Translating the Past: SASA Archaeological Terms and Translations

The SASA Archaeological Terms and Translations project serves as a free student resource. It is an easy access list of terms and phrases that are common in archaeology and academia. Whether you're deep in an excavation trench, decoding ancient languages or even just reading journal articles, knowing the right terminology can make or break your understanding of the past. That's why SASA translation guides are so important in making archaeology more accessible for students, researchers and professionals across the globe.

PDF's available for download under SASA > Resources > Archaeological Vocabulary

What Is the SASA Archaeological Terms and Translations Project?

Designed especially for students and professionals, it offers concise translations and definitions of excavation and research terms (meaning those that show up constantly in scholarly articles, site reports, and fieldwork).

You can download these guides under Resources > Archaeological Vocabulary on the SASA website

What’s in These Translation Guides?

Each language guide contains hundreds of commonly used terms, sorted into categories such as:

• Surface/soil types

• Excavation features

• Finds and materials

• Drawing and measuring vocabulary

• Excavation tools

• Key adjectives and verbs

• Numismatic terminology

• Plant and animal species

  
  

Some terms come with short definitions, especially for jargon or context-specific meanings. The goal is clarity and usability, perfect for brushing up before a dig or while translating a site report.

Available Languages

Version 1.0 of the project offers PDFs in:

• Modern Greek

• German

• French

• Italian

• Arabic

• Spanish

• Hindi

• Japanese

  
  

And now, SASA is proud to announce two new additions:

• Mandarin Chinese

• Turkish

Future Plans

SASA plans to expand these tools with additional languages in the near future. We welcome feedback from the public on how to improve this resource, and we will periodically update these files. Please e-mail Access Team leader, Dr. John Haberstroh (jhaberstroh@saveancientstudies.org) for any comments or questions, or if you would like to contribute to this project.