methods in data management (databases and their manipulation), data retrieval (data mining) and most frequent types of data analyses in archaeology, and interpretation and visualisation of their results. Particular stress is on quantitative methods needed in sampling, spatial analyses, trends modelling, and pattern recognition in different data sets in archaeology.