1.
Goosehill Camp
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Goosehill Camp is a prehistoric earthwork that dates back to the Iron Age. It consists of two banks and ditches. The inner enclosure has one entrance and surround two levelled hut sites, goosehill Camp is within the Kingley Vale National Nature Reserve, on the South Downs. Goosehill Camps first recorded excavation was carried out by J. R. Boyden and this excavation was carried out between 1953 and 1955. The most recent excavation took place between 2008-2009 and was carried out by the University College Londons Institute of Archaeology, under Mark Roberts and these excavations were complemented by a topographical survey and a magnetometry survey
2.
West Sussex
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West Sussex is a county in the south of England, bordering East Sussex to the east, Hampshire to the west and Surrey to the north, and to the south the English Channel. Chichester in the southwest is the county town and only city in West Sussex, with the largest towns being Crawley, Worthing, West Sussex has a range of scenery, including wealden, downland and coastal. The highest point of the county is Blackdown, at 280 metres and it has a number of stately homes including Goodwood, Petworth House and Uppark and also castles such as Arundel Castle and Bramber Castle. Over half the county is protected countryside, offering walking, cycling, although the name Sussex, derived from the Old English Sūþsēaxe, is from the Saxon period between AD477 to 1066, the history of human habitation in Sussex goes back to the Old Stone Age. The oldest hominin remains known in Britain were found at Eartham Pit, Sussex has been occupied since those times and has succumbed to various invasions and migrations throughout its long history. Prehistoric monuments include the Devils Jumps, a group of Bronze Age burial mounds, the Romans used the Weald for iron production on an industrial scale. The foundation story is regarded as somewhat of a myth by most historians, the Kingdom of Sussex was absorbed into Wessex as an earldom and became the county of Sussex. With its origins in the kingdom of Sussex, the county of Sussex was traditionally divided into six units known as rapes. By the 16th century, the three western rapes were grouped together informally, having their own separate Quarter Sessions and these were administered by a separate county council from 1888, the county of Sussex being divided for administrative purposes into the administrative counties of East and West Sussex. In 1974, West Sussex was made a ceremonial county with the coming into force of the Local Government Act 1972. At the same time a part of the eastern rape of Lewes was transferred into West Sussex. Until 1834 provision for the poor and destitute in West Sussex was made at parish level, from 1835 until 1948 eleven Poor Law Unions, each catering for several parishes, took on the job. Most settlements in West Sussex are either along the south coast or in Mid Sussex, the town of Crawley is the largest in the county with an estimated population of 106,600. The coastal settlement of Worthing closely follows with a population of 104,600, the seaside resort of Bognor Regis and market town Horsham are both large towns. Chichester, the county town, has a cathedral and city status, much of the coastal town population is part of the Brighton/Worthing/Littlehampton conurbation. Rustington and Southwater are the next largest settlements in the county, there are several more towns in West Sussex, although they are of similar size to other villages. The smaller towns of the county are Arundel, Midhurst, Petworth, Selsey, the larger villages are Billingshurst, Copthorne, Crawley Down, Cuckfield, Henfield, Hassocks, Hurstpierpoint, Lindfield, Pulborough and Storrington. The current total population of the county makes up 1. 53% of Englands population, West Sussex is bordered by Hampshire to the west, Surrey to the north and East Sussex to the east
3.
