Analisi di fabric in archeologia: proposta di un metodo per la raccolta, l'elaborazione e l'interpretazione dei dati

Fabric analysis in archaeology is the study of the spatial arrangement of a deposit through measurement of bearing and plunge angles of its singular components (natural and/or artificial) and through analysis of their mutual spatial relations and with the external environment. In recent years some archeologists (Lenoble, Bertran, McPherron, etc.) have developed a standard procedure for angular data collection and for statistical treatment of this information. The author proposes some conceptual and methodological innovations to improve this method: the application of fabric analysis to any historical and depositional context (in particular, anthropic contexts); the use of “ab plane” (instead of “a axis”) for measurement of bearing and plunge of clasts; the development of spatial analyses associated with traditional statistical treatments; the management of data through geodatabase and GIS directly connected to the statistical software. In the future, this method will need other improvements in order to provide more information about origins, causes, and dynamics that produced a specific deposit from fabric analyses.