6 - Single-context planning: its role in on-site recording procedures and in post-excavation analysis at York

Abstract

This chapter discusses the structure and rationale behind a recording and post-excavation procedure. The technique was developed to enable excavators to record archeological data from deeply stratified urban sites efficiently, accurately and logically. The method itself is divided into two parts. The first concerns itself with the routine operations that are undertaken during excavation to produce ordered and complete site records. The second proposes a method for phasing and suggests a structure and nomenclature for the Archive Report. The chapter presents the Archive Report as a detailed analysis of all of the contexts from the site and their inter-relationships within the stratigraphie sequence. It is concerned solely with this category of information and excludes finds evidence, dating or otherwise, and other classes of information, notably environmental evidence. This is for two reasons. First, such information is considered secondary to the story of the development of the site as told by the stratigraphic sequence. Second, it is considered that a logical report based solely on this sequence is something, which should be given to every specialist working on material from the site, prior to the commencement of their study.