The Five-Minute Archaeologist in the Southern Levant - Cynthia Shafer-Elliott
15. Why sift and how often?
The Five-Minute Archaeologist in the Southern Levant - Cynthia Shafer-Elliott
Joe Uziel
Israel Antiquities Authority
Description
Artifacts uncovered during excavation vary in size and condition. While certain artifacts are easily spotted using the naked eye, others, due to their size or the type of material they are made from, will not be found during the excavation. Therefore, especially when dealing with certain contexts, it is necessary to sift through the sediment collected, in order to retrieve all of the evidence left behind for archaeologists to fully understand the society they are studying.