Chapter Eight: Middle Level Research

Question 1

What are some problems with archaeology as a historical science? (3)

Answer 1

• archaeological sites contain only material remains
• behavior is inferred from these remains and not directly observed
• not a “precision” science; we can never know the “precise” motives of past human behavior

Question 2

What is uniformitarianism? (2)

Answer 2

• J. Hutton and C. Lyell formulated the principle that processes shaping the earth’s surface today have operated throughout the geological past
• observations of the contemporary world provide info to make inferences about the past from observations on archaeological objects

Question 3

What are the problems with many inferences or multiple competing hypotheses? (4)

Answer 3

• equifinality: an outcome resulting from several different processes
• example: explanations for why mammal forelimbs are often missing from archaeological faunal assemblages associated with habitation sites
• several “if…then” bridging statements are needed for each hypothesis
• these are the archaeological expectations or predictions step in the scientific method

Question 4

What does middle-level research do?

Answer 4

attempts to bridge the gap between material remains and the behaviors that left them behind and is usually done through modern analogy

Question 5

What is analogy? (5)

Answer 5

• form of logic through which one establishes the equivalence of two things that cannot be directly compared
• formal analogies are analogies justified by similarities in form between archaeological and ethnographic cases; strengthened by several cases providing a pattern of behavior
• example: H. heidelbergensis Middle Pleistocene use of wooden spears for hunting
• relational analogies based on close cultural continuity between ethnographic and archaeological cases or close casual links between the two
• example: Ancient Puebloan kivas compared with Hopi kivas

Question 6

How does middle-level theory serve as a powerful analogy? (2)

Answer 6

• happens when casual necessary links can be made between the present and past
• constructed through taphonomy, experimental archaeology, and ethnographic analogy

Question 7

What is taphonomy? (3)

Answer 7

• study of how organisms became part of the fossil record
• archaeology expanded this to include how natural processes produce patterns observed in the archaeological record
• very key in understanding site formation processes because it considers how human behaviors and natural processes incorporate bones and plants into sites

Question 8

How do human behaviors and natural processes incorporate bones and plants into sites? (4)

Answer 8

• decomposition, disarticulation, and dispersal of large animal carcasses
• raptor pellets or carnivore/herbivore feces
• packrat behavior
• geomorphological processes

Question 9

Describe the Hudson-Meng Bonebed Site.

Answer 9

In northeastern Nebraska, L. Agenbroad excavated 500 bison with 21 spear points and dated the bone bed to 9500 carbon-14 (10,700 cal) BP

Question 10

What patterns were observed at the Hudson-Meng Bonebed, and on what did archaeologists base their inferences? (2)

Answer 10

• pattern observed: bones buried in low swale with skull tops missing
• inferences based on ethnographic analogy

Question 11

What inferences were formed at the Hudson-Meng Bonebed? (4)

Answer 11

• humans present to remove brains to tan hides
• hunting strategy where bison driven off a cliff, dragged to a processing location
• large group of hunters
• mean of food shortage

Question 12

How would you characterize Agenbroad’s inferences at Hudson-Meng with regards to analogy? Are there elements of both formal and relational analogy present? (2)

Answer 12

• formal due to similarity of bison skull form and ethnographically-documented butchering practices
• relational because it extrapolated behaviors of Plains Indians, since the site is presumed to represent Plains Indian ancestors

Question 13

Are Agenbroad’s inferences at Hudson-Meng middle-level theory, yet? Explain. (2)

Answer 13

• did not demonstrate the bridging argument that missing skull caps = brain harvesting
• could natural processes have led to the patterns observed?

Question 14

What are some troubling facts of Hudson-Meng, compared with other bison kill sites in the region? (3)

Answer 14

• few points for so many bison
• no cut marks on bones and only carnivore tooth marks
• most bison were lying there undisturbed

Question 15

How did Lawrence Todd and David Rapson approach Hudson-Meng? (3)

Answer 15

• revisited site for renewed excavations from a taphonomic perspective
• found several buried soils with artifacts above the bison
• question: how do dead bison fall apart?

