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ANTHRO 214 > Test 2 > Flashcards

Test 2 Flashcards

1
Q

What is an artifact?

A

Objects (belongings) used, modified, or made by people - ex: clay pots, metal scraps

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2
Q

What are ecofacts?

A

Organic and environmental remains of cultural relevance - what makes it relevant is how we can link it to human activity

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3
Q

What are features?

A

Non-portable (cannot move) artifacts - ex: houses, temples, granaries, and pools

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4
Q

What is a site?

A

Any place where artifacts, ecofacts, features, or structures are found - ex: houses with prominent features or structures

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5
Q

Do archaeologists remove 100% of the site?

A

No, they don’t

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6
Q

What is a trench?

A

An area of excavation

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7
Q

What is a tell?

A

A mounded site formed by successive layers of human occupational activity and debris

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8
Q

What is a step trench?

A

An excavation method for tell sites, in which excavation proceeds in a series of steps down the side of the tell - helps to make a timeline for how long the space was occupied

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9
Q

What does a pit look like?

A

Different soil color, different soil texture, layered soils, distinct pit “cuts”, patterns of artifacts confined to the pit’s dimensions

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10
Q

What is an association?

A

An artifact’s relationship with other artifacts

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11
Q

What is a provenience?

A

The horizontal and vertical location of an artifact found during excavation - geolocating the pit (finding the coordinates)

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12
Q

What is primary context?

A

An undisturbed archaeological context, an artifact that is found in its original discard location

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13
Q

What is “in situ”?

A

“On-site” in Latin, the artifact is undisturbed since its discard

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14
Q

What is secondary context?

A

A disturbed archaeological context, the artifact is found outside of its original discard location

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15
Q

What is “ex situ”?

A

“Off-site” in Latin, the artifact is disturbed since its discard - ex: looting and plowing

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16
Q

What is bioturbation?

A

The movement of soils and sediments by plants or animals - ex: rodent tunneling, insects, moving seeds, tree roots sprouting up

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17
Q

What are formation processes?

A

Processes affecting how archaeological materials came to be buried, and their history after burial (in situ and ex situ)

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18
Q

What is a chain operatorie?

A

An ordered chain of actions that explain an artifact’s production, use, and discard - one of the ways that archaeologists think about formation processes

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19
Q

What is use life?

A

The history of an artifact’s use by humans

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20
Q

What is experimental archaeology?

A

Experimental reconstruction to understand how artifacts were made and used - ex: setting something on fire to see how its remains would would look like

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21
Q

What is taphonomy?

A

The study of what happens to organic remains after death - ex: bone, wood, seeds, animal skins, textiles, woven baskets, mats, ropes, etc.

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22
Q

What are waterlogged environments?

A

Water submersion creates oxygen-less (anoxic) conditions that slow down or block organic decay

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23
Q

What are arid environments?

A

Extreme dryness (it can be hot or cold) prevents decay

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24
Q

What are cold environments?

A

Natural refrigeration freezes the decay process

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25
Q

What is a homespace?

A

Where one could freely confront the issue of humanization where one could resist for enslaved people

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26
Q

What are activity areas?

A

Places where a person or people participated in a specific type of activity

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27
Q

What is the archaeological challenge?

A

Having to use objects as proxies for human practices

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28
Q

What is the goal of an archaeological survey?

A

To detect individual sites for mapping, recording, and archaeological excavation

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29
Q

What are the 3 methods of archaeological survey?

A

Surface, above surface, and below surface

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30
Q

What are the types of surface survey?

A

Field walking, vehicular reconnaissance, grid survey, ground-penetrating survey

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31
Q

What is field walking?

A

Survey done by walking in transects, finding scatters of building remains and artifacts, with the naked eye

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32
Q

What are transects?

A

Straight strips of land

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33
Q

What is vehicular reconnaissance?

A

Finding conspicuous (easy to spot) sites on the landscape by vehicle - ex: stone-based artifacts, flat-level surfaces

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34
Q

What is a grid survey?

A

A grid drawn over the survey area, and then several units are selected (randomly or systematically) for an intensive ground survey - randomly selecting squares to excavate

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35
Q

What is remote survey/sensing?

A

Survey methods using technologies that detect surface and subsurface archaeological remains from a distance

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36
Q

What is aerial survey?

A

Above ground: drone photography is now the most common form or aerial survey, LiDAR

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37
Q

What is photogrammetry?

A

The use of photography in surveying and mapping to measure distances between objects

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38
Q

What is satellite imagery?

A

Archaeologists now have access to high-resolution satellite images, from both the past and present, to help identify archaeological sites

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39
Q

What is LiDAR?

A

Light detection and ranging, uses a pulsated laser beam to create 3D digital models of the landscape

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40
Q

What are LiDAR’s features?

A
  • Can go wherever light can go
  • Can be done by plane or drone
  • Sends out pulses that reflect multiple points and captures
  • Able to detect features under vegetation
  • Extremely useful in forested regions
  • Able to detect and emphasize ancient features on the landscape
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41
Q

What is UAV?

