Ch. 7 - Taphonomy, Experimental Archaeology, & Ethnoarchaeology Flashcards
Principle of uniformitarianism
The principle asserting that the processes now operating to modify the Earth’s surface are the same processes that operated long ago in the geologic past.
Faunal
In archaeology, animal bones in archeological sites.
Analogy
Noting similarities between two entities and inferring from that similarity that an additional attribute of one (the ethnographic case) is also true of the other (the archaeological case).
Kiva
A Pueblo ceremonial structure that is usually round (but may be square or rectangular) and semi-subterranean. They appear in early Pueblo sites and perhaps even in the earlier (pre-1300 BP) pithouse villages.
Sipapu
A Hopi word that loosely translates as “place of emergence.” The original sipapu is the place where the Hopi are said to have emerged into this world from the underworld. Sipapus are also small pits in kivas through which communication with the supernatural world takes place.
Formal analogies
Analogies justified by similarities in the formal attributes of archaeological and ethnographic object and features.
Relational analogies
Analogies justified on the basis of close cultural continuity between the archaeological and ethnographic cases or similarity in general cultural form.
Bonebed
Archaeological and paleontological sites consisting of the remains of a large number of animals, often the same species, and often representing a single moment in time – a mass kill or mass death.
Experimental archaeology
Experiments designed to determine the archaeological correlates of ancient behavior; may overlap with both ethnoarchaeology and taphonomy.
Heat treatment
A process whereby the flintknapping properties of stone tool raw material are improved by subjecting the material to heat.
Flake
A thin, sharp sliver of stone removed from a core during the knapping process.
Core
A piece of stone that is worked (“knapped”). Cores sometimes served merely as sources for raw materials; they can also serve as functional tools.
Flute
Distinctive channel on the faces of Folsom and Clovis projectile points formed by removal of one or more flakes from the points base.
Channel flake
The longitudinal flake removed from the faces of Folsom and Clovis projectile points to create the flute.
Ethnoarchaeology
The study of contemporary peoples to determine how human behavior is translated into the archaeological record.