Final Flashcards
Probabilistic Excavation
Stratified, Random, Random Interval
Judgmental/Haphazard Excavation
Areas of Interest Visible Features Remote Sensing Land Forms Soil Types Judgmental- knowledge and assumption Haphazard- random chance.
Datum Plane
An arbitrary horizontal plane across the surface of site, where vertical is measured from
Arbitrary Levels
Vertical units of equal length
Pro- fast and easy, ubiquitous sold
Con- Can mix stratigraphic units together.
Natural Level
Collecting all material within individual strata.
Pro- Don’t mix different depositions.
Con- Harder to follow, and stick with strata
Profile
Culture historians dig deep to get stratigraphy
Planview
Culture Recontructionists and processualists want horizontal space.
Problem with Profile vs Planview
Difficult to see both dimensions at once
Methods to maximize one over other
Excavation Blocks
Good horizontal coverage, lose all internal profile
Trenches
Exposes vertical strata, can’t see horizontal space distribution
Rice-Chex/ ice cube tray
Leave spaces between all square units
both vertical and horizontal views are discontinuous
Checker Board
Divide into grid, excavate every other unit
Pro- saves 50% of arch. Record, move less earth, repeatable
Con- Horizontal is discontinuous. Hard to stick to assigned units
Trench Block
4 trenches around a block to expose stratigraphy.
Pro- ultimate control of profile and planview of inner block
Con- difficult, assumption inner block is of value, sacrifice outer trench provenience
Expandotrench
Excavate trench in arbitrary levels, smaller blocks stepping out
Pro- gives stratigraphic control across horizontal
Con- Planview must be reconstructed in lab
Archaeological Context
Processes that occur after artifacts enter the ground. Mech and Chem.
Systematic/Behavioral Context
An artifact’s life history, what happen before deposit
Michael B. Schiffer
N-transforms- natural change
C-tranforms- cultural change
“absence of evidence is not necessarily evidence of absence”
Positive Evidence
finding artifact/ artifacts that support theory
Negative Evidence
not finding artifacts/ artifacts that don’t support theory
Why stuff may be missing from record
Not there
Looked in wrong place
Failed to recover
Material not preserved
Life History of Artifact
Procurement- how material was obtained
Manufacture- how material was formed
Use- how artifact was used
Recycle- artifact could be used for other task, or resharpen
Loss/Discard- human drops/loses/throws away artifact
Mechanical Movement
Streams, Landslides, Humans, Animals
Chemical Alteration
Chemical Decay of objects
Heat, Humidity, acidity, material
Preservation = M, C, D, S, T
Material (Perishable(Organic), Altered, Imperishable)
Climate- Temp, Hot=decay
precipitation= decay
Deposition- Rapid Burial= better preserve
Sediment- pH, Acid-mineral Base- Organic
Time- more= more decay
Primary Deposit
Artifact right where it was placed
Secondary Deposit
A primary deposit that was picked up and moved (naturally)
Mixed Deposit
Deposit is primary, but materials mixed, animals(gophers)
In situ
Artifacts found such that exact provenience is known. Instant preservation. Pompeii
Quantitative Attribute
magnitude, represented by a numerical value
qualitative attribute
variance in quality or kind. (dead/alive. male/female, chert/obsidian)
class
a definition of the specified necessary and sufficient conditions for membership in a group
type
a description of an average looking specimen
typology
a set of types or set of descriptions
identification
the process of placing a new specimen within its proper class
Morphological types
Descriptive types designed to reflect the overall appearance of group of specimen by considering as many variable as possible, results in a typology. Make piles of similar stuff, write general description of piles. Easy to implement, hard to replicate between investigator.
functional types
types of contracted attributes that are relevant to function of artifact, (scraper, knife, arrowhead, etc, ) assume function, which maybe wrong.
temporal types
Defined on basis of attributes that have a limited range in time.
cultural historians concerned with these units
Lithic technology
flaking/chipping (conchoidal fracture)
types of rock that fracture conchoidally
Volcanic and Sedimentary
debitage
waste material made during stone tool production.
core
a chunk of stone in which flakes are struck.
flake
a piece of chipped stone, length<2x width
blade
a piece of chipped stone length>2x width
hard hammer percussion
greater hardness percussor, short, wide, thick, fat bulb flakes
soft hammer percussion
Better flaking control, longer, thinner, and thinner bulbs
pecking
Hitting stone repeatedly
grinding
using rock to grind away another rock
sawing
moving rock back and forth to create groove
Reduction stages
:: Early- stone are found, broken, hard hammer
:: Middle- Thinning bifaces, soft hammer
:: Late- Final shaping, pressure flaking.
chipped stone pro and con
PROS- quick, sharp, CON- limited range in shapes, not durable
Ground Stone pro con
PROS- any shape, any rock, very durable CONS- very slow, not as sharp
steps of manufacture
shaping, drying, firing
Shaping of clay, Drying the object until hard leather stage, firing, where chemical-molecular alteration which bonds clay
clay
fine grained earth material that develops placisity
temper
a plastic filler used in clay to help control shrinkage and lower firing temp.
modeling
manipulation of paste into desired shape
molding
Paste molded into template, Mass production
coiling
Widespread, lumps rolled into ropes, coiled up, smoothed with paddle.
surface treatment
Plain, cord marked, corrugated, smoothed, brushed
slips
Watery clay wash, not pigment
paints
::Fugitive paints ( vegetable pigment), applied post firing
:: Non-Fugitive (mineral pigment) applied pre firing, change color
:: negative firing- coat pot in stick substance, leaves burn scars
firing (oxidized/reduced environment)
:: oxidized- reds, yellow, browns, orange
:: reduced- blacks, whites, grey
kilns
:: ovens , oxygen can be restricted, more even heat, higher heat
sherds
fragmented pottery, vessel shape and size help find function
residue
remnants of past material in pottery , helps find function
evolutionary seriation
order based on universal rule, simple to complex, primitive to advanced
similary seriation
not based on a rule of development, 3 types Phyletic, Occurrence, and Frequency
occurrence, and frequency
Seriation
All assemblages must be comparable duration, from same area, from same cultural tradition.
