Glossary Archaeological method and dating
Stratum
Also called: strata
A single layer of deposit on an archaeological site, usually numbered by the excavator; the plural is strata.
Excavators number the layers they identify, from the top down or from the bottom up, and publish their finds by stratum. The numbering belongs to one site, so Stratum 2 at one excavation has nothing to do with Stratum 2 at another. Some projects call the same units levels or phases, and a phase may group several strata that belong to one period of use.
At the rock shelter of Akrotiri-Aetokremnos the deposit was divided into four strata, and the bone bed of dwarf hippopotamus was dated stratum by stratum (Cyprus Before Humans). At Hala Sultan Tekke, Strata 2 and 1 record a destruction and rebuilding in the twelfth century BCE. Levantine sites such as Megiddo are also cited by stratum when Cypriot exports are found in them.
Related terms
- Stratigraphy
The study of the layers in which archaeological remains were deposited, used to work out which came first and what belongs together.
- Archaeological context
The exact place and circumstances in which an object was found, including its layer and associated finds, which give it most of its value as evidence.
- Horizon
A level or span of time marked by the same event or type of material across many sites, such as a destruction horizon or a pottery horizon.
Where it appears
- Cyprus Before Humans: Dwarf Hippos, Dwarf Elephants and the First Visitors
- Proto-White Painted Ware
- Birds in Ancient Cyprus
- Climate and Landscape in Ancient Cyprus
- Early Bronze Age Cyprus
- Egypt
- Music and Musical Instruments in Ancient Cyprus
- Plain White Ware
- The Chronology of Ancient Cyprus
- The Philistines
- White Slip Ware