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EXCAVATION
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I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
The act of extracting ores or coal etc from the earth
Synonyms:
excavation; mining
Classified under:
Nouns denoting acts or actions
Hypernyms ("excavation" is a kind of...):
production ((economics) manufacturing or mining or growing something (usually in large quantities) for sale)
Domain member category:
bore; bore-hole; drill hole (a hole or passage made by a drill; usually made for exploratory purposes)
drift; gallery; heading (a horizontal (or nearly horizontal) passageway in a mine)
fathom; fthm ((mining) a unit of volume (equal to 6 cubic feet) used in measuring bodies of ore)
rag (break into lumps before sorting)
hush (run water over the ground to erode (soil), revealing the underlying strata and valuable minerals)
hush (wash by removing particles)
mine (get from the earth by excavation)
strip mine; surface-mine; surface mine (extract (ore) from a strip-mine)
drive (excavate horizontally)
extract (separate (a metal) from an ore)
opencast; opencut ((of mines and mining) worked from the exposed surface)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "excavation"):
placer mining (mining valuable minerals from a placer by washing or dredging)
opencast mining; strip mining (the mining of ore or coal from an open mine)
Derivation:
excavate (remove the inner part or the core of)
Sense 2
Meaning:
The act of digging
Example:
there's an interesting excavation going on near Princeton
Synonyms:
Classified under:
Nouns denoting acts or actions
Hypernyms ("excavation" is a kind of...):
creating by removal (the act of creating by removing something)
Derivation:
excavate (find by digging in the ground)
excavate (recover through digging)
Sense 3
Meaning:
A hole in the ground made by excavating
Classified under:
Nouns denoting man-made objects
Hypernyms ("excavation" is a kind of...):
artefact; artifact (a man-made object taken as a whole)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "excavation"):
bore; bore-hole; drill hole (a hole or passage made by a drill; usually made for exploratory purposes)
delf (an excavation; usually a quarry or mine)
diggings; digs (an excavation for ore or precious stones or for archaeology)
ditch (a long narrow excavation in the earth)
mine (excavation in the earth from which ores and minerals are extracted)
mineshaft (excavation consisting of a vertical or sloping passageway for finding or mining ore or for ventilating a mine)
pit; quarry; stone pit (a surface excavation for extracting stone or slate)
pool (an excavation that is (usually) filled with water)
cellar; root cellar (an excavation where root vegetables are stored)
well (a deep hole or shaft dug or drilled to obtain water or oil or gas or brine)
working; workings (a mine or quarry that is being or has been worked)
Derivation:
excavate (remove the inner part or the core of)
excavate (form by hollowing)
excavate (find by digging in the ground)
excavate (recover through digging)
Sense 4
Meaning:
The site of an archeological exploration
Example:
they set up camp next to the dig
Synonyms:
archeological site; dig; excavation
Classified under:
Nouns denoting spatial position
Hypernyms ("excavation" is a kind of...):
land site; site (the piece of land on which something is located (or is to be located))
Domain category:
archaeology; archeology (the branch of anthropology that studies prehistoric people and their cultures)
Instance hyponyms:
Byblos (an ancient Mediterranean seaport that was a thriving city state in Phoenicia during the second millennium BC; was the chief port for the export of papyrus; located in Lebanon to the north of Beirut; now partially excavated)
Derivation:
excavate (find by digging in the ground)
excavate (recover through digging)
Context examples:
Archaeologists from the University of Granada have carried out excavations in the Biniadris Cave located on the Balearic Island of Menorca, uncovering enigmatic funeral rituals.
(Hair was dyed for first time as part of funeral rituals, University of Granada)
Ben A. Potter of the University of Alaska Fairbanks led the archaeological team that made the discovery in late 2013 at an excavation of the Upward Sun River site.
(Archaeologists discover remains of Ice-Age infants in Alaska, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)
Ben, in his long, lonely wanderings about the island, had found the skeleton—it was he that had rifled it; he had found the treasure; he had dug it up (it was the haft of his pick-axe that lay broken in the excavation); he had carried it on his back, in many weary journeys, from the foot of the tall pine to a cave he had on the two-pointed hill at the north-east angle of the island, and there it had lain stored in safety since two months before the arrival of the HISPANIOLA.
(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)
The excavations have led to the discovery of almost 100 bodies and have enabled researchers to identify a number of fascinating funeral rituals, such as the practice of dyeing the corpse’s hair red, the deliberate placing of bodies in the middle of the cave, the use of ceramic elements in such rituals, and a practice called trepanation where a hole is drilled into the skull.
(Hair was dyed for first time as part of funeral rituals, University of Granada)
Merry tumbled head foremost into the excavation; the man with the bandage spun round like a teetotum and fell all his length upon his side, where he lay dead, but still twitching; and the other three turned and ran for it with all their might.
(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)
