Site Formation Processes

There are two recognized site formation processes that help answer archaeologists’ questions about where dirt came from, if objects were made by humans, and why ancient people left the objects behind. The first is cultural, where the formation agent is cultural activity, and the second is noncultural or environmental, where the agent is a natural environment process. 

Excavations at the site of Gran Dolina, in Atapuerca (Spain), during 2008. Panoramic photography formed using 3 individual photographies with Hugin software. TD-10 archaeological level is being excavated where the most of the people are. It is a Homo heidelbergensis camp. Under the plank, we can observe a woman with red sweatshirt excavating TD-6 archaeological level, where were found the first remains of Homo antecessor.
Image and description courtesy of Mario Modesto Mata, Wikipedia Commons

There are four major cultural formation processes. The first is reuse, the process of recycling or remanufacture, secondary use or no remanufacture, and lateral cycling or a change in user. The second is cultural deposition, the change or transformation of cultural materials from a behavior context to an archaeological context via discard, accidental loss, ritual deposition, abandonment of artifacts and structures. The third is reclamation, the process of removing items from the archaeological context to a systemic context by scavengers, collectors, and looters, reoccupation of sites, reincorporating artifacts and structures, and archaeological recovery. The fourth is disturbance, processes that alter the ground, such as digging and plowing, and modifying archaeological materials and sites.

Natural formation processes can by biological, chemical, or physical processes of the natural environment and are observed on three major scales. The first, artifact-scale processes, includes rotting, corrosion, and sandblasting that weathers, deteriorates, or decays materials. The second, site-scale processes, are deposit disturbances by tree roots and burrowing animals. The third, regional-scale processes, is the burial or erosion of sites due to water or wind sediment deposits and vegetation.

Understanding site formation processes is necessary so that the archaeologist can read the exact context of the artifact and/or structure being analyzed in order to interpret the exact history of a site. By understanding how these can be altered, an archaeologist can recreate the original in its proper context without the alterations. Archaeologists can pick out modified tools from original discarded tools as well as hunted animal bones from wild animal bones.

About the Author

I'm Melanie, the founder of BermudaQuest and an archaeology undergraduate at the University of New Mexico. I love writing about ancient and modern cultures. My goal is to make information about our origins available to everyone [in simple English!]