Ch. 2 -- Probing The Past Flashcards
Hypothesis
A proposed explanation for some phenomenon
Must be tested
Sites
Places where physical evidence of a past human presence can be recovered
Artifacts
Objects made and used by past peoples
Ecofacts
Environmental elements that exhibit traces of human use or activity
Taphonomy
The study of how paleoanthropological or archaeological remains ended up in a particular place
Features
Combination of artifacts and/or ecofacts at a site, reflecting a location where some human activity took place
Nonportable, complex artifacts
Activity areas
A place where an activity or group of activities were carried out in the past
Transformed into an archaeological feature by the loss or discard of material items used in the activity that was carried out there
Primary refuse
Archaeological artifacts and ecofacts left at the place they were used or produced
Secondary refuse
Archaeological artifacts and ecofacts that were removed by the people who made, used, or produced them from the place where they were made, used, or produced, to a designated refuse area or areas
Ejecta
All the material thrown out of a volcano during an eruption
Pumice
A light and porous volcanic rock
Forms when a glassy molten froth cools and solidifies quickly
Pyroclastic
A swiftly flowing mass of ash, molten rock, and gas spewing from an erupting volcano
A “burning avalanche”
Pedestrian survey
A systematic walkover of an area in the search for archaeological remains
Useful in search for sites especially in areas where ancient people built structures with durable materials, where natural processes didn’t cover up materials on the ground, or where natural or cultural processes have exposed buried layers on the surface
Test pits
A hole or boring into soil in the search for archaeological evidence
In some places is a primary method by which archaeological sites are searched for and by which the spatial distribution of buried materials at a site is first identified
Associations
Term relating to the spatial relationships among archaeological artifacts, ecofacts, and features
Objects found in proximity to each other are said to be in association
Ground-penetrating radar (GPR)
A noninvasive technique to investigate the subsurface
An electromagnetic pulse is passed through the soil. The pulse encounters objects or differently compacted soil layers and bounces back to a receiver. The signal can be interpreted and imaged, revealing buried walls, earthworks, or other cultural features
Proton magnetometer
A noninvasive technique to investigate the subsurface
Measures the strength of the earth’s magnetic field from the surface and detects anomalies or small variations that may result from the presence of buried walls or soil disturbances
Paradigms
An overarching perspective, a broad view that underlies a specific discipline
Trace element analysis
Determining the geographic source of the materials used by an ancient people through the analysis of small or “trace” concentrations of elements or chemicals in those raw materials
Neutron activation analysis
Form of trace element analysis
X-Ray fluorescence
A technique for identifying the chemical makeup of a raw material
Each chemical element in the raw material of an artifact gives off a unique set of energies when bombarded with X-Rays.
Experimental replication
The process of attempting to authentically re-create ancient artifacts
Morphology
The study of form/appearance
An analysis of the shape and form of skeletons or artifacts
Wear patterns
Characteristic and diagnostic traces of damage or polish left on stone tools as a result of their use
Osteological comparative collections
Bone libraries, where ancient specimens can be compared to known, labeled specimens to help identify the species recovered in excavation
Faunal assemblage
The animal bones found at a site and the species represented by those bones
Sexual dimorphism
Differences in the form and size of the two sexes
Osteological
Related to bones
Artificial selection
The process used in the domestication and refinement of plants and animals whereby human beings select which members of a species will live and produce offspring
Decisions made based on the basis of need or desire concerning the form or behavior of the species
Coprolites
Fossilized feces, useful in the reconstruction of an ancient animal’s diet
Pollen
The male gamete in plant sexual reproduction
Pollen rain
The percentages of the pollen of different plant species that rains down in the spring today
Palynology
The identification of plants through the remains of their pollen grains (morphology of pollen specific to the species it comes from)
Photosynthesis pathways
Different specific modes of photosynthesis various plant groups employ in the production of energy from sunlight
C3 Pathway
The photosynthetic process employed by most trees
Carbon 13 filtered out
C4 Pathway
The photosynthetic process employed by most grasses and sedges
Carbon 13 is used
Isotopes
Variety of an element’s atomic form (variable numbers of neutrons)
Carbon isotope analysis
Analysis of the proportion of Carbon 12 and Carbon 13 in a bone or soil sample
Useful in dietary and environmental reconstruction because different groupings of plants use carbon compounds containing Carbon 12 and Carbon 13 differentially
Phytoliths
Microscopic, inorganic particles produced by plants (very durable and morphology is species specific)
Foraminifera
Microorganisms used in the study of ancient environments
By measuring the ratio of Oxygen 16:Oxygen 18 in foraminifera fossils, the amount of the earth’s surface covered in ice at any given point of time can be indirectly determined
Deciduous dentition
Baby teeth
Diaphysis
The shaft of a long bone
Epiphytes
The endcaps of the long bones
Epiphyseal fusion
The epiphyses of each long bone join to the diaphyses during the process of physical maturation
Degree of epiphyseal fusion exhibited in a juvenile can show approximate age
Cranial sutures
The places where the different cranial plates come together
Pubic symphysis
The region where the pubic bones come together
Paleopathology
The study of ancient disease, trauma, or dietary deficiency
Stratigraphy
Related to the geological or cultural layer in which something has been found
Stratigraphic layering represents a relative sequence of geological time and/or cultural chronology
Radiometric
Any dating technique based on the measurement of radioactive decay
Absolute (chronometric) date
Any date where a year or range of years can be applied to a site or artifact
Relative date
A date that places a fossil or archaeological site or artifact in a sequence with other specimens, but does not allow for the assignment of an age in terms of years or even a range of years
K/Ar dating
Potassium/argon dating
Argon/argon dating
Absolute dating method based on the decay of radioactive potassium to stable argon gas
(An updated and more accurate version of K/Ar dating)
Half-life
Measurement of the amount of time it takes for half of the radioactive isotope in a given sample to decay into a stable form
Radiocarbon dating (carbon dating/14C dating)
Radiometric dating technique based on the decay of a radioactive isotope of Carbon (Carbon 14 or radiocarbon)
Accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) dating
A variety of radiocarbon dating
Counts the Carbon 14 atoms left in the sample
Dendrochronology
Tree-ring dating
Master sequence
The regional pattern of tree-ring width yearly variations
Calibration curve
Curve resulting from the graphing of dendrochronologically derived dates for an extensive series of tree rings and the Carbon dates determined for each of those same rings
Varves
Layers of sediment that are deposited annually along lake and ocean shorelines and whose ages can therefore be calculated directly by counting back from the present
Luminescence dating
Determining the age of an object by releasing as light the energy it has accumulated during its existence
The amount of light it emits in this process is directly proportional to its age
Thermoluminescence (TL)
A “trapped charge,” radiation damage technique for dating archaeological objects
Energy produced by natural radiation in soil becomes stored in nearby objects
Optically stimulated luminescence (OSL)
Method of luminescence dating in which time-dependent energy stored in an archaeological specimen is released by the application of laser light
Paleomagnetic dating
Dating method based on the movement of the earth’s magnetic poles
Archaeomagnetism
Orientation of the earth’s magnetic field can become fixed in relatively recent cultural deposits like the sediments in a canal.
The date of a site can be determined where that orientation points to a location of magnetic north already fixed in space and time along a master curve