Question 16

According to taphonomic studies in Africa, how do large animal carcasses fall apart naturally after death? (3)

Answer 16

• natural death assemblages showed collapse in place with gradual disarticulation of the forelimbs and tail; forelimbs and vertebrae separate
• skeleton lies flat on the ground with the skull raised slightly
• skulls are last to become buried and rapidly erode

Question 17

What did Todd and Rapson conclude about Hudson-Meng? (3)

Answer 17

• prairie fire drove bison into the swale where they died natural death
• through time, spear points and other artifacts discarded at this point
• slow burial of the remains led to the skull caps eroding completely in the sun of the Plains

Question 18

How did taphonomy and uniformitarianism work together at Hudson-Meng? (4)

Answer 18

• incomplete crania resulted from sun exposure and weathering, not brain tanning
• taphonomic studies of how large animal carcasses today decay and become disarticulated, buried and weathered provide middle-level theory
• Principle of Uniformitarianism applies here; the ancient bison had the same basic anatomy as the modern-day fauna observed by Hill and Beyrensmeyer
• analogy can be made with a powerful inference

Question 19

What is experimental archaeology? (3)

Answer 19

• experiments designed to determine the archaeological correlates of ancient behavior; may help overlap with both ethnoarchaeology and taphonomy
• useful in establishing how things might have been made or worked in the past
• first experimental archaeology: Ishi and Saxton Pope’s “Hunting with the Bow and Arrow”

Question 20

What were the raw materials involved in flintknapping? (2)

Answer 20

• rocks with a glassy fracture such as obsidian, chert, or quartzite
• procurement requires searching and extracting the raw material

Question 21

What is heat-treatment in flintknapping?

Answer 21

process by which the flintknapping properties of stone tool raw materials are improved by subjecting the material to heat

Question 22

What are cores in flintknapping?

Answer 22

objective pieces of stone that are worked or “knapped”

Question 23

What are flakes in flintknapping?

Answer 23

thin, sharp sliver of stone removed from a core during the knapping process

Question 24

According to Don Crabtree, what are Folsom fluted points?(2)

Answer 24

• flute: wide, shallow, longitudinal groove on each face of the point, formed by removal of one or more flakes from the point’s base
• channel flakes: longitudinal flake removed from the faces of Folsom and Clovis Points to create the flute

Question 25

How do archaeologists perform experimental archaeology?

Answer 25

they use replicative experiments in several ways and with a variety of methods

Question 26

Describe replicative experiments with regards to Folsom points. (3)

Answer 26

• Folsom point manufacture is difficult and risky
• fluting results in high breakage rates
• the precise reason for fluting is still unknown

Question 27

What role does uniformitarianism play in experimental archaeology?

Answer 27

uniformitarianism elements present, but sometimes experimental archaeology only tells us what was possible/impossible, not exact technique used or precise method to the outcome

Question 28

What are a couple examples of experimental archaeology? (2)

Answer 28

• monumental architecture

- microwear: minute evidence of use damage on surface and working edges of a stone tool

Question 29

What is ethnoarchaeology? Provide a case study. (5)

Answer 29

• study of contemporary peoples to determine how human behavior is translated into the archaeological record
• L. R. Binford and the Nunamiut Inuit; 1970s ethnoarchaeological project
• interested in better understanding humans in periglacial settings
• F. Bordes: different tool types = different tribes/cultures
• Nunamiut left behind products of varied behaviors, not different cultures or “tribes;” seasonal use of sites, distances to camps, transportation, amount of food in camp, weather, etc.

Question 30

Describe the case study of R. Kelly in Madagascar. (3)

Answer 30

• goal: explore levels of nomadism archaeologically
• Mikea: nomadic people in southwestern Madagascar who grow maize and manioc, raise cattle, and do dome hunting and gathering
• Mikea live in four major settlement types, differing based on length of stays

Question 31

What are the 4 major settlement types of the Mikea? (4)

Answer 31

• permanent villages: wattle-and-daub houses
• forest hamlets: house w/ shade structure
• seasonal hamlets: very expedient houses
• temporary forest camps: lean-tos

Question 32

What variables were recorded in R. Kelly’s study of the Mikea’s settlements? (3)

Answer 32

• trash distribution
• # of postholes per house
• features outside houses

Question 33

What role does uniformitarianism play in ethnoarchaeology? (3)

Answer 33

• case study: Ian Hodder’s ethnoarchaeological research of two Sudanese horticulturalist groups
• similarities in house types, places where activities take place, but ways of treating trash was totally different
• uniformitarianism difficult here

Question 34

Why was uniformitarianism misleading in Hodder’s ethnoarchaeological research? (3)

Answer 34

• human behavior is not mechanical and can be culturally-based
• technologies, resources, and hence human response change through time
• should be provisionally used to set up hypotheses to test