Applications of micromorphology to understanding activity areas and site formation processes in experimental hut floors

Banerjea, R. Y. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1786-357X, Bell, M. G., Matthews, W. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7408-6885 and Brown, A. D. (2015) Applications of micromorphology to understanding activity areas and site formation processes in experimental hut floors. Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences, 7 (1). pp. 89-112. ISSN 1866-9565 doi: 10.1007/s12520-013-0160-5

Abstract/Summary

Experimental buildings at Butser Ancient Farm and St. Fagans (UK) and Lejre (Denmark) were sampled to investigate micromorphology of known activity areas, to contribute to our understanding of the internal use of space in excavated buildings and formation processes of house floor deposits. The experimental buildings provided important information relating to activity residues and sediments over the 16 years that the buildings were in use. Specifically, these results contribute to our understanding of the routes and cycles for transportation of materials in occupation contexts, which can be used to inform archaeological studies. It has been possible to identify internal ‘hot spots’ within the buildings for the deposition of activity residues and for the formation of specific deposit types. Analysis also highlighted postdepositional alterations occurring in internal occupation deposits, which has provided a means of identifying roofed and unroofed spaces in the archaeological record.