Back to top: Native digitality
Disconnected elements as “digits”
The fragments that emerge during the excavation are typically disconnected from each other – other than on account of how they are placed in the matrix of the soil. The image to the right illustrates a moment in the excavation of a group of sealings in unit A13: each one is labeled with a tag, so that, once extracted, it can be linked with its original emplacement.
It is in this sense that each element (items 94 and 99, as well as the matrix, accumulation 55, not labeled in the photo) may be considered as "digits". A digit does not, in and of itself, make explicit what its connection is with another digit: qua labels, 94, 99, 55 are independent entities, linked only by the alphanumeric sequence, which does not as such carry any particular meaning.
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We may compare this to a list of digits such as
1 3 4 12 1.
As such, the list appears to be random, without any particular meaning, The meaning comes if we apply qualifications which show the context within which the digits signify something specific:
1+3=4, 12AM, 1PM.
What happens in the situation shown in the photo is similar. The "digits"
55 94 99
acquire meaning only when we consider them as items A13.94 and A13.99 and as accumulation A13f55, which then implies that the two sealings should be viewed toether with all the other items found in the same accumulation, the seal impressions on them (if any) should be compared to the other seal impressions in the same accumulation and elsewhere not only in A13 but elsewhere in the palace and beyond. etc.
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Back to top: Native digitality
Digitality
The notion of "digitality" is used to emphasize the fact that emplacement is fundamental because it is the only objective evidence we have from which to infer deposition and more.
In this, they are like digits, that are merely juxtaposed, statically.
Just as with digits, these elements will be shown to have meaning only when they are qualified in such a way as to allow an insight into their dynamic relationships – which is the task of all subsequent analysis, from stratigraphy to typology and beyond.
see Density of type article, Higgett
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