Stratigraphy
Topic: Studying Indian History: Sources, Dating and Historiography · NCERT: Class 12, Ch 1 "Bricks, Beads and Bones"
Meaning
Stratigraphy is the study of the layers, or strata, in an archaeological site. When people live in one place for a long time, their debris builds up into a mound. Each period of living leaves a layer with its own colour, texture and objects. Layers left when a place was abandoned are called "sterile layers". The lowest layer is usually the oldest. This lets archaeologists place each object in its correct time period.
Example
John Marshall dug Harappan sites in equal horizontal units and ignored the layers, so the context of many finds was lost forever. R.E.M. Wheeler, Director-General of the Archaeological Survey of India from 1944, insisted on digging by layers when he excavated Harappa in 1946.
Don't confuse with
- Horizontal digging in fixed units: this was Marshall's method. It mixes objects from different layers. Stratigraphy, Wheeler's method, keeps them apart.