ANP 203 Flashcards
Archaeology
The systematic study of material remains to learn about the human past
three factors can be understood as a history of
ideas(past influence, world influence, theory), methods(ask more questions and get more answers), and discoveries(advance field)
History of archaeology
-known as treasure hunting at first
spatial arrangement
-between the objects and the matrix or the environment
-together it constitute context
what did archaeology grow into
grew from early fascination with old objects to an appreciation for the information the objects and their context can provide
what is considered a primary source
artifacts
what creates context
relations with objects like the matrix and setting of soil, environment (sedimentary)
New Kingdom Egypt
-excavation and reconstruction of the Sphinx
-was forgotten about until there was physical evidence: Ivory carvings
-not real archaeology
interpretation of the bible was how many days
6 days
Nabodinus (Neo-Babylonian)
-find ancient information
-motivate himself
antiquarians
collect objects from Europe and sell them(loot)
wealthy collectors they have it to just have it
gives them power, smartness, cultured
connection with greatness
How did Christian Thomsen organize his artifacts
chronologically according to a three age system
what did Jens Jacob Worsaae excavation prove
that iron age stuff was stratigraphically above
(sounds more like archaeology)
geo layers
Thomas Jefferson
1770s-1780s
mounds(soil made)
thought they were built for war or dead soldiers
dug through them and saw no violence but that Natives built them
anticipates the fundamental approach and methods
no objects were found
what is the present key to the past
uniformitarianism
uniformitarianism
erosion, sedimentation, weathering
that stratification of rocks is due to the processes still going on in seas, rivers, and lakes
anti-diluvian
predated-species
Mayans
huge drought
stopped building and monuments
population decrease
Geology
1800s
earthmoving of industrial revolution created a demand for a new kind of discipline
principle of uniformitarianism
Charles Lyell’s “principles of Geology”:
being an attempt to explain the former changes of the earth’s surface by reference to causes now in operation
what never happened as geology developed
no world-wide flood
deep time
the earth is very old (4.5 billion years old)
prehistory
past beyond written records
genus homo date about
2 million years old
dynamic earth
the Earth’s continental configurations, climate, and ecology are changing and always have been changing
cultural change
human societies are not static but constantly evolving
Historical approach
combining ethnographic study of living people with archaeological study of the past remains
when does archaeology as a formal discipline date back
mid-19th century
1950s
move beyond description and chronology to focus on the reconstruction of past lifeways
holistic
every aspect of every human society, extant or extinct
culture concept
is a unifying principle of anthropology
consequences: structuring of activities in space and time
-kinds of objects and symbols used by one group vs. another
-interactions between cultures can produce change in one or both groups
culture
learned and shared beliefs and behaviors
ethnography and ethnology
participant observation
culture and archaeology
when studying the relationship between behavior and material remains
helps archaeologists how records are created
they also use ethnographic data to help interpret what they find
linguistics
languages and thought sociolinguistics and historical linguistics
how changed thru time and the relationship with culture and geography(migration patterns)
Physical anthropology
study of biological evolutions of humans, primates, forensics
physical and archaeology
when studying human remains
forensic anthropologists use archaeological excavation methods
Are all aspects of past cultures discoverable through studying material remains
no
which behaviors produce more archaeological traces than others
food, waste
which behaviors produce more archaeological traces than others
waste
which aspects of culture would be more difficult
thinking, conversations
how well can archaeologists hope to understand the non-physical aspects of culture
not much materials to off on so difficult
ex: Lion man and senora de Cao
ideational perspective
culture as ideas
material aspects of society are governed by concepts and ideas
people do things in particular ways (think)
post-processualism
ex: art
adaptive perspective
culture as adaptation
culture serves to take care of material needs
show why a phenomenon might evolve
general process
processualism
ex: boat- when they fish
site
any area altered by human activity, occupied for any span of time
humans carried out any activity in the past and left traces of their presence
feature
structures with sites
non portable
ex: houses, hearths(fire places), storage pits, burials, middens(trash dumps)
artifacts
any portable objects made or used by people
shell middens
made from persevered soil
main food is seafood
habitation
single residences to full-blown cities
systematic regional survey
is how archaeologists record and study a whole range of settlements in a landscape
settlement pattern
original distribution of sites across a landscape, these patterns are the material traces of settlement systems, the way activities and movements of past people were organized in a landscape
Archaeological settlement pattern
the fragments of the original settlement pattern that have survived landscape change and been discovered by archaeologists
goal of archaeological survey
is to discover and document the full range of archaeological remains across a landscape
best preservation conditions
arid and dry
dry + salt (never rains)= natural preservation
submerged underwater
waterlogged
frozen
most durable material
stone
harder material to preserve
bones
worst preservation conditions
moist
warm
tropics and soil
good organic material preservation in permanently
dry sites
ex: King Tut’s tomb and Chinchorro mummues
waterlogged ex(s)
Ozette village
Mastodon and human skeletal remains in Roo caves
Elling women and Tollund man
Tollund man
Hund
execution, offering, human sacrifice?
