Pieces going down, pieces going up and Pompeii’s end: some remarks on the flexible nature of the archaeological record.

Abstract

The vertical movement of cultural materials is, in varying degrees, an ubiquitous phenomenon at archaeological sites. Even so, archaeologists often view the archaeological record as a stable and rigid entity, taking dangerous assumptions implicitly. In this paper, some cases of vertical movement are shown, its many causes and major consequences discussed and some suggestions on how to deal with the problem are presented.

Keywords

• vertical movement - formation processes - geoarchaeology - bioturbation - refitting - trampling - use-wear analysis.