More (and better) on Basket Handle Amphora

Our adventures with basket handles continued over the last few days at Pyla-Koutsopetria and Scott Moore and I recorded another “clever” video showing how we used spatial data from survey and excavation to develop a typology of our vexing basket handled amphora.

We should be able to argue that traditional vertical stratigraphy – that is artifacts found in secure places or contexts below the surface of the ground– can inform our understanding of horizontal stratigraphy – that is artifacts that are found in specific places across the surface of the landscape. While it is impossible to use horizontal or surface stratigraphy to make precise chronological arguments for artifacts, the appearance together of certain types of artifacts nevertheless represents a diachronic cultural phenomenon (albeit one that may well represent change over the course of centuries).  It’s exciting whenever it is possible to see patterns in the combination of excavated material with survey material.

Check out our enthusiasm: