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Defining Terms Defining Terms
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Histories of Archaeological Approaches Histories of Archaeological Approaches
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Processual and Post‐Processual Approaches to Assemblages and Deposition Processual and Post‐Processual Approaches to Assemblages and Deposition
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Contemporary Approaches to Practices of Deposition Contemporary Approaches to Practices of Deposition
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Depositional practices: the archaeology of Mantecales, Honduras Depositional practices: the archaeology of Mantecales, Honduras
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Discussion Discussion
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12 Archaeological Assemblages and Practices of Deposition
Get accessRosemary A. Joyce is the Richard and Rhoda Goldman Distinguished Professor in the Social Sciences, and Professor of Anthropology, at the University of California, Berkeley. She received the PhD in Anthropology from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, in 1985.
Josh Pollard, Department of Archaeology, University of Southampton, UK
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Published:18 September 2012
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Abstract
Archaeologists routinely describe sites as composed of assemblages encountered in deposits. But what is actually meant by ‘assemblage’ and ‘deposition’? This article explores how these concepts have been developed and considers the implications of contemporary understandings of deposition and assemblage that depart significantly from conventional definitions, many still to be found in introductory text books. Conventionally, the term ‘assemblage’ is applied to a collection of artefacts or ecofacts recovered from a specific archaeological context — a site, an area within a site, a stratified deposit, or a specific feature such as a ditch, tomb, or house. This article further explains in details the histories of archaeological approaches followed by contemporary approaches. The conventional definitions of assemblage and deposition emerged from geological and processual models of archaeological ‘formation processes’ that developed from the nineteenth century through the mid-twentieth century. Analysis the contemporary approach towards archaeological assemblages finishes this article.
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