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How do sites form?
Archaeological sites are changed by a transformation process.
1.) Cultural Transformation Processes: C-Transforms
- Building
- Manufacture & manufacture waste
- Subsistence (the minimum {as of food and shelter] to support life) & resource utilisation
- General activity
- Discard of material
- Loss of material
- Recycling & deliberate destruction (i.e. constant maintenance)
2.) Natural Transformation Processes: N-Transforms
A.) Geological Changes
- Erosion: slow destruction of a substance; to wear away by the action of wind, water, or glacial movement
- Sedimentation: the material that settles at the bottom of water
- Frost heaving- expansion of ice causing movement
B.) Biological Processes
- Animal disturbances / additions
- Plant destruction especially root growth
- Bacterial degradation -- most important of which is rotting: anything that contains organic material such as antler, wood, and bone.
Any conclusions drawn from a site must have C-transforms and N-transforms taken into account, that is what has been added / subtracted from the original site. Wood for example being an organic material generally does not survive at archaeological sites. Of the Native North American artifacts approximately 90% are comprised of wood which has not preserved thus leaving numerous gaps in the archaeological record.
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