These kinds of observations in archaeology are crucial first-steps, but represent low-range level. That is, you could make these observations for an artifact completely without connecting them to the behaviors of the community or culture they were associated with. You could say, for example, that you found a broken piece of pottery 15x10x3 (dimensions), of burnished yellow slip ceramic (material), found in a grey sandy soil at a particular elevation beneath three other layers (provenience). In this case, you're only noting what you found and where you found it. Mid-range level theory looks for patterns in the artifacts as related to one other and evaluating these patterns in context.