A

Unmanned aerial vehicle (a drone)

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42
Q

What is sub-surface survey?

A

Collect site information below the ground, also referred to as geophysical archaeology

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43
Q

What is electrical resistivity?

A

Measures variations in the resistance of the ground to an electrical current (usually up to 3 meters below the surface)

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44
Q

Downfalls of electrical resistivity?

A

Stone foundation might hinder electrical flow

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45
Q

Upsides of electrical resistivity?

A

Organic deposits will conduct more flow

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46
Q

What is magnetometry?

A

Measures variations in magnetic fields under the ground surface (up to 2 meters below surface)

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47
Q

What is ground-penetrating radar?

A

Measures the strength and timing of radar waves (electromagnetic pulses) sent below the surface (up to 2.5 meters below surface)

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48
Q

Executive positions in the field?

A

Director, area supervisors, square supervisors, and local excavators

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49
Q

What are ceramicists?

A

Study ceramic artifacts, mainly women fill this role

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50
Q

What are archaeobotanists?

A

Study plant remains

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51
Q

What are zooarchaeologists?

A

Study animal remains

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52
Q

What are bioarchaeologists?

A

Study human remains

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53
Q

What are lithicists?

A

Study worked stone artifacts

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54
Q

What are conservators?

A

They stabilize, preserve, and restore artifacts

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55
Q

What are photographers?

A

They take high-quality photographs of field work and artifacts

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56
Q

What are illustrators?

A

They create high-quality drawings of artifacts for publication

57
Q

What are epigraphers?

A

They study and translate inscriptions

58
Q

What are registrars?

A

They document and catalog archaeological finds

59
Q

What are specialists?

A

They regularly go on-site to consult and assist with special projects

60
Q

What is total excavation?

A

100% excavation of site, methods reserved for sites under imminent threat

61
Q

What is vertical excavation?

A

Used to establish stratigraphic (chronological) sequences and site boundaries

62
Q

What is a step trench?

A

Excavation method used on very deep sites (tells) where excavation proceeds downwards in a series of steps that exposed stratigraphic layers

63
Q

What is a test pit?

A

An excavation unit (for trench) used to sample or probe before large-scale excavation is done

64
Q

What is coring?

A

A method of using an augur to collect stratigraphic soil samples for immediate information on archaeological deposits

65
Q

What is horizontal excavation?

A

A method used to expose wide areas of the site - a grid system of standardized square trenches separated by baulks

66
Q

What are baulks?

A

A roughly squared timber beam, allows us to walk carefully in horizontal excavation and gives a window into what is being dug up

67
Q

What is stratigraphy?

A

The study of sediment layers and their sequence at an archaeological site

68
Q

Uses of stratigraphy?

A
  • Reconstruct the depositional history of the site of the trench
  • Distinguish the chronology of the deposits
  • Discern the formation processes that made the deposits
69
Q

What is a locus/loci?

A

A discrete excavated unit or archaeological context, helps to delineate important changes in the stratigraphy

70
Q

What is a Harris Matrix?

A

A way of illustrating the sequence of deposits in a stratigraphic profile, helps to order the loci chronologically

71
Q

T or F: Everything excavated does not need to be labeled with context info

A

False, it does need

72
Q

What are locus sheets?

A

Standardized data sheets for each context excavated

73
Q

What is a daily journal?

A

The archaeologists’ observations and interpretations in the field

74
Q

What is a stratigraphic profile?

A

A drawing of the stratigraphy within a trench or site

75
Q

What is a top plan?

A

A map of where artifacts and features are located, vertically, and horizontally, when looking down from above onto the trench

76
Q

What is 3D photogrammetry?

A

Extracting 3D information from photographs

77
Q

What is a sieve/sifter/screen?

A

To help recover smaller artifacts, excavated soil is sifted (aka sieved or screened)

78
Q

What is a dumpy level?

A

Survey equipment used to measure the elevation of archaeological finds during excavation

79
Q

What are field conditions?

A

Often, not always, conducted in remote areas: can be very hot, few amenities, wildlife encounters occur, excavation labor can be difficult, and hours can be long

80
Q

What are assemblages?

A

Groups of material culture from a particular time and place

81
Q

What is context?

A

The position of artifacts in time and space and their association with other artifacts

82
Q

What are lithics?

A

Artifacts made of worked stone

83
Q

What is a core?

A

Tools produced by removing flakes from the original block of stone (called a cobble)

84
Q

What are flakes and blades?

A

Places of stone detached from a core from which flakes are struck off, tools made from the stone chipped off the original cobble

85
Q

What is bulb of force?

A

Where the core was struck

86
Q

What is an eraillure scar?

A

A tiny flake that is removed from the bulb of force during the strike

87
Q

What is debitage (debris)?

A

Discarded flakes are regarded as trash (not used)

88
Q

What are bifaces?

A

Two sides meet to form a single edge that circumscribes the entire artifact (often chopping or cutting tools)

89
Q

What is hafting?

