Midterm Flashcards
Archaeology
the study of past peoples through the analysis of their material culture
history of archeology
finding things vs finding things out
culture history year
1900s
cultural materialism/ecology year
1950s
the new archaeology year
1960s
post-processual archaeology year
1980s
Culture History
map out culture across space and through time
diffusion/transmission to explain similarity and change
Cultural Materialism/Ecology
Similarity and change as adaptation to the environment
New archaeology
Arch as a science: use evidence to test hypotheses
build generalizable laws of human behavior
post-processual archaeology
post positivist: the past is not a laboratory
focus on interpretation
Artifact
an object used made or modified by people
portable
ecofact
organic and environmental remains
not technologically altered, but still of cultural relevance
feature
non portable human made or modified objects
site
a concentration of artifacts ecofacts, features
landscape
connections between sites
connections between the natural environment and human modifications/additions to it
necessarily broad in scale
terminus post quem
date after which a deposit formed
terminus ante quem
date before which a deposit formed
stylistic seriation
build an artifact sequence by creating categories then arranging them through time
frequency seriation
build a site/deposit sequence by tabulating frequency of artifact categories
historical chronology
present - 4,000 bc
radiocarbon
organic material
400-50,000 years ago
potassium argon
volcanic rock
80,000-5,000,000 years ago
dendochronology
wood
present - 10,000 years ago
microbotanicals
pollen
phytoliths
diatoms
macrobotanicals
seeds
fruit pits
wood
microfauna
insects
little animals
macrofauna
big animals
sex
pelvis
bone
age
cranial sutures
erupted teeth
epiphyseal fusion
Geographic Information Systems GIS
computer-based system to obtain, store, manage, manipulate, analyze, display, and distribute spatial information
composed of data layers -GIS
raster data
vector data
cost surface analysis
calculate most efficient path between two points
catchment analysis
calculate likely extent of resource acquisition
predictive modeling
predict location of new sites based on attributes of known sites
density analysis
interpolate artifact distribution
cut fill analysis
compare historic typographical maps to determine landscape change
viewshed analysis
determine what can be seen from a particular vantage point
3D modeling – capturing data
total station/gps
laser scanning
photgrammetry
uses
data recording restoration virtual excavation sub-surface modeling immersive experience