fetal position= good care
Otzi frozen man
found in Alps
great preservation
effects of finds
urbanization
spaces
people there
why is frozen area good preservation
lack of bacterial (anaerobic)-> lack of oxygen
science
science is systematic and explicit, logical, self-critical, published (peer reviewed)
why is archaeology science
define problem and establish hypotheses and define empirical implications (if…then)
collect data thru observation/experimentation (survey, excavation, and analysis of material remains)
test hypothesis by comparing data and reject-revise-retest
and works with inductive and deductive thinking
inductive reasoning
specific to general
Individual acts=pattern
deductive reasoning
general to specific
general facts=pattern
if…then statements
theory
an extremely well-tested and un-refuted hypothesis with broad explanatory power
paradigm
current working model that explains how the world works and sometimes called theories
three of them: culture history processualism
post-processualism
culture history
who, where, what, when
pros: reconstructs pattern of culture change by mapping the distribution of material remains in time and space
cons: does not provide much in the way of explanation of how or why things changed
processualism
how and why
general process, underlaying process
adaptive culture
pros: provides more sophisticated explanations of change than that provided by culture history alone
examined relationships of humans and the rest of nature
cons: the focus on tech. environment, and demography- these are the easier things to investigate using the archaeological record
in seeking to understand large-scale processes, the roles of the individual, gender, ethnicity, may be overlooked or ignored
THE HOW AND WHY TRIES TO DISCOVER THE UNDERLYING REGULARITIES BEHIND HUMAN BEHAVIOR
post-processualism
roles of individuals and ideas
ideational(society influenced by culture and ideas)
individual in society are in conflict with each other, pursuing their own agendas-so culture is not adaptive
THE ROLE OF IDEAS AND THE INDIVIDUALS
pros: provides insight into ideological and individualistic aspects of societies
cons: does not provide a replacement way of getting the kind of information the culture history and processualism provide
extreme view
archaeologists may be incapable of gaining an objective view of the past because we are products of our own culture (bias, post-processualism)
Dorothy Garrod
Gertrude Caton-Thomson
Tatiana Prouskouriakov
Mary Leakey
Near East Neandertal and modern Human sites, Natufian culture
worked at Great Zimbabwe
Deciphered Maya hieroglyphs
Discovered hominin fossils in East Africa
surface survey
don’t know what is present
remains you are interested in and will mostly likely be found on the existing surface
LIDAR
see roads and under tree tops
Light Detection and Ranging, a remote sensing technique using the same principle as radar, transmits light to a target and reflected back to the instrument, used to determine the range of the target
judgmental sampling
look in place that you think have the best chance containing arch. sites
use regional archaeological and ethnographic data
bias/influence
stratified systematic sampling
combines elements to reduce bias and contains what random number from picked regions
walkover survey (transect)
spread out scanning the surface in lines
compass bearing
in your field of vision
ex: agriculture
shovel test survey
less invasive
set compass-> every 20m so there is an even dig
wood hole screening
ex: pastor
random sampling types
judgmental sampling
stratified systematic sampling
walkover survey (transect)
shovel test survey
remote sensing
academic=higher tech.
