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Archaeology > Unit 2 - Post-Excavation > Flashcards

Unit 2 - Post-Excavation Flashcards

1
Q

How can you sort ceramics?

A
  • Estimated Vessel Equivalent (EVE)
  • Minimum Number of Vessels (MNV)
  • Number of pieces
  • Weight
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2
Q

How can you analyse ceramics?

A
  • Organic residue analysis
  • SEM
  • Use wear analysis
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3
Q

Ceramic CS

A
  • Boscombe Bowman
  • Amesbury Archer
  • The Companion
  • Kingsmead - decorated with cord/platted cord/comb
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4
Q

How can you date metal objects?

A
  • Stratigraphy
  • Coins (historic dating)
  • Typology & Seriation
  • Obsidian Hydration
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5
Q

How can you conserve metal objects?

A
  • Reduce humidity
  • Use a dry brush (no liquids)
  • Careful treatment to remove corrosion
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6
Q

How can you analyse metal objects?

A
  • SEM

- X-ray

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7
Q

What can you learn from metal objects?

A
  • If it’s been heated, worked, alloyed
  • See if several pieces of metal have been joined to create a complex artefact
  • Trade, territories, approx dating (coins)
  • How it’s been made (crucibles, slag, molds, ridges)
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8
Q

Gundestrup Cauldron CS

A
  • Iron Age
  • Denmark
  • One of the largest known examples of celtic metalwork art
  • Decorated with mythological and ritual scenes
  • SEM shows it was built by 3 silversmiths, plates worked when flat and then shaped into curves, silber was slowly heated and then cooled before being shaped
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9
Q

What can you learn from ceramic analysis?

A
  • Form (beaker, plate etc)
  • Manufacture (pinch pot, molds etc)
  • Material
  • Style, decoration
  • Status
  • Trade
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10
Q

What can you learn from lithic analysis?

A
  • Purpose
  • Trade
  • Technology
  • Manufacture
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11
Q

How can you analyse lithics?

A
  • SEM
  • Petrology
  • Usewear
  • Microwear
  • Surface examination
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12
Q

Lithic CS

A
  • Windmill Hill - 95000 pieces of flint
  • Hambledon Hill - flint tools
  • West Kennet - Stone beads, flint tools
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13
Q

What are the 4 main absolute dating methods?

A
  • Radiocarbon
  • Dendrochronology
  • Thermoluminscene
  • Uranium Series
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14
Q

What is radiocarbon dating?

A
  • All living things absorb carbon
  • This decays into 14N after death at a known rate
  • Can be calculated to work out time since death
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15
Q

Pros of radiocarbon dating?

A
  • Can date between 200-500000yrs
  • Can date all organic materials (bone, shell, plant remains, wood, seeds)
  • Accurate
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16
Q

Cons of radiocarbon dating?

A
  • Can only date organic material
  • Only accurate between 200-500000yrs
  • Samples can be contaminated
  • Number of samples should be taken
  • Sample
  • Calibration is needed at a radiocarbon year does not equal calender year
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17
Q

What is dendrochronology?

A
  • Use of tree rings to date wood

- Compared to a master sequence

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18
Q

Pros of dendrochronology?

A
  • Can tell if something had been renovated

- Accurate - exact date

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19
Q

Cons of dendrochronology?

A
  • Date tree was felled not artefact used
  • Growth can vary by climate
  • Have to cut into object
  • Can’t date if it’s too small or badly damaged
  • Need a master sequence
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20
Q

What is thermoluminscene?

A
  • Quartz crystals (found in clay) decay and produce an electric charge at a known rate
  • Electric charge is released as light when heated
  • Light produced can be measured
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21
Q

What can thermoluminscene be used on?

A
  • Glass
  • Burnt flint
  • Stone
  • Pottery
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22
Q

Pros of thermoluminscene?

A
  • Can date from present - 400000yrs

- Useful for older sites where there are no organic remains

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23
Q

Cons of thermoluminscene?

A
  • Less accurate that C-14 dating

- False readings due to radiation or if initial firing was at a low temp

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24
Q

What is uranium series dating?

A
  • Uranium decays in water at a known rate

- Can be measured to give a date

25
Q

Pros of uranium series?

A
  • Can date between 50000-500000

- Can date enamel, shell etc

26
Q

Cons of uranium series?

A
  • Prone to ambiguous results

- Needs a high uranium content

27
Q

Two types of flora?

A
  • Microfossils

- Macrofossils

28
Q

Examples of microfossils?

A
  • Diatom
  • Pollen
  • Phytoliths
29
Q

What are phytoliths/how are they used?

A
  • Silican from the cells of plants
  • Survive well in alkaline soils
  • Can be identified to paticular plants
  • Can indicate spread of agriculture
30
Q

What are diatoms/how are they used?

