Archaeology

• What is archaeology?

  the study of material remains to describe and explain human behavior
• What are the three types of material remains?

  • environmental
  • remains of human activity
  • human remains
• What is the process of archaeological analysis?

  • recognize things as items used by humans - i.e. things that functioned within a cultural system
  • interpret how items were used or how they functioned
  • integrate each symbol in its proper system and environment
• What are artifacts?

  any object modified by humans

  • expresses a facet of human culture
• What is typology?

  A categorization of artifacts to answer specific questions about a culture
• What is ecofact?


  Items that are associated with a site through natural processes

  • gives environmental information
• What are features?


  Things that can't be brought back to a lab for analysis

  • part of the earth
  • moving will change or destroy them
• What is a site?

  A spatially distinct place that exhibits evidence of human activity

  Characteristics:

  • unit of analysis for archaeologists
  • primary unit of association for artifacts
  • spatially distinct
  • may be occupied over a period of time
• What is a community?


  A site or ensemble of related sites that represents the material remains of a cultural system
• What are the four goals of anthropology?

  1. reconstruct human history
  2. reconstruct human lifeways
  3. explain how and why the past occurred
  4. interpret cognitive and symbolic behaviours of the past
• Applying archaeology

  1. new dating techniques
  2. new archaeology
  3. redefine archaeological aims
  4. traditional field archaeology (inductive)
  5. processual archaeology (deductive)
  6. cultural resource management
  7. protecting sites
• How do archeologists find a site?

  Survey

  • salvage survey - find ancient sites
  • reconnaissance survey - potential excavation sites or settlement history
  • systematic surveys

  Excavation

  • grid system
  • datum point
  • excavation of squares
  • fieldwork records
• What are the clues for a reconnaissance survey?

  • disturbance by human or natural activity
  • vegetation
  • ethnohistorical data
  • amateur archaeologists or farmers
• Examples of systematic survey methods

  Reconnaissance surveys

  Walking over an area in regular intervals - record all artifacts

  Dig test pits

  Aerial photos
• How do we conduct surveys beneath the surface?

  Proton magnetometer

  Electrical resistivity

  Ground penetrating radar

  Seismic and acoustic

  Infared photography
• What are the four archeological approaches?

  1. Traditional - Inductive
  2. Processual - Deductive
  3. Cognitive processual - recognizing ideology and internal conflict
  4. 2 areas: symbols of social change or conventional areas of interest
  5. Integrated - inductive + deductive
  6. diverse and inclusive
• Ethical issues in archeology

  Conservation

  • ancient objects
  • historical buildings
  • archeological sites
  • antiquities trade

  Indigenous peoples

  Gender
• What is relative dating?

  Ordering artifacts into sequences relative to each other

  Ex. stratigraphy, cross dating, seriation, fluorine, uranium, nitrogen dating, palynology, paleontology
• Cross dating

  Classifying artifacts into types based on attributes

  • overall shape, size, or function
  • color or material
  • style, decoration, or specific features

  Relative dating technique
• Stratigraphy


  Law of superposition: one layer lies on top of the other, so the layer at the bottom is the oldest

  Artifacts are deposited into layers

  Relative dating technique

  
• Seriation


  Ordering artifacts into temporal series based on

  • similar attributes
  • frequency of attributes

  Uses time markers to establish chronological sequences and traces stylistic change over time

  Commonly used on pottery and ceramics

  Relative dating technique

  
• Seriation Battleship curves

  Curve 1 - earliest pottery type; initially at its most popular and decreases in frequency over times

  Curve 2 - shows the entire lifespan of a pottery type from its origin to the end as it decreases in frequency

  Curve 3 - most recent due to increasing popularity
• Fluorine, Uranium, and Nitrogen dating (F.U.N)


  Used for dating bones

  Bones in the ground absorb fluorine and uranium from water underground; older bones have more fluorine and uranium and less nitrogen

  Disadvantages: site specific, environmentally variable

  Relative dating technique

  
• Palynology


  Relative dating of pollen grains

  All flowering plants produce pollen

  When comparing two sites, if layers in pollen diagrams are similar, we can infer that the two sites were occupied at the same time
• Palentology - Index Fossil Concept


  Relative dating technique

  Based on the relative extinction of mammalian species

  Substituted artifacts for fossils

  
• Absolute dating


  Accurate dating techniques that tell us of the chronological sequence of the past

  Ex. calendar and historical, dendrochronology, radiocarbon, potassium argon, argon/argon, fission track, paleomagnetic, amino acid, electron spin, thermoluminescence, obsidian
• Calendars and historical chronologies (astronomical dating)


  Connecting archeological evidence with calendars of ancient peoples

  Absolute dating

  
• Dendrochronology


  Measures age of wood objects

  Match ring patterns of wooden artifacts to chronology sequence of trees of the same species in a particular region

  Dates back 2000 ya

  Absolute dating technique

  
• Radiocarbon 14 dating


  Absolute dating technique

  For dating organic materials

  Based on radioactive decay

  Dates back 50,000 ya
• Obsidian hydration dating


  For dating stone tools

  Over time, water is absorbed, which creates a thick layer and increases density

  Can date relatively young samples or those dating back to 1M ya

  Relative dating technique

  
• Amino acid racemization


  Measures ratio of live amino acids: dead amino acids

  Electrons spin left for life and right for death

  Used for bones and shell

  Dates back to several million ya

  Heavily affected by temperature

  Relative dating method if temperature history of site is known
• Fission track dating


  Used for crystal, glass, and other uranium rich materials

  Tracks density and amounts of uranium present

  Sensitive to heat
• Potassium Argon dating and Argon/Argon dating


  Based on radioactive decay

  Uses volcanic ash

  Can be used in Africa because they have lots of volcanoes

  First used to date hominin fossil deposits

  Dates strata from 1-5 mya

  A/A or fission track dating can check K/Ar results

  Absolute dating technique
• Archeomagnetic dating


  Used for baked clay, sediments, and igneous rock

  Dates up to 100,000 ya

  Earth's magnetic poles change periodically

  Absolute dating technique and relative dating technique
• Electron spin resonance


  Measures trapped electrons in bone and shell

  Can date back to 10-100,000 ya

  Context is critical
• Thermoluminescence


  For fired clay, pottery, tile, and fired rock

  Electrons are trapped and when released, they tell us when they've been fired