Relative Dating
give relative time difference, but no magnitude
Absolute Dating
time is measures on an interval- Dendrochronology, Radio Carbon, Potassium Argon, Thermoluminescence, Obsidian Hydration
Radiocarbon dating
C14 Nitrogen 14 with took a neutron Willard F. Libby (1940) Atomic bomb research , half-life (5730 + 40 years),
neutrons
(emitted when comic rays enter earth upper atmosphere),
beta particles
::what is emitted from Carbon 14 and then measured
radiocarbon years vs. calendar years
:: radio carbon years =/= calendar bc radio carbon supply is not constant
standard deviation
Dates given with 1 standard deviation
dateable materials with Carbon
Charcoal, wood, bone , shell, pottery, textiles, metal, hair, pollen, ice core, paper, blood.
AMS
Accelerator Mass Spectrometer
Directly counts C14 atoms, uses less material, 50,000 years, accurate, EXPENSIVE
Obsidian hydration, hydration rate, hydration layer (artifact reuse)
Obsidian hydrates at a variable rate( hydration rate), reuse will show a gap in hydration layer. hydration rate effected by temp, humidity, chemical comp of obsidian. varies by location
Thermoluminescence (TL)
pottery heated to release light, not accurate 30% error
potassium-argon dating
Used to date Volcanic rock, Counts decay of Ar40 to K40 , 4-5 billion years
Human environment
every factor of humankind’s surrounding which may effect their mode of life, and or to which they might adapt
ecology
The science of interrelations between particular set of living organisms and there environment
paleoenvironment
Environment of the past
(flora, fauna, coprolites (poop) , geology, isotopes)
Paleobotany
Zooarchaeology—taphonomy
the transformation of living organisms from the biosphere to lithosphere
subsistence (cultural vs. natural)
:: Cultural Bone- cultural behavior, Food and non food items, Indicators- burned, buried, broken, made into artifact, cut marks, used for architecture
:: Natural Bone- bones in site due to non-human activity, rodents, caves, dragged bones
Measure of Subsistence
:: NISP, - Number of Identified Specimens
::MNI, - Min Number of Individuals
::MNE, Min Numbers of Elements
seasonality(age, sex)
::When during year did activity take place, species hunted when available
butchery/transport
:: How carcass is cut up an taken from kill to camp
domestication
:: Human modification of plants or animals, producing strains/breeds different from ancestors.
:: Genetic changes through “human” selection
biogeography
:: Study of distributions of plants and animals
::comparing modern to past distributions
Direct resource access
resource procured by user by source
Indirect resource access
Trade and exchange; resource procured at source by one group, then transferred via exchange to other groups.
distance decay function
Linear drop of material away from source
food extractors: foragers/collectors
:: foragers- no concentration of any one resource, energy extraction is non systematic. Take whats available
:: Collector- systematic collection, more processing time, less search,
food producers :agriculturalists/pastoralists
:: Both cultivate foods. Agriculturalists- large population, move little,,, Pastoralists move a lot, small populations.
Cultural resource management (CRM)—-conservation archaeology;
:: Culture resource is any physical manifestation owing any of its attribute to human activity. anything made or moved by humans
1st effort to protect sites
Fredrick Putnam
- Serpent mound in OH
- Collected money from Boston’s Wealthy
- Purchased, fenced, donated to state as a park
Antiquities Act
- 1906 (Teddy Rosevelt)
- Protect sites on federal land
- Too ambiguous
- Still the basis of cultural resource laws today
Historic Sites Act
- 1935
- National Park Service—> identify, protect, and preserve cultural resources fundamentally important to Americans
- Geared toward historic sites and stressed preservation in situ
Reservoir Salvage Act
- 1960s
- Secretary of the Interior to oversee salvage of resources in river basins flooded by dam construction.
- Last ditch effort
National Historic Preservation Act
- Most Important Law
- Required the fed. gov. to establish a nationwide system for identifying and protecting cultural resources.
- Establish a National Register of Historic Places
- Appropriated funds for cultural resource planning in each state. Created State Historic Preservation Offices.
- National Advisory Council
Archaeological and Historic Preservation Act
- 1974
- Amendment to Reservoir Salvage Act
- Provided FUNDING
- Up to 1% of federal dollars allocated to a project must be devoted to archaeological and historical resource mitigation
How do we negotiate these laws
- Most government agencies at both the federal and state level have cultural resource managers
- Federal agencies Include
- National Park Service
- Bureau of Land Reclamation
- Bureau of Indian Affairs
- Dept. of Agriculture
- State Agencies include
- CalTrans
- State Parks
Contact Archaeology
- An archaeological industry
- In order to comply with regulations, most government agencies hire private consultants to do some or most of their compliance work.
- Now the largest sector of archaeology- Most archaeology done in the US today is CRM (~90%)
CRM Process
- Can be divided into phases
- Phase 1- identify and inventory
- Phase 2- asses importance
- Phase 3- mitigate adverse results
CRM responsibilities to: archaeological record,
Conserve as much as possible
Dig only if needed
colleagues,
Don’t speak ill, give credit
research and scholarship,
research reports and investigation must be produced, only record of a site
clients,
Must be fair in cost, time, and results, and deadlines. Business is business
the law,
Compliance to all laws
the living (morals and ethics)
Must be responsible to all non archaeologists interested in arch sites
