There have been two broad approaches to dealing with the problems of post-depositional transformations to the archaeological record. The first has been to deny it happens (sometimes arguing on the basis of a misinterpretation of the so-called “law of superposition”), or to simply refer to the potential for contamination, without specifying what can be done about it. To some degree, these responses may reflect limitations of archaeological recording media, which have meant that it has been particularly difficult to record the evidence of post-depositional transformations, let alone to evaluate its significance or possibly even to model it during post-excavation analysis.

This paper examines the need for acknowledging the importance of post-depositional transformations to the archaeological record, outlines a potential solution to the problem of recording the evidence, and considers some of the obstacles which will need to be addressed in analysis.