Defining the burial environment

The burial environment has a decisive role in archaeology, as it decides which materials are preserved for the archaeologist to study. This chapter focuses on the burial environment on land and underwater but will be put into context with reference to the decay of wood and other organic materials. The soil organic content influences the deposits in many ways and is a key parameter to measure: for instance, a high organic content will influence the soil/sediment structure and increase its water retention. Characterizing the burial environment should never stand-alone – it must be combined with other studies in order to discover and quantify previous and ongoing decay at archaeological sites. The chapter introduces the key parameters in the archaeological burial environment on land and underwater and why they are important to measure in order to define and understand the effect the burial environment has on archaeological materials.