Athens
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Athens is the capital and largest city of Greece. In modern times, Athens is a cosmopolitan metropolis and central to economic, financial, industrial, maritime. In 2015, Athens was ranked the worlds 29th richest city by purchasing power, Athens is recognised as a global city because of its location and its importance in shipping, finance, commerce, media, entertainment, arts, international trade, culture, education and tourism. It is one of the biggest economic centres in southeastern Europe, with a financial sector. The municipality of Athens had a population of 664,046 within its limits. The urban area of Athens extends beyond its administrative city limits. According to Eurostat in 2011, the Functional urban areas of Athens was the 9th most populous FUA in the European Union, Athens is also the southernmost capital on the European mainland. The city also retains Roman and Byzantine monuments, as well as a number of Ottoman monuments. Athens is home to two UNESCO World Heritage Sites, the Acropolis of Athens and the medieval Daphni Monastery, Athens was the host city of the first modern-day Olympic Games in 1896, and 108 years later it welcomed home the 2004 Summer Olympics. In Ancient Greek, the name of the city was Ἀθῆναι a plural, in earlier Greek, such as Homeric Greek, the name had been current in the singular form though, as Ἀθήνη. It was possibly rendered in the later on, like those of Θῆβαι and Μυκῆναι. During the medieval period the name of the city was rendered once again in the singular as Ἀθήνα, an etiological myth explaining how Athens has acquired its name was well known among ancient Athenians and even became the theme of the sculpture on the West pediment of the Parthenon. The goddess of wisdom, Athena, and the god of the seas, Poseidon had many disagreements, in an attempt to compel the people, Poseidon created a salt water spring by striking the ground with his trident, symbolizing naval power. However, when Athena created the tree, symbolizing peace and prosperity. Different etymologies, now rejected, were proposed during the 19th century. Christian Lobeck proposed as the root of the name the word ἄθος or ἄνθος meaning flower, ludwig von Döderlein proposed the stem of the verb θάω, stem θη- to denote Athens as having fertile soil. In classical literature, the city was referred to as the City of the Violet Crown, first documented in Pindars ἰοστέφανοι Ἀθᾶναι. In medieval texts, variant names include Setines, Satine, and Astines, today the caption η πρωτεύουσα, the capital, has become somewhat common
4.
Archaeology
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Archaeology, or archeology, is the study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, Archaeology can be considered both a social science and a branch of the humanities. In North America, archaeology is considered a sub-field of anthropology, archaeologists study human prehistory and history, from the development of the first stone tools at Lomekwi in East Africa 3.3 million years ago up until recent decades. Archaeology as a field is distinct from the discipline of palaeontology, Archaeology is particularly important for learning about prehistoric societies, for whom there may be no written records to study. Prehistory includes over 99% of the human past, from the Paleolithic until the advent of literacy in societies across the world, Archaeology has various goals, which range from understanding culture history to reconstructing past lifeways to documenting and explaining changes in human societies through time. The discipline involves surveying, excavation and eventually analysis of data collected to learn more about the past, in broad scope, archaeology relies on cross-disciplinary research. Archaeology developed out of antiquarianism in Europe during the 19th century, Archaeology has been used by nation-states to create particular visions of the past. Nonetheless, today, archaeologists face many problems, such as dealing with pseudoarchaeology, the looting of artifacts, a lack of public interest, the science of archaeology grew out of the older multi-disciplinary study known as antiquarianism. Antiquarians studied history with attention to ancient artifacts and manuscripts. Tentative steps towards the systematization of archaeology as a science took place during the Enlightenment era in Europe in the 17th and 18th centuries, in Europe, philosophical interest in the remains of Greco-Roman civilization and the rediscovery of classical culture began in the late Middle Age. Antiquarians, including John Leland and William Camden, conducted surveys of the English countryside, one of the first sites to undergo archaeological excavation was Stonehenge and other megalithic monuments in England. John Aubrey was a pioneer archaeologist who recorded numerous megalithic and other monuments in southern England. He was also ahead of his time in the analysis of his findings and he attempted to chart the chronological stylistic evolution of handwriting, medieval architecture, costume, and shield-shapes. Excavations were also carried out in the ancient towns of Pompeii and Herculaneum and these excavations began in 1748 in Pompeii, while in Herculaneum they began in 1738. The discovery of entire towns, complete with utensils and even human shapes, however, prior to the development of modern techniques, excavations tended to be haphazard, the importance of concepts such as stratification and context were overlooked. The father of archaeological excavation was William Cunnington and he undertook excavations in Wiltshire from around 1798, funded by Sir Richard Colt Hoare. Cunnington made meticulous recordings of neolithic and Bronze Age barrows, one of the major achievements of 19th century archaeology was the development of stratigraphy. The idea of overlapping strata tracing back to successive periods was borrowed from the new geological and paleontological work of scholars like William Smith, James Hutton, the application of stratigraphy to archaeology first took place with the excavations of prehistorical and Bronze Age sites
5.
