Stratigraphy
Definition
The layered record of deposits. In a grave, the cut, the fill, and the body each form contexts that must be read in reverse order of deposition.
- Discipline
- Forensic archaeology
- Grave contexts
- Cut, fill, and body
- Reading order
- Reverse of deposition order
- Basis
- Law of superposition
Common questions
Why must a grave be read in reverse order of deposition?+
The last layer placed is the one closest to the surface, so excavating from the top down means the excavator encounters events in the opposite sequence to how they actually happened, and must mentally reconstruct the true chronology from that.
How does grave stratigraphy differ from geological stratigraphy?+
Geological layers accumulate over long natural timescales; a grave's stratigraphy is a short, deliberate human sequence, the cut, the deposition of the body, and the backfill, so the same reading principle is applied to a compressed, forensically relevant event rather than deep time.
Related terms
- Geophysical Survey
- Non-invasive subsurface imaging using physical contrasts such as radar reflection, magnetic variation, or electrical resistance.
- Remote Sensing
- Locating features from a distance using aerial imagery, satellite data, or airborne LiDAR, before anyone sets foot on the ground.
- Search Strategy
- A structured plan for covering ground systematically so that the probability of detection is known and the absence of a find means...
- Single-Context Recording
- Recording and removing each deposit as its own discrete unit, so the formation sequence of the scene can be reconstructed afterwards.
- Total Station
- An electronic instrument that simultaneously measures horizontal and vertical angles and distance to a reflective prism, computing three-dimensional coordinates directly. Typical angular...