Horizon (archaeology)

In archaeology, a horizon is a distinctive type of sediment, artefact, style or other cultural trait that is found across a large geographical area.

The term is used to denote a series of stratigraphic relationships that constitute an phase, or are part of the process of determining the archaeological phases of a site. An archaeological horizon can be understood as a break in contexts formed in the Harris matrix, which denotes a change in epoch on a given site by delineation in time of finds found within contexts.