Visibility, Preservation and Colour: A Descriptive System for the Study of Opal Phytoliths in (Archaeological) Soil and Sediment Thin Sections

Luc Vrydaghs and Yannick Devos

Environmental Archaeology, 2020, vol. 25, issue 2, 170-177

Abstract: Phytoliths are abundantly reported in (archaeological) soil thin sections. However, standard description systems are largely missing. The purpose of this paper is to present a descriptive system describing three aspects of phytoliths in soil thin sections: visibility, preservation and colour (VPC). The visibility expresses to which extent the phytoliths are masked or surrounded by fine material. The preservation is an indicator for the physico-chemical alterations that affected the phytoliths. Finally, colour is an indicator of the charring of the organic material surrounding the phytoliths.

Date: 2020
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DOI: 10.1080/14614103.2018.1501867

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