augering: a subsurface detection method using either a hand or machine-powered drill to determine the depth and character of archaeological deposits.

　　azimuth: a magnetic bearing sighted from your position to a known landmark. Used in navigation and in determining site locations.

　　B

　　B.P.: "Before Present." the notation commonly used on radiocarbon dates, e.g. 1,000 B.P. = 1,000 years before 1950 A.D., or approximately 1,000 A.D.

　　back-dirt: the excavated matrix or fill of a site, Presumed to be of little or no further archaeological significance.

　　back-filling: the process of refilling a completed excavation.

　　basalt: a fine-grained volcanic rock used for the manufacture of chipped stone artifacts. Color black to gray, texture granular to glass-like.

　　base-line: an arbitrary line established by stakes and string, or by surveying instrument, from which measurements are taken to produce a site-map, or to provide an initial axis for an excavation grid.

　　baulks: unexcavated "walls" which may be left between pits to provide stratigraphic control.

　　biface: a stone artifact flaked on both faces.

　　bipoint: a bone or stone artifact pointed at both ends.

　　bone industry: all the bone artifacts from a particular site.

　　bosing (or bowsing): a subsurface detection method performed by striking the ground with a heavy wooden mallet or a lead-filled container on a long handle.

　　brain endocasts: these are made by pouring latex rubber into a skull, 50 as to produce an accurate image of the inner surface of the cranium. This method gives an estimate of cranial capacity and has been used on early hominid skulls.

　　break-in-slope: any abrupt change in the gradient of a topographic surface, such as the edge of a cliff, terrace scarp, etc.

　　breaking chain: the process of obtaining horizontal distances over sloping terrain with a surveyor‘s chain by measuring stepped level intervals up the slope.

　　brunton compass: a sophisticated magnetic compass used as a basic surveying instrument. Also known as the "Brunton Pocket Transit".

　　C

　　calcined bone: burned bone reduced to white or blue mineral constituents.

　　calendrical system: a system of measuring time that is based on natural recurring units of time, such as revolutions of the earth around the sun. Time is determined by the number of such units that have preceded or elapsed with reference to a specific point in time.

　　carbon sample: a quantity of organic material, usually charcoal, collected for radiocarbon dating.
　　catalogue number: a number assigned all items recovered by archaeological research to cross-index them to the catalogue.

　　catalogue: the systematic list recording artifacts and other finds, recovered by archaeological research, including their description and Provenience.

　　cation-ratio dating: this method aspires to the direct dating of rock carvings and engravings, and is also potentially applicable to Paleolithic artifacts with a strong patina caused by exposure to desert dust. It depends on the principle that cations of certain elements are more soluble than others; they leach out of rock varnish more rapidly than the less soluble elements, and their concentration decreases with time.

　　chronometric dating: a dating system that refers to a specific point or range of time. Chronometric dates are not necessarily exact dates, and they are often expressed as a range.

　　cluster analysis: a multivariate statistical technique which assesses the similarities between units or assemblages, based on the occurrence or non-occurrence of specific artifact types or other components within them.

　　cognitive archaeology: the study of past ways of thought and symbolic structures from material remains.

　　cognitive map: an interpretive framework of the world which, it is argued, exists in the human mind and affects actions and decisions as well as knowledge structures.