Tel Excavation: A Few Basic Concepts

Today's post covers the theme of our most recent Digger's moot by explaining a few basic concepts of Tel Excavation. Should anything I say be wrong, partly or completely, please let me know.

Digger's should understand the basic construction of a Tel, and the need for dates. With this knowledge one is more likely to be careful when digging and less likely to corrupt or damage vital evidence through carelessness.

A Tel is a mound, or hill, where a series of cities once existed. These cities were built on sites that usually had 4 basic requirements: land to grow food, a water source, a semi-defensible position, and close proximity to a trade route. When some disaster lead to the destruction and abandonment of a city (invasion, famine, flood, God's wrath, etc.) the site where the city stood would still be a good spot for a city. Over time debris, sand, mud, and other things would bury what remained of the previous occupation. A new city would be built, destroyed, left to sit, rebuilt and destroyed again. This process lead to the formation of the Tels that we are now excavating.

Each layer of occupation is called an occupational layer. These layers can be dated to a relative time period using the pottery found, thanks to the work of Flinders Petrie. Pottery changed over time, and was used in large quantities. Broken pottery fragments are littered all over a destroyed city and can be analyzed to get an approximate date.
Radiocarbon analysis is another method of dating that is often used. This relies on analyzing the amount of carbon-14 within organic materials found in a layer.

Dating an occupational layer is very important. Any significant artifact found is only relevant if a date can be assigned to the artifact's time of existence.
Though a written record would be the best witness to the events of the past, they are very rare and sometimes hard to read. Without written evidence, we must rely on everything else left behind to reconstruct an image of the past.

In the paraphrased version of the words of Flinders Petrie, everything is evidence to the archaeologist.

That's all for now!

-Digger Justin