An alignment in

archaeology Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landsca ...

is a

co-linear In geometry, a line is an infinitely long object with no width, depth, or curvature. Thus, lines are One-dimensional space, one-dimensional objects, though they may exist in Two-dimensional Euclidean space, two, Three-dimensional space, three, ...

arrangement of features or structures with external landmarks, in

archaeoastronomy Archaeoastronomy (also spelled archeoastronomy) is the interdisciplinary or multidisciplinary study of how people in the past "have understood the phenomena in the sky, how they used these phenomena and what role the sky played in their cul ...

the term may refer to an alignment with an astronomically significant point or axis. "Alignment" may also refer to circumstantial or secondary type of evidence used to infer

archaeological association This page is a glossary of archaeology, the study of the human past from material remains. A B C D E F ...

of archeological features, such as

postholes In archaeology a posthole or post-hole is a cut feature used to hold a surface timber or stone. They are usually much deeper than they are wide; however, truncation may not make this apparent. Although the remains of the timber may survive, most ...

, by virtue of their physical relationships rather than

stratigraphic Stratigraphy is a branch of geology concerned with the study of rock layers (strata) and layering (stratification). It is primarily used in the study of sedimentary and layered volcanic rocks. Stratigraphy has three related subfields: lithostra ...

ones.

Types

Large scale alignments

The alignment of features on a site within or across several archaeological phases many times is an indication of a larger topology to the formation of features relating to activity in the archaeological record. Structures buildings and liner features such as ditches can all have common alignments that relate to a feature that is not exposed during excavation or is off-site. An example would be that a road has biased the alignment of features some way back from the actual road side. Another example will be contours or water courses which may be buried or obscure.

Vertical alignments

Vertical alignments may demonstrate evolution of long term land use throughout time. Examples: roads and structures built upon earlier roads or other structures.

Uses

Grave alignment is used to infer religious beliefs (e.g. Christianity). The change in astronomical alignments over time may be used to infer dates of construction of structures with supposed astronomical significance, or ''vice versa''.

Potential errors

Chance alignments may mislead; the number of potential astronomical alignment targets over time is large; statistical significance can be used when examining groups of alignments.

Ley lines

The landscape features known as

Ley line Ley lines () are straight alignments drawn between various historic structures and prominent landmarks. The idea was developed in early 20th-century Europe, with ley line believers arguing that these alignments were recognised by ancient soci ...

s were discovered by

Alfred Watkins Alfred Watkins (27 January 1855 – 15 April 1935) was an English author, self-taught amateur archaeologist, antiquarian and businessman who, while standing on a hillside in Herefordshire, England, in 1921 experienced a revelation. He noticed ...

in the 1920s, based on apparent co-linearity of features, who inferred an ancient system of surveying landmarks. The idea was rejected by archaeologists, and the line associations have been shown to be not generally statistically significant.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Alignment (Archaeology) Methods in archaeology