arch. lecture 2

Question 1

Artifact | Archaeological Data

Answer 1

• any object made or modified by people
• archaeologists specialize in particular types - especially: stone tools, ceramics (pottery)
• Form (size and shape)
• Technology (how it was made)
• Style (colour, texture, decoration)

Question 2

Ecofacts | Archaeological Data

Answer 2

• natural object used or affected by people Zooarchaeology (=Archaeozoology)
• the study of animal remains in the archaeological record - domestication, hunting patterns, etc.

Question 3

Features | Archaeological Data

Answer 3

• non-portable material remains
• midden – a concentrated area of refuse
• simple features – e.g., hearths, burials, storage pits, post holes
• complex features = e.g., buildings (houses, temples, granaries, etc.)

Question 4

Sites | Archaeological Data

Answer 4

• A place where evidence of past human activity is preserved
• spatial clusters of artifacts, features, and/or ecofacts
• boundaries may be well or poorly defined
• site may be complex (e.g., a city) or simple (e.g, a kill site)

Question 5

Regions | Archaeological Data

Answer 5

• largest and most flexible spatial cluster. Regions are defined in several ways:
• geographically - river drainage, a valley, an island
• ecologically - “boreal forest”, “arctic”
• culturally – e.g., area occupied by the Huron-Wendat
• allow investigation of entire cultural systems
• particularly important for subsistence, social organization

Question 6

Interpretation

Answer 6

how do we link the fragmentary archaeological record with specific human behaviours?

Question 7

Experimental Archaeology | Interpretation

Answer 7

• reproduce ancient processes in the modern world, apply this knowledge to the archaeological record
• e.g. how to move Stonehenge stones with simple technology?
• e.g. manufacturing techniques for ceramics, stone tools, use wear

Question 8

Ethnoarchaeology | Interpretation

Answer 8

• ethnoarchaeology: archaeologists observing modern peoples, with archaeological questions in mind (e.g. “where do they put their garbage?”)
• e.g. modern Alaskan Inuit: how are artifacts distributed around a hearth?
  
  • the “drop zone” - small bone chips; stone chips
  • the “toss zone” - larger objects thrown farther away
• This allowed interpretation of stone tool waste at the French Upper Palaeolithic site of Pincevent

Question 9

Ethnographic Analogy | Interpretation

Answer 9

• using patterns in the ethnographic record (where cultures around the world were directly observed by anthropologists) to interpret the archaeological record
• e.g. Upper Palaeolithic bâton de commandement “rod of command”
  = shaft straightener
• e.g. interpreting early cave art - look to San hunter-gatherers in South Africa whose rock art related mainly to shamans

Question 10

The Ultimate Objective of Archaeology

Answer 10

to understand how societies functioned in the past, and why they changed over time.

Question 11

Reconstructing Past Environments | Ultimate Objective

Answer 11

• critical for understanding how people lived
• sediments, local geology, plants, animals
• ancient climate
• e.g. caribou in southern Ontario at the end of the Pleistocene

Question 12

Reconstructing Past Diets | Ultimate Objective

Answer 12

• usually – study animal bones and botanical remains to interpret diet

Other methods include:

• Stable isotopes: e.g. ratio of Carbon 12 to Carbon 13 (some tropical plants, including maize, have more Carbon 13; marine foods have more Carbon 13.
• Coprolites: fossilized feces - direct evidence for diet

Question 13

Reconstructing Technological Systems | Ultimate Objective

Answer 13

• artifacts are the basis of much of archaeology, so archaeologists have spent a great deal of time reconstructing how they were made
• technology occurs at many scales, from simple stone tools to elaborate buildings

Question 14

Reconstructing Settlement Patterns | Ultimate Objective

Answer 14

• features or households within a settlement or site
• households are usually arranged into larger units, e.g. village
• sometimes: sites also contain special purpose features and activity areas sites within a region
• functional differences between sites.
• site hierarchies – cities to smaller settlements

Question 15

Reconstructing Social Organization | Ultimate Objective

Answer 15

• social organization: the arrangements between individuals and groups in human society that structure relationships and activities.

some major aspects:

1. Population size - particularly difficult to reconstruct
   
   • how many houses in a site occupied at the same time?
   • how many sites in a region occupied at the same time?
2. Age – e.g. the roles of children and the elderly
3. Gender
   
   • a major element structuring roles and responsibilities in all societies
   • e.g. activity areas within houses
4. Power relationships / status hierarchies
   
   • closely linked to control of production and distribution of wealth and other resources
   • e.g. houses of variable size, containing variable amounts of status goods
   • e.g. mortuary (burial) patterning
   • assumption: people treated differently in life will be treated differently in death
   • Moundville:
     
     • ceremonial centre of Mississippian culture (1200 CE)
     • 20 major mounds
     • over 2,000 burials have been excavated
     • each mound - limited number of high-status adults. the highest status had specific artifacts
     • highest prestige items - both sexes, all ages - therefore it is inherited at birth.
     • supreme class - generally adult males
5. Trade – interregional interaction
   
   • acquire goods and services not available locally
   • yields information on economic organization and connectedness (i.e. transmission of ideas)

Question 17

Reconstructing World View and Ideologies | Ultimate Objective

Answer 17

• all human societies have complex and elaborate ideologies
• however, they leave particularly ambiguous remains, and many practises simply leave no evidence – songs, dances, etc.

Question 18

Archaeology’s Really Big Goal: Explain Culture Change

Answer 18

• (the rest of the course will focus more on this.)

Mechanisms of Change:

• innovation: a newly discovered or invented thing, idea, or way of behaving.
  
  • Can happen rapidly due to deliberate effort, or slowly and almost unconsciously
• Diffusion: borrowing by one society of a trait (idea, object, technology, etc.) present in another society, due to contact between the two societies.
  
  • Will occur only when the borrowing culture sees an advantage, and can develop an understanding of it.
• Acculturation: a process of extensive cultural borrowing between two societies, often in the context of unequal power relationships.
  
  • particularly – associated with colonialism
• Adaptation to Environment / Environmental Change
  
  • using culture, not biological change, to adapt.
• final note: most cases of culture change are complex, and involve more than one mechanism
• important to remember that human societies are made up of complex individuals and that history and politics are critical in any instance of culture change.