Artifact Density Calculator

Density per cubic meter is the artifact count divided by the excavated volume, and volume shrinks as level depth shrinks while length and width stay fixed. If two levels recover the same number of artifacts but one is half as thick, the thinner level's smaller volume produces double the density -- the artifacts weren't more concentrated in reality, the measuring stick just got shorter. This is why comparing density across levels of very different thickness needs care, even though the density-per-cubic-meter figure itself is calculated correctly in each case.

Density per cubic meter divides the artifact count by the full excavated volume (length x width x depth), making it the standard measure for comparing how concentrated artifacts are within the soil matrix of a given level. Density per square meter divides only by the horizontal surface area, ignoring depth entirely, which makes it more useful for comparing spatial patterning across different areas of a site where excavated levels may vary in thickness -- it answers "how much of the ground surface" rather than "how much of the dug volume."

No -- density per cubic meter and per square meter are both driven only by total artifact count and the excavation unit's dimensions, not by how that total breaks down across material categories. The ceramic, lithic, and bone density figures are reported separately using the same volume denominator, so you can compare which material class is most concentrated, but changing one category's count without changing the total artifact count leaves the overall density unchanged.

Typical artifact densities vary enormously by site type, region, occupation duration, and depositional history -- a dense urban midden and a sparse lithic scatter from a short-term camp have completely different "normal" ranges. This calculator's five-tier rating scale gives a consistent, repeatable way to compare density figures across your own excavation units and levels, but it should not be read as a universal threshold for what counts as a significant or insignificant deposit in archaeological practice generally.