Archaeology Ch 3

Question 1

reconnaissance survey

Answer 1

a broad range of techniques involved in the location of archaeological sites (the recording of surface artifacts and features, and the sampling of natural and mineral resources) ALSO helped with the growth of regional studies.

Question 2

surface survey

Answer 2

two kinds: systematic and unsystematic

Question 3

unsystematic survey

Answer 3

field walking, scanning the ground along one’s path and recording the location of artifacts and surface features.

Question 4

systematic survey

Answer 4

less subjective, involves a grid system, area divided into sectors, and they are then walked systematically so that results are more accurate.

Question 5

remote sensing

Answer 5

the imaging of phenomena from a distance, primarily through airborne and satellite imaging. “ground-based remote sensing” links geophysical methods, such as radar, with remote sensing methods applied at ground level.

Question 6

Research Design

Answer 6

the planning of archaeology research

1) formulation of a research strategy
2) collecting and recording of evidence
3) processing and analysis
4) publication of results

Question 7

ground reconnaissance

Answer 7

collective name for a variety of methods for identifying individual archaeological sites, including consultation of documentary resources, place-name evidence, local folklore, and legend, but primarily actual fieldwork.

Question 8

aerial survey

Answer 8

technique primarily employing aerial and satellite imagery used in the discovery, and recovering of archaeological sites

Question 9

reconnaissance survey in practice

Answer 9

first: region needs to be surveyed needs to be defined: boundaries either natural (valley or island), cultural (extent of artifact or style), or purely arbitrary, through natural boundaries are the easiest to establish. Other factors to take into consideration are: time, resources available, and how easy it is to actually reach and record and area.

Question 10

hunter-gatherer

Answer 10

collective term for members of small-scale or semi-sedentary societies, whose subsistence is mainly focused on hunting game and gathering wild plants and fruits; organizational structure is based on bands with strong kinship ties.

Question 11

types

Answer 11

a class of artifacts defined by consistent clustering of attributes.

Question 12

Simple random sample

Answer 12

where areas to be sampled are chosen using a table of random numbers. inherently biased.

Question 13

stratified random sample

Answer 13

region or site is divided into its natural zones, each zone has the number of squares proportional to its area.

Question 14

systematic sampling

Answer 14

selection of a grid of equally spaced locations, however one runs the risk of missing or hitting every single example in an equally regular pattern of distribution (more bias)

Question 15

stratified unaligned systematic sample

Answer 15

combines main elements from other techniques

Question 16

transects

Answer 16

straight paths, easier to examine, easily segmented into units, useful for recording artifact densities across landscape. Use transects to cover long distances.

Question 17

squares

Answer 17

exposes more area to survey, increases probability of intersecting sites. Use squares when larger concentrations of material are encountered.

Question 18

documentary sources

Answer 18

mainly of use in locating classical, biblical, and relatively recent sites

Question 19

difference between excavation and survey

Answer 19

excavation tells us a lot about a little of site and can only be done once where survey tells us a little about a lot of the sites and can be repeated.

Question 20

extensive survey

Answer 20

combining results from a series of individual projects in neighboring regions to produce very large-scale views of change in landscape, land use, and settlement through time.

Question 21

intensive survey

Answer 21

aiming at total coverage of a single large site or site cluster.

Question 22

arch survey using airborne sensing can be divided into two component parts:

Answer 22

data collecting and data analysis

Question 23

data collecting

Answer 23

taking photographs or images from aircrafts or satellites

Question 24

data analysis

Answer 24

images are analyzed, interpreted, and integrated with other evidence from field survey, ground based remote sensing, or documentary evidence.

Question 25

in order for a site to be detected by remote sensing method…

Answer 25

it needs to have altered the soil or subsoil (holes in grounds, features placed upon it) or in relief (lumps and bumps on surface or buried under leveled cultivated land)

Question 26

aerial images record relief sites through

Answer 26

highlight and shadow

Question 27

LIDAR

Answer 27

technique where instrument transmits lights to a target, some of which is reflected back to the instrument. Time for light to travel out and back to target and back is used to determine range.

