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Absolutely agreed Jonathan! Due to posting time-lag I have already sent in some suggestions for modifications to these terms, but I fear that they don't take account of the important points you raise. So I think further modification is required to emphasise that "find", "occupation site", and maybe also some other terms, are not poor relations of "monuments", but valid and important types of Palaeolithic/Mesolithic evidence in their own right. Homepage: www.soton.ac.uk/~ffws/New_ffws/index.html Francis Wenban-Smith (Dr) Department of Archaeology (CAHOR - Centre for Applied Human Origins Research) University of Southampton (Avenue Campus) Southampton, Hants SO17 1BF 02380-596 864 (direct) 07771-623 096 (mobile) -----Original Message----- From: The Forum for Information Standards in Heritage (FISH) [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Jonathan Last Sent: 24 October 2014 12:48 To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Re: [FISH] Session 2, Q3 - deposits & palaeo-environmental evidence Gill's post raises a couple of interesting points about implied valuations in the terms we use, which are usually detrimental to Pal/Meso stuff: 'FIND: A monument whose existence is indicated by the discovery of isolated artefacts or an artefact scatter' seems to implicitly exclude those sites where the monument IS the scatter, i.e. the artefacts are not a sign of something that is buried, they (and their depositional/spatial context) are significant in their own right. This is exactly the issue of 'sites without structures'... 'OCCUPATION SITE: A site showing some signs of occupation but evidence is insufficient to imply permanent settlement.' This quite clearly suggests that transient/temporary occupation is inferior to 'permanent settlement' (whatever that means...) - the implication is that if only we had more evidence/better preservation, we could say this was a proper site!! I think we need better ways (or better language) to record the significance of the transient, temporary and ephemeral - issues which academics are now engaging with, especially studies of mobility in the Meso/Neo. Jonathan