[Te]
A commonly used method of excavating archaeological deposits by removing arbitrarily defined slices or spits of even thickness. Finds can be assigned to the spit and if necessary subdivided spatially by using a grid or coordinate system. Also called the plano system, spit excavation is useful in extensive, thick, and poorly differentiated deposits, but where clear boundaries can be seen between exposed deposits most excavators prefer to proceed by removing the deposits in reverse stratigraphic order.