Question 28

SLAR

Answer 28

recording in radar images the return of pulses of electromagnetic radiation sent out from a flying aircraft.

Question 29

satellite photography

Answer 29

useful primarily at the largest scales, like mapping very large sites or tracing ancient irrigation systems

Question 30

SAR

Answer 30

multiple radar images (usually from space) are possessed to yield extremely detailed high-resolution results that can provide data for maps, databases, land-use studies, etc. Record height information. Provides info day or night, regardless of conditions.

Question 31

GIS (Geographic Information Systems)

Answer 31

collection of computer hardware and software and of geographic data designed to obtain, store, manage, manipulate, analyze, and display a wide array of spatial information. Data can be shown in layers.

Question 32

total station

Answer 32

an electronic/optical instrument used in surveying and to record excavations

Question 33

landscape archaeology

Answer 33

the study of individual features including settlements seen as single components within the broader perspective of the patterning of human activity over a wide area.

Question 34

Site surface survey

Answer 34

studying the distribution of surviving features, and recording and possibly collecting artifacts from the surface.

Question 35

provenience

Answer 35

the place of origin or (earliest) known history of something; also the horizontal and vertical position of an artifact, ecofact, feature within a matrix.

Question 36

subsurface detection

Answer 36

collective name for a variety of remote sensing techniques operating at ground level, and including both invasive and non-invasive techniques.

Question 37

probes

Answer 37

with rods or augers, noting positions where they strike solids or hollows.

Question 38

soil resistivity (earth resistance survey)

Answer 38

method of subsurface detection that measures changes in conductivity by passing electrical current through ground soils. These changes are generally caused by moisture content, and in this way, buried features can be detected by differential retention of groundwater.

Question 39

STP (shovel test pits)

Answer 39

help identify extent of a possible site, while analysis and plotting of material retrieved from them by sieving of the soil can produce maps showing areas with high concentrations of different kinds of facts.

Question 40

ground penetrating radar (GPR)

Answer 40

emitter sends short pulses through the soil, and the echoes not only reflect back any changes in soil sediment conditions encountered, but also measure the depth at which the changes occur on the basis of travel time of pulses.

Question 41

time-slices, slice-maps

Answer 41

thousands of individual reflections are combined into a single three-dimensional dataset that can be sliced horizontally, corresponding to a specific estimated depth in ground, and revealing general shape and location of buried features at successive depths.

Question 42

what do magnetic survey help find

Answer 42

fired-clay structures: hearths, pottery kilns, iron objects, pits, ditches.

Question 43

excavation

Answer 43

the most reliable evidence for informational archaeologists interested in: human activities during a particular period in the past and changes in those activities from period to period.

Question 44

what are the two main strategies for excavation?

Answer 44

Wheeler box grid and open-area excavation.

Question 45

mesolithic

Answer 45

old world chronological period beginning around 10,000 years ago between paleolithic and neolithic

Question 46

refitted

Answer 46

or conjoining, entails attempting to put stone tools back together again, provides important information about the craft.

Question 47

division of excavation techniques

Answer 47

1) vertical dimension: cutting into deep deposits to reveal stratification
2) horizontal: to open up large areas of a layer to reveal spatial relationships between artifacts and features in that layer

Question 48

wheeler box grid

Answer 48

Retaining intact baulks of earth between excavation grid squares, so different layers can be correlated across the site in the vertical profiles.

Question 49

open-area excavation

Answer 49

where single period deposits lie close to the surface

Question 50

step trenching

Answer 50

excavation method used in very deep sites where it proceeds downwards in a series of gradually narrowing steps

Question 51

important aspects of field laboratory procedure

Answer 51

cleaning of artifacts and sorting/classifying them