Exam 1 Vocab Flashcards
The study of humanity’s past through time, observing changes in culture, environment, and behavior, by analyzing material culture.
Archaeology
How is archaeology related to anthropology?
Archaeology is a subset of anthropology which focuses on the period of human history before written documents.
What are common misconceptions about archaeology?
It’s about dinosaurs, It’s like Indiana Jones, it’s not tedious.
The time before written documents
Prehistory
What is a fundamental challenge to archaeology?
Bridging the gap between the past and the present.
The archaeological paradox; once a material culture is discovered it can never be put back into the archaeological record unchanged.
What period does Marieka study?
Mayan civilization at the point of Spanish contact
Where does Marieka do her research?
Belize
Billions of years extending back to the big bang
Deep Time or Geological Time
Our current geologic epoch; The age of humans driving the environment
Anthropocene
The geologic epoch before our present one.
Holoscene
The creation of new land forms by moving sediment from the floor of a body of water.
Poldering
Why is it important to study the past?
“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it”
First US law to recognize cultural resources put into place by Teddy Roosevelt
Antiquities Act (1906)
US law which protects buildings and structures
National Historic Preservation Act (1966)
US law which applies fines and jail time for tampering with archaeological sites without permission
ARPA (Archaeological Resources Protection Act) (1970)
US Law which connects the remains in museums with the closest native community to return them
Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (1990)
8,000 year-old NA remains which stirred controversy over reparations and was reburied after examination.
Kennewick Man/The Ancient One
Ethics code principle; No buying or selling artifacts
Stewardship
Ethics code principle; Archaeologists must hold themself to a standard.
Accountability
Ethics code principle; Don’t take advantage of work for profit
Commercialization
Ethics code principle; contact with the local community and education
Public education and outreach
Ethics code principle; Be careful and don’t widely share the location of sites
Intellectual property
Ethics code principle; Any projects must be reported
Public reporting and publication
Ethics code principles; preservation of artifacts
Records and preservation
Ethics code principles; Continuation
Training and resources
Who holds anthropologists accountable for their ethics?
Society for American Archaeology (SAA)
A global organization which intervenes in the preservation of archaeological heritage.
United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)
Material culture which is a natural plant, animal, or sediment which results from human activity but is not modified.
Ecofact
Material culture which is moveable which has been moved, modified, or manufactured by humans.
Artifact
Material culture which is an accumulation of artifacts, ecofacts, and features.
Site/Settlement
Material culture which is made or altered by humans but is immovable.
Feature
The physical record, through aspects like stratification, of human prehistory.
Archaeological Record
Where material culture is found.
Context
Material, like sediment, which surround material culture
Matrix
Literally where a material culture is found, in what strata, X and Y axis
Provenience
What material culture is found around the target material culture and their possible relation.
Association
Artifacts, ecofact, features, or sites that lie exactly as they were deposited. “In-situ”
Primary Context
Material Culture with any disturbance.
Secondary Context
When artifacts are wrested from the earth without context recorded; The illegal removal of material culture
Looting
The preservation of material culture through fossilization.
Taphonomy
Deliberate activities of human activities as they make or use artifacts.
Cultural Formation Processes
Natural events that govern both burial and survival of the archaeological record
Natural Formation Processes
A part of the process to create an artifact; Collecting or getting materials
Acquisition
A part of the process to create an artifact; The material is modified.
Manufacture
A part of the process to create an artifact; The artifact is used.
Use
A part of the process to create an artifact; The artifact is left behind.
Deposit
In a sedimentary sequence, the beds are younger and younger as we go up from bottom to top.
Principle of Stratigraphy
Within a sequence of layers of sedimentary rock, the oldest layer is at the base.
Law of Superposition
When material culture decays or breaks down due to oxygen exposure, moisture levels, or bacteria.
Decomposition
When material culture remains due to a lack of oxygen, moisture levels, or bacteria.
Preservation
A collection of material culture, usually artifacts, which was left behind by past peoples as a way of keeping them hidden for a long period of time but were never reclaimed.
Hoard
Tests archaeological hypotheses by replicating certain events or conditions that they have observed in the field.
Experimental Archaeology
Surface Survey
Ground Survey
Pedestrian Survey
Shovel Testing/Shovel Test Pits (STPs)
Boring/Coring
Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR)
Aerial survey/photography
LIDAR
Satellite Imagery
Vertical Excavation
Horizontal Excavations
Garbology
Ethnography
Egalitarian Societies
Rank Based Societies
Class-based Societies
Craft-Specialists
Social Hierarchy
Pictograph
Petroglyph
Off-site Archaeology
Underwater Archaeology
