Topic 2: What is archaeology?

Question 1

in its basic form, what is archaeology?

Answer 1

study of human past via material culture

Question 2

4 major types of archaeology

Answer 2

-academic
-industry (CRM)
-indigenous
-amateur

Question 3

What is cultural resource management (CRM)?

Answer 3

Industrial archaeology, identifies, assesses, and manages plans and mitigates archaeological sites. Typically tied to government. Many governments require CRM to scope out a site before development occurs.

Question 4

What is pseudoarcheology? How is it tied to nationalism and nazis?

Answer 4

“false archaeology”. Focuses on the supernatural, or people who reject/ignore data gathering and any scientific methods used for archaeology.
- pseudoarchaeology can be used to define differences between “us” and “them” in terms of ethnic identity
- Nazi germany used pseudoarchaeology to try and find historic evidence of the right place of the aryan race. They used archaeological data that was very misrepresented and outright fabricated.

Question 5

what do archaeologists dig

Answer 5

-The archaeological record
-Material culture
-The material record of the human past

Question 6

what is the archaeological record?

Answer 6

-The body of materials and information that make up the evidence of the past (material culture)
-All of the objects made, altered, modified, used, and discarded by humans

Question 7

what is an assemblage?

Answer 7

Artifacts or ecofacts and structure from a particular time and place within an achaeological site
Items from the same context

Question 8

what are the four classes of material culture?

Answer 8

• artifacts
  -features
  -ecofacts
  -fossils

Question 9

what are artifacts?

Answer 9

-anything made, shaped or modified by humans (lithics/stone tools, ceramics)
-artifacts must be portable

Question 10

what are features?

Answer 10

non-portable artifacts. Made and used by humans, but can’t be moved.
(walls, burials, middens, outhouses)

Question 11

what are ecofacts?

Answer 11

Unmodified natural objects used by humans. Not made, but used (ex. salt!)
can be organic (flora) or inorganic (mineral)

Question 12

what are fossils?

Answer 12

organic (bone, teeth) tissues replaced by minerals
impressions (footprints)

Question 13

what is a site?

Answer 13

Locations where the material remains of human activity have been preserved in a way that anthropologists can recover them
Accumulations of artifacts, features and human culture

Question 14

what is an isolated site?

Answer 14

site that consists of a single item

Question 15

what is a campsite?

Answer 15

separate activity areas

Question 16

what is a quarry?

Answer 16

site where raw materials have been mined or extracted

Question 17

what are petroglyphs?

Answer 17

rock are where designs are carved into the natural rock surface

Question 18

what are pictographs?

Answer 18

rock art where designs are painted on the rock surface

Question 19

what are activity areas?

Answer 19

locations of specific tasks focused on a single purpose. eg, tool production, food preperation, ceremony

Question 20

what is context?

Answer 20

the location where material culture is found

Question 21

what is provenience, matrix, and association in terms of context?

Answer 21

provenience is location, matrix is the material that surrounds an artifact, and association is the material culture found close together in a site.

Question 22

why is context important?

Answer 22

it provides all information on artifacts, on what it is, what it was used for, who used it ect.

Question 23

what are primary contexts?

Answer 23

artifacts and ecofacts left at the place they were used or produced

Question 24

what is secondary context?

Answer 24

artifacts/ecofacts removed from the place they were made or used, to a designated refuse site . They could have also been unintentially lost

Question 25

What are the positives and negatives of CRM archaeology?

Answer 25

GOOD:
- responsible for finding AND recording many sites in most provinces
- focus on areas/sites not studied by academics (smaller sites)
- work with Indigenous communities

BAD:
- Credibility of professionalism, due to the fact it is archaeology for profit
- subject to boom and bust of economy
- regulation issues with dangerous sites
- separation from academic and CRM archaeologists