Chapter 2: The Variety of the Evidence

Question 1

3 Reasons why we study archaeology

Answer 1

• Curiosity
• Protection
• Service

Question 2

Curiosity

Answer 2

• Why did people domesticate plants and animals?
• How has our relationship with fire changed over time?
• How have gender relations changed over time?

Question 3

Protection

Answer 3

• archaeological sites are a record of past lives
• destruction of sites by development or other processes (erosion, war) takes away possibility of learning from that record
• if cant protect then excavate and make detailed records
• research questions do NOT drive the work
• BUT – recovered artifacts can be used to address questions in the future

Question 4

Service

Answer 4

• sites are a record of presence on the land (support claims of long-standing presence on the land by Indigenous peoples globally)
• artifacts and sites connect people to their own past/ancestors (learning identity)

Question 5

3 Prioritized aspects of sites, artifacts, peoples

Answer 5

• Material
• Scientific
• Observable

Question 6

Not prioritized aspects of sites, artifacts, peoples

Answer 6

• Spiritual
• Experiential
• Unmeasurable

Question 7

Oral Tradition

Answer 7

information, memories, and knowledge held in common by a group of people over many generations

Question 8

Oral History

Answer 8

a method of gathering, preserving and interpreting the voices and memories of people, communities, and participants in past events

Question 9

Indigenous Archaeology

Answer 9

archeology working with indigenous values, knowledge, practices, ethics, and sensibilities

Question 10

Traditional Knowledge

Answer 10

skills and practices that are developed, sustained, and passed on from generation to generation within a community

ex. oral traditions of the Wendat say their ancestors were present in the St. Lawrence valley in the 15th century and earlier

Question 11

Hypothesis Testing

Answer 11

• create a hypothesis (statement)
• find something that can be observed/measured that would be true if your hypothesis is correct
• test whether this is true
• if different then say “not supported by our testing”

ex. Wendat ancestors in Ontario had an on-going, close relationship with the Iroquoian ancestors in the St. Lawrence Valley

Question 12

Artifacts

Answer 12

portable objects used, modified, or made by humans

Question 13

Ecofacts

Answer 13

organic and environmental remains not made by humans

ex. animal bones, seeds, wood

Question 14

Features

Answer 14

non-portable artifacts

ex. potholes, hearths, floors, ditches

Question 15

Additive Features

Answer 15

ex. midden (garbage heap), burial mounds (Rainy River), tells

Question 16

Tells

Answer 16

a mound site formed through successive human occupation over a long timespan

Question 17

Subtractive Features

Answer 17

almost all of these are filled in again so we expect to see different soil in the pit from that around it

ex. ash fire storage pits, root cellar, wells

Question 18

Transformative Features

Answer 18

• rock art (painting and carving)
• fire on top of the ground resulting in changes in colour, but no difference in soil

Question 19

Typology

Answer 19

the classification of things according to their physical characteristics

ex. pottery with similar functions or artwork

Question 20

Attribute

Answer 20

a minimal characteristic of an artifact such that it cannot be further subdivided

ex. form, style, decoration, colour, and raw material

Question 21

Context

Answer 21

• vital for understanding formation processes
• helps understand how the object got to its location and what happened after it was abandoned
• matrix, provenience, association

ex. broken pottery sherd from an amphora, context 1: on the surface of the desert with many other amphorae sherds and no other artifacts, but near a track

Question 22

Best Context Preservations

Answer 22

areas with low biological activity

ex. extremely dry or cold, waterlogged (bogs)

Question 23

Matrix

Answer 23

the material surrounding a find (artifact, ecofact, or feature)

ex. gravel, sand, clay

Question 24

Provenience

Answer 24

the exact position of a find within the matrix

Question 25

Association

Answer 25

• a find’s relationship with other finds
• usually in same matrix

Question 26

Formation Processes

Answer 26

the processes affecting the way in which archaeological materials come to be buried, and their subsequent history afterward

Question 27

Taphonomy

Answer 27

study of processes that affected the decay of organic materials

Question 28

Cultural Formation Processes

Answer 28

• include the deliberate or accidental activities of humans
• applies to artifacts and landscapes

Question 29

Natural Formation Processes

Answer 29

• natural events that lead to both the burial and the survival of the arch record
• what physical, chemical, biological factors contributed to the location and state of the artifacts, features and sites?

ex. volcanic ash covering Pompeii or chewing bones

Question 30

Experimental Arch

Answer 30

the study of past behavioural processes through experimental reconstruction under controlled scientific conditions

ex. making stone tools, iron smelting