Excavation (archaeology)
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In archaeology, excavation is the exposure, processing and recording of archaeological remains. An excavation site or dig is a site being studied, such a site excavation concerns itself with a specific archaeological site or a connected series of sites, and may be conducted over as little as several weeks to over a number of years. Numerous specialized techniques each with its features are used. Resources and other practical issues do not allow archaeologists to carry out excavations whenever and wherever they choose and these constraints mean many known sites have been deliberately left unexcavated. This is with the intention of preserving them for generations as well as recognising the role they serve in the communities that live near them. Excavation involves the recovery of types of data from a site. These data include artifacts, features, ecofacts and, most importantly, ideally, data from the excavation should suffice to reconstruct the site completely in three-dimensional space. The presence or absence of remains can often be suggested by remote sensing. Indeed, grosser information about the development of the site may be drawn from this work, the history of excavation began with a crude search for treasure and for artifacts which fell into the category of curio. These curios were the subject of interest of antiquarians and it was later appreciated that digging on a site destroyed the evidence of earlier peoples lives which it had contained. Once the curio had been removed from its context, most of the information it held was lost and it was from this realization that antiquarianism began to be replaced by archaeology, a process still being perfected. Archaeological material tends to accumulate in events, a gardener swept a pile of soil into a corner, laid a gravel path or planted a bush in a hole. A builder built a wall and back-filled the trench, years later, someone built a pig sty onto it and drained the pig sty into the nettle patch. Later still, the original wall blew over and so on, each event, which may have taken a short or long time to accomplish, leaves a context. This layer cake of events is referred to as the archaeological sequence or record. It is by analysis of sequence or record that excavation is intended to permit interpretation. As he remarked, waiting for animals to hunt represented 24% of the total man-hours of activity recorded, no tools left on the site were used, and there were no immediate material byproducts of the primary activity. All of the activities conducted at the site were essentially boredom reducers
6.
Stratigraphy
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Stratigraphy is a branch of geology which studies rock layers and layering. It is primarily used in the study of sedimentary and layered volcanic rocks, stratigraphy has two related subfields, lithologic stratigraphy or lithostratigraphy, and biologic stratigraphy or biostratigraphy. The first practical application of stratigraphy was by William Smith in the 1790s. Another influential application of stratigraphy in the early 19th century was a study by Georges Cuvier, variation in rock units, most obviously displayed as visible layering, is due to physical contrasts in rock type. This variation can occur vertically as layering, or laterally, and these variations provide a lithostratigraphy or lithologic stratigraphy of the rock unit. Key concepts in stratigraphy involve understanding how certain geometric relationships between rock layers arise and what these geometries imply about their original depositional environment. The basic concept in stratigraphy, called the law of superposition, states, in a stratigraphic sequence. Chemostratigraphy studies the changes in the proportions of trace elements and isotopes within. Carbon and oxygen isotope ratios vary with time, and researchers can use those to map subtle changes that occurred in the paleoenvironment and this has led to the specialized field of isotopic stratigraphy. Biostratigraphy or paleontologic stratigraphy is based on evidence in the rock layers. Strata from widespread locations containing the fossil fauna and flora are said to be correlatable in time. Biologic stratigraphy was based on William Smiths principle of succession, which predated. It provides strong evidence for the formation and extinction of species, the geologic time scale was developed during the 19th century, based on the evidence of biologic stratigraphy and faunal succession. One important development is the Vail curve, which attempts to define a global historical sea-level curve according to inferences from worldwide stratigraphic patterns, stratigraphy is also commonly used to delineate the nature and extent of hydrocarbon-bearing reservoir rocks, seals, and traps of petroleum geology. Chronostratigraphy is the branch of stratigraphy that places an absolute age, a gap or missing strata in the geological record of an area is called a stratigraphic hiatus. This may be the result of a halt in the deposition of sediment, alternatively, the gap may be due to removal by erosion, in which case it may be called a stratigraphic vacuity. It is called a hiatus because deposition was on hold for a period of time, a physical gap may represent both a period of non-deposition and a period of erosion. A geologic fault may cause the appearance of a hiatus, magnetostratigraphy is a chronostratigraphic technique used to date sedimentary and volcanic sequences
7.
