Chapter One Flashcards
Archaeology
study of past human cultures and the material remains left behind
Artifacts
portable material remains made and left by humans; symbols or reflections of their culture
Culture
culmination of the invented, taught, and learned patterns of behavior shared by humans
What do prehistoric, historic, and classical archaeologists study? (3)
- prehistoric: past before the written record
- historic: past of the written record
- classical: Greco-Roman history
Anthropology
the holistic, integrative study of humankind; biological, cultural, linguistic and both past and present
What are the four sub-disciplines of anthropology?
- archaeology
- biological anthropology: study of human evolution and variation, and primatology
- cultural anthropology: study of contemporary and historically recent human societies
- anthropological linguistics: study of human language in its cultural context
BC
“Before Christ”
AD
“anno Domini,” basically “after Christ”
CE
“Common Era,” to avoid religious connotations
BCE
“Before Common Era”
BP
“before present;” more commonly used by prehistoric archaeologists; AD 1950 is the conventional zero point
Special Creation
all organisms created by Judeo/Christian god
Immutability & Fixity of Species
no changes to Earth or its species since special creation
Catastrophism
catastrophes rapidly shaped Earth’s surface
Young Age of Earth
1650 CE Irish archbishop James Ussher calculated creation date of 4004 BC
John Frere (2)
- Hoxne site, England, 1797
- first person to recognize ancient tools as being man-made
Jacques Boucher de Perthes (3)
- Abbeville site, France, 1830
- stone tools in same stratigraphic layer with extinct fauna hippo at Hoxne
- bison, woolly mammoth, woolly rhinoceros, and cave bear at Abbeville
Charles Lyell (5)
- Principles of Uniformitarianism; Principles of Geology, 1830
- geological processes shaped Earth’s crust very slowly and gradually
- Earth is at least millions of years old and present is key to the past
- The Geological Evidences of the Antiquity of Man, 1863
- humans lived with now-extinct fauna (animals) millions of years ago
Charles Darwin (6)
- The Origin of Species, 1859
- natural selection as a mechanism for biological change over geological time
- all species can produce offspring faster than the food supply
- variation exists in all living organisms
- fierce struggle for existence and favorable variants in a given environment have the upper hand and passed to next generation
- over deep time, successful variants produce great differences, resulting in new species
Giovanni Belzoni (2)
- 1812-1819
- an antiquarian, not an archaeologist
Christian Thomsen (2)
- curator, National Museum of Denmark, Copenhagen
- 1836 developed 3-age system of ordering artifacts (Stone, Bronze, Iron)
Jens J. A. Worsaae (5)
- 1834 became first professor of archaeology at University of Copenhagen
- concerned with inquiry (research questions)
- linked artifacts with stratigraphic context
- demonstrated presence of middens
- recorded potsherds with charcoal, bones, and stone tools
Alfred V. Kidder (5)
- “Father” of North American archaeology
- 1915 began excavations at Pecos Pueblo, NM
- first major excavation in North America
- goal: diachronic study of culture change
- pottery sherds in stratigraphic context
Gertrude Caton-Thompson (6)
- early female professional archaeologist - 1920s
- Egypt, Malta, and Zimbabwe
- first to push investigation of human settlements in Egypt and go beyond study of classical Egyptology (pyramids and tombs)
- early to conduct interdisciplinary research
- meticulous excavation and survey techniques
- demonstrated definitive indigenous African origins of Great Zimbabwe
H. Marie Wormington (6)
- began career in 1930s
- first female Paleoindian archaeologist
- 1968: first female president of the Society for American Archaeology
- Ancient Man in North America, “H. M. Wormington,” 1939
- 4 editions over 20 years, demonstrating change from cataloguing archaeological materials to explaining what they mean
- change from “thinking about things” to “thinking from things”
Lewis Binford (5)
- 1931-2011
- Father of “New Archaeology”
- precise scientific methods; hypothetico-deductive methodology
- regional analyses, research design with proposed models, testing models using statistical methods
- interested in explaining cultural processes - “Processual Archaeology”
What is the purpose of archaeology today?
creating new knowledge, disseminating that knowledge to public, protecting cultural resources
What are the different branches of archaeology? (3)
- universities and museums (research, dissemination, protection)
- government agencies (protection thru compliance with laws, dissemination, research)
- private cultural resource management (CRM) firms (protection of resources thru compliance with laws)
Archaeology today is more…
diverse
