RT info:eu-repo/semantics/article
T1 Vial Excavation: Microstratigraphic Excavation in the Laboratory - A Methodology for High Resolution Sampling and Integration of Data from Multiple Analytical Methods
A1 Sandgathe, Dennis
A1 Aldeias, Vera
A1 Goldberg, Paul
A1 McPherron, Shannon P.
A1 Olszewski, Deborah I.
A1 Abdolahzadeh, Aylar
A1 Carrancho Alonso, Ángel
A1 Cabanes, Dan
A1 Gallo, Giulia
A1 Guerin, Guillaume
A1 Herrera-Herrera, Antonio V.
A1 Li, Li
A1 Mallol, Carolina
A1 Río, Judit del
A1 Papavasiliou, Dimitri
A1 Stahlschmidt, Mareike
A1 Steele, Teresa E.
K1 Microarchaeology
K1 Micromorphology
K1 Middle Paleolithic
K1 Fire
K1 Pyrotechnology
K1 Arqueología-Metodología
K1 Archaeology-Methodology
K1 Excavaciones arqueológicas
K1 Excavations (Archaeology)
AB Over the last decades, archaeology has been undergoing a revolution of sorts driven by advances in the archaeological sciences and the ability to extract data from sediments. These new methods work at the micro- or even molecular scale and thus require extremely high levels of precision for the context of the samples. While there have been significant advances in proveniencing techniques, by and large, basic excavation methods have hardly changed in half a century or more. We document excavations better, we save more things more systematically, and we move slower, but excavations are still primarily focused on the recovery of objects. In our experience, sampling for the archaeological sciences is shoehorned into the existing methodology. Here we describe an excavation methodology - vial-based excavation - that is instead designed from the start for the archaeological sciences and, in particular, to systematically collect the invisible components of the archaeological record. To do this, we remove intact blocks of sediment to a laboratory, employ a vacuum system for complete recovery of sediments, collect sediments as a large number of very small samples in glass vials, use micromorphology extensively to track micro-contexts, and use digital systems to document contexts efficiently. We applied this methodology to the investigation of fire residues in Layer 8 of the Middle Paleolithic site of Pech de l’Azé IV, France. Our purpose here is to share this methodology as a potentially useful companion to more traditional excavation methodologies.
PB Springer
SN 2520-8217
YR 2026
FD 2026-04
LK https://hdl.handle.net/10259/11555
UL https://hdl.handle.net/10259/11555
LA eng
NO This project is dedicated to the memory of Harold Dibble. The project was primarily funded by NSF grant (#1755237) awarded to Harold Dibble. Excavations were carried out under a permit issued to DS by the Service Régional d’Archéologie at DRAC Nouvelle-Aquitaine (a copy of this is available upon request). We would like to thank the Max Planck Society, Jean-Jacques Hublin, and Tracy Kivell, and the Laplanche family. We also thank Lee Dibble for allowing us to continue to use the lab in Carsac. We are grateful to the 2019–2022 excavators for their dedicated work on site and in the field laboratory. Thank you to Godefroy Devevey for his help at the Carsac Lab and with translating our annual reports to French. Thank you to Gerhard Weber for loaning to us a Microscribe. Thank you also to the Delpeyrat family in Carsac for their friendship and support in providing accommodation and meals over the years. VA is funded by the ERC MATRIX Project 101041245. Views and opinions expressed are, however, those of the authors only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the ERC Executive Agency. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them. AC research is supported by project BU037P23 of the Junta de Castilla y León (Spain) and the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and the project PID2024-159094NB-I00, funded by MICIU/AEI/https://doi.org/10.13039/501100011033/ERDF, UE.
DS Repositorio Institucional de la Universidad de Burgos
RD 08-may-2026