Chapter 1 Flashcards
Anthropology
the study of what makes humans, human
Four subfields of anthropology
- Biological/Physical
- Archaeology
- Linguistic
- Cultural
Archaeology
the study of the human past through the trace of the past that exist in (what humans have left behind)
Archaeological remains
archaeology enables us to read the trace of the past that exist with us in the present
Archaeological remains
- Objects made or modified by people
- Organic material
- Geological features
Archaeologists work in many diverse settings
Universities/college, museums, a nonprofit organization, government
Cultural Resource Mangement
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)
Archaeological survey
- 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
in situ
items found in the site they were originally deposited
geological factors
natural erosion, accumulation of sediments, vegetation, etc.
recovery methods
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.)
Excavation
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)
Geological stratigraphy
sediments are deposited and build up over time ina stratigraphic sequence
Law of Superposition
in any undisturbed depositional sequence, each layer is younger than the layer beneath
* Not always undisturbed, so correlation of data is a MUST
Erosional
sediment carried way
Depositional
sediment is deposited
Depositional environment
they were on the surface initially, but sediment built on top of them over time
Stratigraphy
accumulation of strata that result from both geological and anthropogenic deposits
Anthropogenic deposits
deposits that result from human activity (building fires, dumping garbage, building on tops of already occupied sites)
Stratigraphic analysis
by examining depositional units
Depositional units
material deposited at a particular point in time
* not always easy to identify depositional units as this burial example
Provenience
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
Datum point
A reference point for all depth measurements and is key to the control of the excavation
Excavation tools
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.)
Arch excavation
always destructive (you can never excavate an area a second time
Arch Record
depositional unit
Artifacts
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
Ecofacts
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)
Post-depositional processes
move material around the site and distort the stratigraphy (events that take place after the site was occupied)
Taphonomy
Study of the processes that affect organic remains after death (moved by water, chemical weathering, chewing by animals, passed through the digestive track)
Micromorphology
soil analysis of minerals and organic material
Microbotanical analysis
study of pollen, grain, and plants minerals
Use-wear and residue analysis
study of edge of stone tool or food residues left on ceramic vessels
Isotopic analysis
study proportion of isotopes in bone to reveal diet and possibly human migration on earth
Ancient DNA analysis
genetic connection to our ancestors
Number of Identifiable specimens (NISP)
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)
Minimum Number of Individuals (NMNI)
Fixes this problem by recognizing the number
Typology
list of artifact type for a particular site used to create an inventory of the artifact
Attribute
particular characteristic of an artifact (type of clay, shape, size, color, design)
Absolute chronology
artifacts with a specific known date of manufacture stated in calendar years
Radiocarbon dating
measures decay of carbon isotopes
Dendrochronology
counting tree rings
Relative chronology
artifact typology placed in sequential order without a sp
Seriation
comparing the relative frequency of artifact types
How is archaeology useful?
- 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
