CONTEXT

As you can tell, knowing artifacts and having measured some attributes does not tell us much about what people might have done in the past to leave these in the Santan area. Perhaps the most important word in archaeology is "CONTEXT." Context is the location of an artifact or feature in relationship with all other artifacts and features in three-dimensional space. It is the relationships between artifacts and features that help an archaeologist reconstruct human behavior.

You probably felt limited by what you could say about the artifacts alone. What limited your ability to say more? Include in your Journal a definition of context and a brief statement about why it is important to archaeology.

The importance of CONTEXT will be illustrated in the following series. Keep in mind that archaeology is a "three-dimensional puzzle." The puzzle has to do with human behaviors, and the goal is to reconstruct those behaviors. CONTEXT is the key.
How to Reconstruct CONTEXT....