Context (archaeology)
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In archaeology context is used as a technical term referring to the remains of an individual stratigraphic event. Contexts, therefore, are events in time which have preserved in the archaeological record. The cutting of a pit or ditch in the past is a context, multiple fills, seen as layers in archaeological section would mean multiple contexts. Structural features, natural deposits and inhumations are also contexts, by separating a site into these basic, discrete units, archaeologists are able to create a chronology for activity on a site and describe and interpret it. Artifacts in the main are not treated as contexts but belonging of them, contexts can be referred to positive or negative depending on whether their formation added or removed material from the archaeological record. It can not be stressed too strongly how fundamentally important the concept of context is in modern archaeological practice, context is the prevalent term among English-speaking archaeologists but the term locus may also be used. Deposits and cuts are commonly used context types. Beyond this there is little standardization, the sequence of contexts on an archaeological site can be systematically described by a Harris matrix. Single context recording is a system of recording and planning which treats each context on par in the process of excavation, the system of planning creates a superimposable stack of semi transparent plans that can be stacked in stratigraphic order to reconstruct the site as it was excavated. The use of context as discrete units does not necessitate single context recording but it does facilitate its use, other methods of excavation such as removing spits of material make the recording of contexts more difficult
8.
Cut (archaeology)
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In laymans terms, a cut can be thought of a hole that was dug in the past, though cut also applies to other parts of the archaeological record such as horizontal truncations like terraced ground. A cut context is referred to as a negative context as opposed to a positive context. A cut has zero thickness and no material properties of its own and is defined by the limits of other contexts, cuts are seen in the record by virtue of the difference between the material it was cut through and the material that back fills it. This difference is seen as an edge by the archaeologists on site, sometimes these differences are not clear and an archaeologist must rely on experience and insight to discover cuts. Re-cuts are cuts made within the confines or near confines of other cuts, re-cuts are considered quite valuable as a source of information because they can shed insight on function and attitude over time. An example of re-cutting would be a ditch being re-cut and emptied of silt. Conversely, a ditch that is never re-cut gives a certain impression about the attitude towards the investment in infrastructure the road represents. Re-cuts by their nature are hard to discern because the re-cut can truncate the original cut in part and they can even be absent from the record. Cutting is the reason why not all past activity on a site leaves traces of its existence in the sequence Fig 2 shows how a cut with at least two re-cuts may appear when viewed in section. It is possible that numerous other re-cuts took place and were truncated out of the record by one or more of the re-cuts that has survived
9.
Harris matrix
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The matrix reflects the relative position and stratigraphic contacts of observable stratigraphic units, or contexts. The Matrix was developed in 1973 in Winchester, England, by Dr. Edward C, in his Principles of archaeological stratigraphy Harris first proposed the need for each unit of stratification to have its own graphic representation, usually in the form of a measured plan. Any archaeological layer deposited in a form will tend towards a horizontal disposition. Strata which are found with tilted surfaces were so originally deposited, any archaeological deposit, as originally laid down, will be bounded by the edge of the basin of deposition, or will thin down to a feather edge. These laws were published in 1979, a fifth law of archaeological stratigraphy has also been added following papers presented at the Interpreting Stratigraphy a Review of the Art conferences in the UK from 1992 to 2003. In constructing a matrix, the latest contexts sit on top of the matrix, the matrix thus demonstrates the temporal relationship between any two units of archaeological stratification. While excavating, it is best practice to compile the area, urban archaeological sites are complex affairs, often generating thousands of units of archaeological stratigraphy. It is of more vital importance when excavating such sites to compile the matrix as the excavation progresses. This ensures a consistent record and that the complexity of the site is given due regard. Computer programmes do exist which can aid the production of a matrix, the Harris matrix is a tool that aids the accurate and consistent excavation of a site and articulates complex sequences in a clear and understandable way. Harris matrices play an role in the articulation of sequence. Take this hypothetical section as an example of matrix formation, the order in which these events occurred and the reverse order they should have been excavated with would be demonstrated by the following Harris matrix. The later a contexts formation is, the higher it is in the matrix, and conversely the earlier it is and this is because the formation of the backfill and floor happened later. Also note the matrix splits into two parts below the construction cut 5, however the position of cut 5 and natural layer 11 ties the matrix together above and below the split in the matrix. Starting at the bottom, the events occurred in this section is revealed by the matrix as follows. Natural ground formation 11 was followed by the laying down of layers 9 and 10 which probably occurred as the same event, then a shallow pit 8 was cut and then back filled with 7. This pit feature in turn was sealed by the laying down of layer 1 which is probably the event as layer 4. Finally clay floor 6 is laid down to the right of wall 2 over backfill 3 indicating a probable interior surface, the nature of archaeological investigation and the subjective nature of all human experience means that a degree of interpretive activity obviously occurs during the process of excavation