from a distance
photographic and geophysical techniques to detect land and sediment characteristics
Air sampling
LiDAR
GIS
ground sampling
proton magnetometer
soil resistivity
GPR
proton magnetometer
more powerful
nanotesla unit
tells where/when ground disruption
detect metals, minerals
detects magnetic anomalies in the sub-surface
useful on Iron age and historical sites
ex: trench those mag. orientated minerals will be scanned when put back
soil resistivity
find construction
detects differences in the electrical resistance of sediments, water-dependent
useful for finding house floor, walls, oaths, which are compacted and have higher resistance
ground-penetrating radar (GPR)
radar pulses indicate differences in density, location of buried features, voids, bedrock
useful for finding buried floors, walls, paths, also to determine depth of archaeological sediments overlaying bedrock sites
in subsurface
nanoseconds as unit
cave sediments: see time of excavation
why is there so much variations in humans
pan global species
adaptation
all evolutionary change
subsustnce
middens(trash deposits)
hearths
processing area
ex: poop-> diet
toolmaking and manufacture
quarries or sources of raw materials, tools, production area, kilns, workshop
prehistoric health and ancient DNA
burials, coprolites (poop)
social hierarchy
different sectors of a large urban site to sample a cross-section of society
religion and politics
ceremonial or administrative buildings, arts
principle of strat. association
artifacts in the same stratum are the same age
principle of strat. superposition
deeper, underlying levels are older than those that overlie them
provenience
artifact’s location within a site
in situ
latin “in position” refers to the original place where an artifact or feature is located
in situ and context example
Folsom
datum
place on the site defined by archaeologists whose position is known
the positions of all other locations of artifacts of features are recorded to the site datum
Folsom
projectile point in ribcage of Bison antiquus
people were in the last ice age
sampling
the selection of portion of a landscape or a site that is likely to yield a representative, reliable set of data
take money and time
site testing
a preliminary limited excavation phase designed to see what a site contains while leaving the majority of the site intact
more intensive testes
auger holes
shovel tests on a grid
small, exploratory test pits carefully excavated
vertical excavation
dig deep
dig limited areas for stratigraphic information and to get samples for dating
deep and smallest area
could get burided
vertical excavation ex
age, formation, layering-> seeing age (oldest agricultural remains)
horizontal excavation
not deep
moment in time
uncover large areas of a site to show the internal configuration and associations among activity areas
horizontal excavation ex
ice age site, relations between buildings, Teotihuacan
why dig squares
use each pit’s floor and walls to measure the location of strata, artifacts, and features
record in 3-D space
can make plan views and profiles
plan view
associations
floor
profile
interpretation (drawings of what on the wall)
superpositions (assocaiation-ish)
outline of a site when viewed from one side
wall
STARTIGRAPHIC VIEW OF WHAT IS IN EACH LAYER
geaoarchaeology
the filed study that applies the concepts and methods of the geoscience to archaeological research
geaoarchaeology objectives
understand the physical context of sites and artifacts through the application of stratigraphic principles and dating techniques
understand the natural and human processes contributing to the formation of archaeological sites (site formation process)
soil
special
mater of life sustaining
humans are major contributor to the formation
sediments
any deposits, biologically dead (snow, dust)
Alluvial
type of sediment
river-deposited boulders, cobbles, gravel, sand, silt
colluvial
type of sediment
deposited by gravity and water down slopes; boulders, cobbles, gravel, sand, silt
Eolian
type of sediment
wind-transported; limited ti fine sediments-sand and silt
Michigan
Eolian built
size=amount of energy
silt and sand = little energy
Pompeii premise
many people incorrectly believe that all archaeological sites preserve a moment frozen in time, that all we see have to do is dig and we will “see” life in the past exactly as it was
what are archaeological sites
they are composites or palimpsests of material and other traces of often multiple individuals over variable lengths of time, from minutes to millennia
sites are formed by the process of deposition:
discard
loss
caching (store it but comes back for it)
ritual burial
sites are formed by reclamation
the reuse, recycling or modification of material remains by the same group who made them or a subsequent group
sites are affected by
disturbance, subsequent natural, and cultural processes
bioturbation
site altercation through actions of plants or animals (rodent-> moves layers, burrows, roots of vegetation)
What can we learn from studying human remains from archaeological sites?
We gain an overall understanding of health and welfare of past population such as things like: nutrition, disease, injury/work-related stress/violence, cause of death, migration patterns and human evolution. We can learn about demographic patterns, the quality of life and genetic family trees.
How did Homo Sapiens interact with other hominin species?
They were believed to interact fairly commonly with Neanderthals even as far as mating with them.
Charles Darwin
origins of species
Alfred Kidder
Major figure in Maya Archeology, leading Americanist of his time, “blue print” for regional strategy. One of first to use a team of specialists to help analyze artifacts and human remains.
USED HISTORICAL APPROACH COMBINING ETHNOGRAPHIC STUDY OF LIVING PEOPLE WITH ARCHAEOLOGICAL STUDY OF PAST REMAINS
Systematic regional survey
how archeologists record and study a whole range of settlements in a landscape
Global positioning system (GPS)
where you are (record location)
A system that determines the precise position of something on Earth through a series of satellites, tracking stations, and receivers.
Geographic information system (GIS)
software-based systems designed for the collection, organizing, storage, retrieval, analysis, and displaying of spatial/digital geographical data held in different layers
map making tool
grid
a network of horizontal and vertical lines that provide coordinates for locating points on an image
three age system
PERIODIZATION OF HUMAN PRE-HHISTORY INTO THREE TIME PERIODS (STONE AGE, BRONZE AGE, IRON AGE)
