The cultural layer is a part of the earth that contains the remnants of human life. It can have various depths and thicknesses: from a few centimeters to tens of meters. His research is of fundamental importance for the development of the science of archeology, since it is here that scientists find traces of human living and occupation. As a rule, in these layers are found ancient structures, household objects of labor and household garbage.
Composition
The cultural layer consists of artifacts. Under the last term, it is customary to consider everything that has been processed by people in one way or another. As a rule, this includes tools, household utensils, underwear, clothes, a spindle, arrowheads and many other items. The artifacts also include secondary products remaining from the main production process. The last category includes slags - material that has been preserved after metal smelting, excess thread thrown out after making clothes or dull stones that were used to create axes, saws and other tools. The cultural layer can even contain a whole production complex - a structure designed for large-scale production. For example, abandoned log cabins are often found in the graveyards, where people used to be engaged in metallurgy. In such areas, the remains of a log house, furnace, and some tools are found.
Facilities
The cultural layer often consists of large objects, the construction of which seriously destroys the soil strata of the earth. The most common and at the same time the simplest structure is an ordinary household pit. It is very easy to find and determine by the darker soil on the surface, as it is filled with human waste products. Their study is extremely important, since such pits give an idea of several aspects of human life: food, clothing, production, etc. In addition, the remnants of the home may contain a cultural layer. The definition of this concept implies that these layers can store both large and small structures. The remains of dwellings are found in the form of log houses, foundations, walls, foci. This category also includes tunnels, palisades, defensive ramparts. The last category of construction objects is very well visible during archaeological explorations, as they are located on high ground.
Biological residues
The cultural layer of the earth is saturated with materials that were once part of wildlife, but due to various circumstances that fell into the sphere of human life. This category includes untreated bones, shells from snails, seeds and pollen of plants, tree leaves, etc. There are four types of biological residues. The first group includes food waste: this is the food that was left after human nutrition, or what was used in the cooking process. For example, archaeologists often find animal bones in parking lots. The archaeological cultural layer consists of technical wastes: substances of plant or animal origin that remained in the production process (for example, chips, straw, bone fragments, etc.). The third group includes ecofacts - biological residues that came to the place of residence of people without their direct participation (pollen, seeds, plant debris, etc.). They are important in that they allow you to reconstruct the natural human environment. And finally, the fourth group is inorganic residues (natural deposits accumulated around the monument). The cultural layer in archeology may contain traces of human activity in transforming its environment (for example, sand bedding to a picket fence).
Complex
Archaeological materials are in direct contact with each other and together create the most complete picture of a particular period of human life. Under this concept, it is customary to mean a set of things that could be made or made at different periods, however, they came to the settlement at the same time and therefore remained almost untouched. Such a find is called a closed complex (coin treasure, funerary inventory). Excavations are crucial for the development of archeology. The cultural layer may have wider boundaries. To study an entire period of time, archaeologists often artificially expand the complex, attracting data from neighboring layers into it. In this case, it is customary to talk about an open complex.
Formation
The layer is added over a certain period of time. The first stage is the deposition of natural natural deposits: for example, the appearance of deposits, continental strata. At the beginning of construction, certain residues of human activity fall into the ground: building material, the remains of tools. Thus, the initial zone of the cultural layer is formed. For decades and centuries, the initial level has gradually been buried already by the direct waste of the existence of people in one or another locality. The earth is filled with the remnants of food, ceramics, the remains of animals, clothes, etc. But there comes a time when all buildings either collapse from time to time or perish as a result of natural disasters, which leads to the formation of a new bedding - a layer of destruction.
Layer formation conditions
The more organic remains in the land, the greater the risk of its quick resolution, since this type of waste decomposes very quickly and intensively. But if the soil is saturated with inorganic residues, then archaeologists have a great opportunity to restore the picture of the settlement and the reproduction of the life of the tribe and people. In this case, the thickness of the layer can reach even up to 6 meters (this is the level recorded at the excavation in the city of Staraya Russa).
Stratification
Under this concept, it is customary to mean the alternation of layers in relation to each other, as well as to natural deposits. The study of stratification is extremely important for archeology, as it allows you to trace the history of the formation of the layer. One of the most common methods is the principle of overlapping bedding. In this case, it is generally accepted that the level that is lower is older and older than the one that is above. However, this method is applicable only in specific cases, since often the upper layer is older. The principle of cutting means that any extraneous sprinkling in the sediment appeared later than the environment in which it is located. When dating, scientists often take into account the fact that a layer of a cultural layer could form after the objects contained in it. In addition, science takes into account the fact that the date of the closed complex coincides with the time of the artifacts that were in it. For example, things from the grave were put there at the time when they existed, so they can be dated to the time of the existence of the people in the area.
Features of burial grounds
This layer is characterized in that it is not formed continuously and in a natural way, like housing layers, but, on the contrary, arises as a result of human intervention in the soil structure. In this case, an existing layer is often violated. If the burial ground has existed for a long time, then over the course of decades and centuries, old burials are destroyed and new ones arise in their place. Burials are important in that they contain artifacts of the same time in one enclosed space, which greatly simplifies dating. In addition, burials make it possible to judge the culture and beliefs of peoples of a particular era. The layers in these places do not overlap, but, on the contrary, go deep into the ground. Thus, cultural strata wedge into each other, forming a stratification.