Principles of Archaeological Stratigraphy, by Edward Harris

A Harris Matrix is a tool that archaeologists use to keep track of stratigraphy and stratigraphic units. By using the laws of stratigraphy, archaeologists create these logic diagrams to record the top-down sequence of stratigraphic deposits and help make sense of the information they contain. Using the principles of stratigraphy in archaeology were first introduced by Dr. Harris, published in his book the "Principles of Archaeological Stratigraphy". This book has been the industry standard for this discipline, so much that the way of seeing stratigraphic sequences is now commonly called a ‘Harris Matrix’ or ‘Harris Matrices’ on archaeological sites.

This valuable book has been recently translated into Arabic by Tareq Awad and Baraa Seraj Eddin.

“Principles of Archaeological Stratigraphy” demonstrates the making of stratigraphic sequences or Harris Matrices, as well as expounding on the history of stratigraphy in archaeology, the methods of recording stratification, and the relation of artifacts to the stratigraphic sequence.

The book is available for downloading for free from the site of Dr. Harris at this link.

It is also available in several languages (English , Arabic, Czech, French, German, Hungarian, Polish, Slovenia, Spanish).