Ch2: The Archaeologist

• Methods used in Archaeology:

  • Carbon-14 dating - all living things contain carbon-14 when alive. After death, the amount of carbon-14 decreases steadily. The less carbon-14, the older the thing is.
  • Geophysical Survey - an x-ray of the ground. Contains images and maps of any evidence underground.
  • Pollen Analysis - the study of pollen remains to discover what grew at a site during a period of time.
  • Stratigraphy - used to date artefacts by how deep they are in the ground. The deeper it is, the older.
  • Dendrochronology - a method that uses the amount of rings a tree has. One ring is one year.