A
  • Microscopic single celled plants
  • Found in wet conditions
  • Very sensitive to change in local water
  • Hard outer shell survive well in alkaline or anaerobic conditions
  • Ca be used to infer deforestation or pollution
  • Can indicate where water used to be
31
Q

What is pollen/how is it used?

A
  • survives well - especially in wet, acidic conditions - hard outer shell
  • Relative quantities provide record of environmental change
  • Pollen dating - pollen zones defined according to relative amounts of each species
  • Can also be dated with C-14 dating
  • HOWEVER naturally moves and spreads from original site
32
Q

What are macrofossils?

A
  • Visible to the naked eye
  • Seeds
  • Fruit
  • Flowers
  • Seeds
33
Q

Otzi - Macrofossils

A
  • Lumps of birch funfus threaded and attatched to clothing
  • Bitchbark container with maple leaves in
  • Einkern grass on cape
  • Grass in shoes
  • Sloe berries found by him
34
Q

Pros of wood

A
  • Survives on wet or dry sites and in carbonised form
  • Possible to indentify species with microscope
  • Dendrochronology
  • Physical evidence for structures, artefacts, carpentry
  • Keeps form and detail when wet
35
Q

Cons of wood

A
  • Wood from dry areas often warped or distorted
  • Decay once removed from water
  • Can only freeze dry small artefacts
  • Treatment of large artefacts is time consuming
36
Q

What is fauna?

A

Animals

37
Q

What are the two types of fauna?

A
  • Micro

- Macro

38
Q

What are the two examples of microfauna?

A
  • Beatles

- Molluscs

39
Q

What are/how do we study beatles?

A
  • found in nearly all environments
  • Outershell resistance and varies between species - allows indentification
  • Changed very little over time so easy to compare
  • Tells us about ground surface conditions, vegetation, climate, plant resources
40
Q

What are/how do we study molluscs?

A
  • Different species have paticular vegetation habits

- Sieved out of soil, indentified and record

41
Q

How can we count macrofauna?

A
  • Number of Indentified Specimens (NISP)
  • Height - bias towards animals with heavier bone s
  • Min. number of indiviuals (MNI)
42
Q

What can we learn from macrofauna?

A
  • Hunting
  • Agriculture
  • Ritual feasting
  • Season
  • Environment
  • Trade/travel
  • Butchery
43
Q

What are the 5 main relative dating techniques?

A
  • Historic
  • Stratigraphy
  • Typology
  • Seriation
  • Obsidian hydration
44
Q

What is TPQ?

A
  • The earliest possible date an event may have happened
45
Q

What is TAQ?

A
  • The latest possible date an event may have happened
46
Q

Pros of historic dating?

A
  • gives a general time period - good starting point

- gives an idea as to how far down you have to dig

47
Q

Cons of historic dating?

A
  • stratifgraphic layers can have a large time range
  • no exact date
  • cultural/natural transforms
  • objects could be out of place relative to whole site
48
Q

What is the Law of Superposition?

A

Layers further down will be older

49
Q

Pros of dating using stratigraphy?

A
  • Fast
  • Can date whole layer
  • Shows order or deposits and suggests relationships
  • Inexpensive
50
Q

Cons of dating using stratigraphy?

A
  • can have large time frame

- cultural and natural transforms

51
Q

What is typology?

A
  • classifying artefacts into types based on shape, surface and raw material
  • then placed into a typological sequence
52
Q

Pros of typology?

A
  • can get an idea of how artefacts may have changed over time
53
Q

Cons of typology?

A
  • can’t tell how long between the styles of overlap between each
  • trends can return
  • doesn’t tell you how long it took for changes to occur
  • can vary depending on location and culture
54
Q

What is seriation?

A

when artefacts from a number of different sites (in the same culture) are placed into chronological order

55
Q

What are the pros of seriation?

A
  • useful at sites where there are large quanities of artefacts of the same style
  • battleship curve shows when and for how long an artefact was used for
56
Q

Cons of seriation?

A
  • can only be used to provide an exact date if elements of the sequence are tied to historic data
  • sequences can be wrong
  • assumes all artefacts are phased in gradually whilst others phase out
  • basing dates on a few isolated artefacts can cause errors
57
Q

What is obsidian hydration?

A
  • obsidian aborbs water at a known rate when broken

- this can be measured to give a date

58
Q

pros of obsidian hydration?

A
  • can compare to other sites
  • can give a relative date - more specific
  • one of the cheaper lab methods
59
Q

cons of obsidian hydration?

A
  • speed of hydration varies with local climate and chemical makeup of obsidian
  • can only date between 100-100000 yrs
  • has a saturation point of 3.5%
  • has to be broken
  • could be out of historical context
  • obsidian is only found in certain places

Archaeology (2 decks)

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