When you dig an artefact up, how do you know how old it is? Alice (8), Matty (10), Seth (8) and Isaac
Sometimes there are artefacts that are typical of their period so you can tell fairly easily – coins, pottery and some jewellery are the most obvious examples. These can be things that no matter where or how they’re found you know what and how old they are. Other things such as wood, bone, glass, stone, metalwork etc could be from any date. If you find them on an archaeological dig you will know which ‘context’ they were found in. Context, to an archaeologist, means where an artefact is found. Not just the place, but the soil, the site type, the layer the artefact came from, and what else was in that layer. If you know the date of the context, you can date what was found within it.
More questions answered by Abi McCullough
How did ancient people make things out of metal? Have you found any archeological clues? Paul (6)
We have lots of evidence of metal work by ancient people in Great Britain. We use a type of calendar to identify technology in archaeology which separates the […]
If you just found a valuable item and it starts snowing or hailing and the item gets destroyed. What would you do? Jacob (9)
Well, if that happened I think anyone would panic! If a dig is organised correctly any valuable items would be safely stored to protect them from damage. But […]
Have you ever had any Roman artefacts brought in, if so what were they? Rafi (10), Avi (8) and Joel (10)
Oh yes I’ve had quite a few Roman coins reported to me; mostly copper, but some silver one as well. Roman brooches are brought in occasionally, or fragments […]