Urban Archaeology
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A For the present account of urban archaeology, construction beneath streets and buildings can expose layers of homes, workshops, waste and infrastructure from earlier communities. In archaeology, the term context refers to the precise location and relationships that give an archaeological object meaning. The definition gives researchers a common starting point for discussing urban archaeology, but it does not identify a cause by itself. Two observations of urban archaeology can share the label context while differing in scale, timing or origin. B Researchers rely chiefly on stratigraphic excavation to investigate urban archaeology. Research on urban archaeology has found that archaeologists record the order and relationship of deposits before construction removes or covers them. They decide their comparison, exclusions and outcome measures for urban archaeology in advance. A result about urban archaeology is treated as stronger when it survives more than one source of evidence, not simply when one instrument measuring urban archaeology reports many decimal places. C The evidence about urban archaeology is informative but conditional. One point relevant to urban archaeology is that small urban sites can reveal everyday change across centuries, although later building often cuts through older layers. Researchers test stratigraphy as an explanation. Evidence reviewed for urban archaeology shows that younger deposits usually lie above older ones unless later activity has disturbed the sequence. Confidence in stratigraphy rises when independent measures of urban archaeology agree and rival explanations fail, rather than when a single comparison happens to be statistically precise. D Knowledge of urban archaeology accumulated unevenly across modern cities built over earlier settlements. A striking report could establish that a pattern existed, yet it could not show whether stratigraphy operated elsewhere. Researchers examining urban archaeology therefore moved toward shared definitions and planned comparisons based on stratigraphic excavation rather than discarding the earlier record. E Practical programmes translate evidence about urban archaeology into action. The discussion of urban archaeology notes that planning systems survey risk, preserve significant remains and share discoveries with present communities. Their stated focus is urban heritage. Teams working on urban archaeology compare later outcomes with conditions before implementation and record unintended effects. This evaluation of urban archaeology determines whether the original explanation involving stratigraphy remains useful outside the research setting. F Interpretation of urban archaeology must stop short of a universal claim. For the present account of urban archaeology, rescue excavation works under time pressure, and an excavated block may not represent poorer or unbuilt parts of the old city. Future work on urban archaeology is organised around integrated city records. For future research on urban archaeology, integrated city records will connect separate excavations into changing neighbourhood-scale histories. This use of integrated city records targets a specific uncertainty about urban archaeology rather than merely increasing the volume of data.