| artifact | any object made, modified, or used by humans |
| archaeologist | one who studies archaeology |
| archaeology | the study of the past through things people left behind |
| decompose | to break down or rot |
| inorganic | material that has never been alive |
| lithics | things made out of stone such as stone tools |
| organic | material that has once lived or is living |
| strata | the layers in an archaeological dig |
| stratum | one layer |
| tel | an artificial mountain made by layers of inhabitation over centuries |
| stratified site | place people have lived for hundred or thousands of years and build settlements one top of the other |