A

Attaching a stone tool to a handle or a shaft (can be used as arrows, spears, cutting tools)

90
Q

What is flint knapping?

A

The process of making stone tools by chipping or flaking

91
Q

What is sourcing?

A

Analyzing the constituent materials of artifacts to determine the origin of the resources used to make it

92
Q

What is trace element analysis?

A

The use of chemical techniques to identify trace elements of rocks in stone tools

93
Q

What are ceramics?

A

Materials made of fired clay

94
Q

What is pottery?

A

Ceramic vessels and their remains

95
Q

What are sherds?

A

Fragments of ceramic vessels

96
Q

What are shards?

A

Fragments of glass

97
Q

What is temper?

A

Fillers added to wet clay that alter the characteristics the vessel’s fabric

98
Q

What is grog?

A

Crushed fragments of pottery vessels

99
Q

What do handmade vessels look like?

A

Symmetrical body, uniform thickness of vessel walls, uneven thickness of vessel walls, possible fingerprints in the clay from pinching and shaping the vessel

100
Q

What do wheel-made vessels look like?

A

Symmetrical body, uniform thickness of vessel walls, parallel horizontal striations from shaping and trimming the vessel while spinning on the wheel

101
Q

What is reduction?

A

Restricted access to oxygen

102
Q

What is oxidation?

A

Unrestricted access to oxygen

103
Q

What are kilns?

A

They create increased oxygen conditions

104
Q

What is slip?

A

Mixture of clay and water applied to surface before firing

105
Q

What is glaze?

A

Like a slip, but with more glass (silica) added for more gloss

106
Q

What is stylistic analysis?

A

Analysis of non-utilitarian aspects of vessel design

107
Q

What is ceramic petrography?

A

Microscopic analysis of the clay and temper in ceramic vessels to determine their point of origin

108
Q

What is archaeometallurgy?

A

The study of metal artifacts and their manufacture

109
Q

What is isotopic analysis?

A

Chemical analysis to identify lead isotope signatures in metal artifacts

110
Q

What does BP stand for?

A

Before Present (1950 CE)

111
Q

What do BC and BCE stand for?

A

Before Christ and Before Common Era

112
Q

What do AD and CE stand for?

A

The year of our lord and Common Era

113
Q

What does Ya stand for?

A

Years ago

114
Q

What does kya stand for?

A

Thousand years ago

115
Q

What does mya stand for?

A

Million years ago

116
Q

What does C or Ca stand for?

A

Circa “around”

117
Q

What does “c” stand for?

A

Century

118
Q

Who are the world’s oldest mummies?

A

The Chinchorro Culture of Peru and Chile practiced mummification thousands of years before the Egyptians (ca. 7000 BCE)

119
Q

Who has the world’s oldest tatoos?

A

“Otzi” has the world’s oldest tattoos known to archaeologists

120
Q

What is relative dating?

A

Determining chronological sequences without the use of fixed dates

121
Q

What are typological sequences?

A

The systematic organization of artifacts with shared attributed into chronological sequences

122
Q

What is stratigraphy?

A

The study of layers and their sequence at an archaeological site

123
Q

What is the law of superposition?

A

Underlying layers are older (deposited first) than layers above

124
Q

What is an attribute?

A

A characteristic of an artifact

125
Q

What is seriation?

A

A chronological ordering of a group of artifacts or assemblages

126
Q

What is typological seriation?

A

Founded by Sir Flinders Petrie, a chronological ordering of a group of artifacts or assemblages based on their typology

127
Q

What are battleship curves?

A

Pattern plotted on a graph created when archaeologists assume that artifact types goes in and out of style

128
Q

What is a type?

A

A class of artifacts defined by a consistent set of attributes

129
Q

What is style?

A

Attributes of shape and decoration that are distinctive to a particular time and place

130
Q

What is absolute dating?

A

The determination of age with reference to a specific time scale, able to provide fixed dates

131
Q

What are historical records?

A

To achieve greater chronological accuracy, archaeologists compare multiple historical documents

132
Q

What is cross-dating?

A

Principle that an artifact dated at one archaeological site will be one of the same approximate age when found elsewhere, allows archaeologists to extend chronological links using datable artifacts and associations

133
Q

What is tree-ring dating/dendrochronology?

A

The study of tree-ring patterns to create an absolute chronology

134
Q

What are the limitations of tree-ring dating?

A

Not applicable in tropical regions, where trees don’t produce annual rings, have to rely on species that have a master sequence, tree species has to be used by people in the past, and a sample of that species must preserve a cross-section of tree

135
Q

What is radiocarbon dating?

A

An absolute dating method that measures the decay of the radioactive isotope in carbon, C-14, in organic material

136
Q

Limitations of radiocarbon dating?

A

Rates of decay are not constant and levels of atmospheric C14 have changed over time

137
Q

What is Bayesian Analysis?

A

Includes the relative ages of several samplings and their groups, by stratigraphy

138
Q

What is a midden?

A

Old dump for domestic waste

ANTHRO 214 (3 decks)

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