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Archaeology > Chapter 1 > Flashcards

Chapter 1 Flashcards

1
Q

Anthropology

A

the study of what makes humans, human

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2
Q

Four subfields of anthropology

A
  • Biological/Physical
  • Archaeology
  • Linguistic
  • Cultural
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3
Q

Archaeology

A

the study of the human past through the trace of the past that exist in (what humans have left behind)

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4
Q

Archaeological remains

A

archaeology enables us to read the trace of the past that exist with us in the present

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5
Q

Archaeological remains

A
  • Objects made or modified by people
  • Organic material
  • Geological features
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6
Q

Archaeologists work in many diverse settings

A

Universities/college, museums, a nonprofit organization, government

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7
Q

Cultural Resource Mangement

A

companies or firms dedicated to excavating or surveying areas in advance of a construction project (archaeologist go out to make sure that nothing gets damaged)

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8
Q

Archaeological survey

A
  • look for traces of past humans action
  • mapping the physical remains of human activities
  • range from a small or large physical structures/ stone tool fragment
  • discover single sites and also how various locations and distributed in a region
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9
Q

in situ

A

items found in the site they were originally deposited

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10
Q

geological factors

A

natural erosion, accumulation of sediments, vegetation, etc.

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11
Q

recovery methods

A

how are items are to be collected (pick them up from the surface, dig, aerial photography, satellite imagery, ground-penetrating radar, GPS, drones, GIS software applications, etc.)

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12
Q

Excavation

A

a long-standing recovery method in archaeology

  • Horizontal excavation (excavate a broad area across the surface to expose the remains of a single point in time)
  • Vertical excavation (excavate a significant depth of deposits to expose the record of a sequence of occupations)
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13
Q

Geological stratigraphy

A

sediments are deposited and build up over time ina stratigraphic sequence

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14
Q

Law of Superposition

A

in any undisturbed depositional sequence, each layer is younger than the layer beneath
* Not always undisturbed, so correlation of data is a MUST

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15
Q

Erosional

A

sediment carried way

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16
Q

Depositional

A

sediment is deposited

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17
Q

Depositional environment

A

they were on the surface initially, but sediment built on top of them over time

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18
Q

Stratigraphy

A

accumulation of strata that result from both geological and anthropogenic deposits

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19
Q

Anthropogenic deposits

A

deposits that result from human activity (building fires, dumping garbage, building on tops of already occupied sites)

20
Q

Stratigraphic analysis

A

by examining depositional units

21
Q

Depositional units

A

material deposited at a particular point in time

* not always easy to identify depositional units as this burial example

22
Q

Provenience

A

record the precise context of objects recovered during excavation
*they use a grid with square size from 1 square meter to 25 square meters, depending on the size of the archaeological site

23
Q

Datum point

A

A reference point for all depth measurements and is key to the control of the excavation

24
Q

Excavation tools

A

depends on scale and goal of the project (backhoes, bulldozers, hand trowels, shovels, dental picks, screening, floating botanical material in which charred remains float while mineral sediments settle, etc.)

25
Q

Arch excavation

A

always destructive (you can never excavate an area a second time

26
Q

Arch Record

A

depositional unit

27
Q

Artifacts

A

Objects that show traces of human manufacture

  • lithic analysis (stone tools)
  • Ceramic analysis (pottery and fired clay items
  • Metallurgy (the study of metal artifacts and by-products of smelting
28
Q

Ecofacts

A

remains of biological organisms or results of geological processes
Help reconstruct the ecological setting of the site and often are evidence of human activity at the site as well
- Faunal (the study of animal bones
- Paleoethnobotany (the study of archaeological plant remains charred seeds and pollen)
- Human Osteoarchaeology (the study of biological characteristics of human skeletal remains)

29
Q

Post-depositional processes

A

move material around the site and distort the stratigraphy (events that take place after the site was occupied)

30
Q

Taphonomy

A

Study of the processes that affect organic remains after death (moved by water, chemical weathering, chewing by animals, passed through the digestive track)

31
Q

Micromorphology

A

soil analysis of minerals and organic material

32
Q

Microbotanical analysis

A

study of pollen, grain, and plants minerals

33
Q

Use-wear and residue analysis

A

study of edge of stone tool or food residues left on ceramic vessels

34
Q

Isotopic analysis

A

study proportion of isotopes in bone to reveal diet and possibly human migration on earth

35
Q

Ancient DNA analysis

A

genetic connection to our ancestors

36
Q

Number of Identifiable specimens (NISP)

A

counting the number of bone of animals at a site
- complete one rabbit skeleton and ten cow left tibias this method counts each bone, so it looks like there were more rabbits then cows)

37
Q

Minimum Number of Individuals (NMNI)

A

Fixes this problem by recognizing the number

38
Q

Typology

A

list of artifact type for a particular site used to create an inventory of the artifact

39
Q

Attribute

A

particular characteristic of an artifact (type of clay, shape, size, color, design)

40
Q

Absolute chronology

A

artifacts with a specific known date of manufacture stated in calendar years

41
Q

Radiocarbon dating

A

measures decay of carbon isotopes

42
Q

Dendrochronology

A

counting tree rings

43
Q

Relative chronology

A

artifact typology placed in sequential order without a sp

44
Q

Seriation

A

comparing the relative frequency of artifact types

45
Q

How is archaeology useful?

A
  • Evidence to Indigenous/Native peopls used for obtaining fedral recognition
  • Communities reconstruct and preserve their ancestral past
  • Companies from building on scared sites or destoying ancestral site
  • Stop precribe burns that could destroy artifacts or sacred sites
  • CHallenge colonizer mentality and border with evidence of previous settle ent and social complexity
  • Help genocide survivors find the remains of fiamily members
  • Learn and teach traditional

Archaeology (12 decks)

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