Concise Oxford Dictionary of Archaeology (163 page)

Widely shared beliefs about the social or natural worlds held by lay members of society.

 
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A general term in archaeology that is applied to the tangible remains of a group of people who together occupy a settlement or region at any one particular period.

 
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A concept taken from ecology and applied in archaeology with reference to the struggle of different species to occupy the most advantageous locations in a given territory.

 
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The process, widely used in the commissioning of archaeological work, whereby a detailed specification of works is circulated to a number of potential contractors (typically three or four) each of whom bids for the work by providing a tender document that includes such matters as a price for the job, a timetable, and an explanation of how it will be carried out. The person commissioning the work is free to select between the tenders supplied, although certain public bodies may be forced to select the cheapest on grounds of principle. Many private organizations select on the basis of quality, reliability, projected speed of operations, and track record rather than price.

 
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A rather general term used in archaeology to refer to a chronological subdivision of broad groups of defined artefact types such as stone tools or pottery. A recurrent configuration of elements or entities within a larger system.

 
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In North American archaeology this term refers to a culturally homogenous stratigraphic unit within a site. Defined by W. C. McKern in 1939 as ‘the manifestation of a given archaeological focus at a specific site’. Thus a site with one period of occupation will have just one component; a site occupied five times will have five components. A component is site-specific and broadly equates with the concept of a ‘phase’ in European archaeology.

 
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