Ancient History - Dating

• Define Prehistory

  Before documented/recorded history (before the invention of writing)
• What is the time period of Ancient History?

  5000BC to the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476AD
• What time period is Medieval History?

  'middle ages' or 'dark ages' between fall of Roman Empire and 15th Century Renaissance period
• What time period is Modern History?

  from the French Revolution in 1789 to current day
• What is a source?

  A source provides factual or subjective information on a topic
• What is Evidence?


  Specific extracts taken from sources, and physical information in direct connection to a subject
• Archaeological Sources include:

  • Ruins of civilisations
  • paintings + art
  • Artefacts (e.g. tools, pottery)
  • Remains of organisms
• Written Sources include:

  • newspaper articles
  • books/scrolls
  • journals/diaries
  • writings (e.g. heiroglyphics)
• There are 2 key excavation techniques used in archaeology:

  1. Grid System: where the site is divided into labelled/numbered squares and boxes
  2. Open Area: Excavating layer by layer in open sites (strata levels)
• Finding Archaeological sites can be accidental:

  • Human activity (through construction or farming)
  • Modern Warfare (through aerial photography, digging trenches, bombing)
  • Literature (acient maps, legends, folklore and place names)
• Finding Archaeological Sites can be purposeful:

  • Aerial survey (e.g. crop circles of where buildings once were)
  • LiDAR (Light Detecting and Ranging (light rays absorb into the ground, printing a 3D version of structures that may be underneath the top layer)
  • Ground survey (walking and uncovering earth - e.g. ground-penetrating radar, resistivity, magnetometry)
• What are the 2 types of dating methods?

  Relative and Absolute
• Examples of Relative dating:

  1. Stratigraphy (dating artefacts based on soil layers)
  2. Typology (dating artefacts based on the similarities to others)
  3. Seriation (dating artefacts based on style and frequency throughrelative chronology)
  4. Linguistics (looking at the evolution of lanuages over time)
• Examples of Absolute dating:

  1. Radiocarbon dating (carbon-14 absorbed into bones and organic matter can be dated)
  2. Calendars (the artefact states a date)
  3. Dendrochronology (study of the rings in trees)
  4. Thermoluminescence (dates inorganic material through the pressure of extreme heat on crystalline minerals in objects)
  5. Climatology (studying climate patterns and environmental changes)
• What are examples of inorganic materials?

  Fired clay (pottery), stone tools, metal (gold, lead, and silver last longer)
• What is DNA analysis?

  The extract and study of genetic codes in organism remains or items in contact with humans
• What does DNA analysis help with?

  The study of:

  • Human Behaviour
  • Diseases
  • Evolution
  • Ageing
• Where are the most common places to extract DNA?

  1. The nucleus of cells
  2. The mitochondria (Mitochondrial DNA)
• What can influence writings on past battles and events?

  • Religious Bias (e.g. belief systems)
  • Cultural Bias (e.g. lifestyles)
  • Perspective Bias (e.g. how/where you were raised)
• What is Dendrochronology?

  The study of tree rings

  • Used for wooden materials
• What is Stratigraphy?

  The study of layers of soil and artefacts within each layer (beneficial for dating)
• Define Shard.

  a piece of broken metal, rock, or glass, typically having sharp edges
• Define Alloy.

  a metal made by combining 2 or more metallic elements
• What is oxidisation?

  a metal (often copper) combined with oxygen (exposed for a long period of time) causing patina to form
• What is patina?

  a green or brown film on the surfce of bronze or similar metals (e.g. copper), produced by oxidisation
• What is a salvage dig?

  The excavation and exploration of a suspected archaeological site in danger of demolition and construction