ABSTRACT

The principle of all excavation, large or small, is to remove the superimposed contexts one by one in the reverse order from that in which they were deposited, recording each in as much detail as is necessary to reconstruct, in theory at least, the site context by context, complete with its features and finds, long after the actual process of excavation has destroyed it. Only by doing this can we obtain sufficient evidence to begin to understand the evolution of the stratification of the site, let alone interpret its periods and structures.