Ancient History Archaeological Methods and Human Remains Review

Vocabulary flashcards reviewing archaeological terms, methods, dating techniques, pioneering figures, and human remain case studies from Topic 1 and Topic 2 notes.

Archaeology

The excavation and study of physical past remains, originating from a Greek word meaning 'Discussion of Ancient things'.

The Three Age System

A chronological system proposed by C.J. Thomsen in 1836 that organizes human technological artifacts into Stone, Bronze, and Iron ages.

Giovanni Belzoni

A treasure hunter active around 1815 who used no archaeological techniques, acquired antiquities for the British Museum, and discovered tombs such as Pharaoh Seti I.

Guiseppe Fiorelli

An excavator of Pompeii in 1860 who utilized systematic recording, named artifacts, and pioneered the use of plaster casts.

Heinrich Schliemann

An amateur archaeologist who excavated Troy starting in 1871; known for discovering Priam's Treasure as well as using destructive methods like explosives and digging trenches through strata.

General Pitt

A pioneering British army officer in 1881 referred to as a founding father of archaeology who emphasized military precision methods, surveying, and scientific recording.

Sir Flinders Petrie

An archaeologist in the late 1890s who created a method of sequence dating for artifacts in Egypt and Palestine as an organizational technique.

Howard Carter

The archaeologist who discovered the fully intact tomb of Tutankhamun in 1922, providing valuable information on royal burials through precise recording and conservation.

Sir Mortimer Wheeler

An archaeologist in the 1930s who developed the box-grid excavation method and excavated Maiden Castle in England.

Sir Arthur Evans

An archaeologist who excavated, reconstructed, and conserved the Palace of Knossos between 1931 and 1932, revealing and naming the Minoan civilization.

Leonard Woolley

A early modern archaeologist who excavated at Mesopotamia in 1934 and put the Sumerians on the map of the ancient world.

Vere Gordan Chide

An archaeologist in the 1930s to 1940s who developed a system to organize artifacts to indicate ownership to a period of time and define cultural groups.

Kathleen Kenyon

An archaeologist who applied the Box-Grid method at Jericho and Jerusalem from 1952 to 1958, pushing back the date of occupation at Jericho to the end of the ice age.

Shovel Test Pits

Small circular holes dug at consistent distances from one another during surveying to establish site dimensions.

Stratigraphy

The study of layered geological and soil deposits based on the principle that upper layers are newest and bottom layers are oldest.

Stratum

A single layer of soil or rock in stratigraphy, whereas multiple layers are referred to as strata.

Artefact Provenance

The chronological history of an object's custody, ownership, and exact original location from its creation or discovery to the present.

Crop Marks

Aerial irregularities in crop growth revealing underground structures; crops in shallow soil over walls ripen late, while crops over ancient ditches grow quickly.

Soil Marks

Differences in soil color visible from the air after ploughing that reveal buried features such as ancient walls, ditches, or pits.

Shadow Marks

Shadows cast at dawn or sunset that reveal subtle ground elevations and possible underground archaeological features.

LiDAR

Light Detection and Ranging; a remote sensing technology that uses laser light to map the ground surface and objects beneath vegetation or surface layers.

Field Walking

A geographical survey method involving systematic walking across a site to record surface artifacts and physical features.

Findspot

The specific physical location where an artifact is found during an archaeological dig.

Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR)

A survey method using electromagnetic radar pulses directed into the ground to measure signal reflection times and map subsurface structures.

Resistivity

A survey technique passing electric currents between ground probes to measure soil resistance, where high resistance indicates buried walls and low resistance indicates ditches.

Magnetometry

A geophysical method using a proton magnetometer to map variations in soil magnetic properties, detecting items like iron, brick, rock, and burnt soil.

Grid System

An excavation method dividing a site into square boxes separated by baulks to study vertical stratigraphy and precise coordinates of finds.

Baulk

A wall of earth left standing between excavated grid boxes to preserve and display the stratigraphy of a site.

Open Area Excavation

An excavation strategy that uncovers an entire site horizontal layer by layer, fully examining each stratum before digging deeper.

Relative Dating

Dating methods that determine whether an artifact or event is older or newer than another without providing an exact calendar year.

Absolute Dating

Dating methods that establish a specific calendar age or exact timeframe for an artifact or organic specimen.

Typology

The classification of artifacts into chronological sequences based on shared physical attributes, stylistic traits, and decorative features.

Dendrochronology

An absolute dating method that calculates the age of wooden artifacts by matching tree-ring growth patterns against regional tree databases.

Radiocarbon Dating

An absolute dating technique measuring the remaining amount of radioactive carbon-14 isotopes in once-living organic matter.

Thermoluminescence Dating

An absolute dating method measuring light released from trapped radiation when reheating pottery or stone that was originally exposed to heat above $500\,^\circ\text{C}$.

DNA Analysis

The genetic testing of extracted material from teeth, bones, or tissue to determine an organism's age, biological sex, height, and health conditions.

Potassium-Argon Dating

An absolute dating method determining the age of rocks by measuring the ratio of radioactive argon to radioactive potassium.

Uranium-Thorium Dating

A scientific dating technique used on calcite layers inside caves to date items like prehistoric rock art located beneath them.

Tephrochronology

A technique using distinct layers of volcanic ash (tephra) from specific volcanic eruptions to establish chronological framework markers.

Cardiff Giant

A 10-foot carved gypsum statue treated with acid and buried as a hoax in 1869 in New York, which was initially misinterpreted as a petrified prehistoric giant.

Peat Bog

A wetland environment characterized by airless, acidic, and oxygen-deprived conditions that slow decay and preserve soft tissue, hair, and skin.

Biological Anthropology

The study of ancient human bones and biological remains to gather information about historical individuals, diets, health, and population changes.

Isotopes

Chemical compounds derived from local food and water that accumulate in human teeth and bones, revealing an individual's geographical origin and diet.

Lindow Man

A preserved bog body discovered in 1984 in Lindow Moss, Cheshire, belonging to a man aged 25–30 who died between $2\text{ BC}$ and $119\text{ AD}$ from severe head blows, strangulation, and a cut throat.

Tollund Man

An Iron Age bog body found in Denmark buried in a fetal position wearing a cap and rope around his neck, whose stomach preserved a last meal of gruel porridge made of rye, barley, and oats.

Chinese Mummy (Ming Dynasty)

A 700-year-old high-ranking female corpse discovered in Eastern China preserved with intact eyebrows, silk and cotton garments, and a liquid-filled watertight coffin.

Otzi the Iceman

A 5300-year-old Copper Age mummy discovered in 1991 in the Ötztal Alps along the Austria-Italy border, found with a copper axe, gear, and an arrow wound in his shoulder.

Siberian Ice Maiden

A 2500-year-old mummy found with six horses, intricate tattoos, and cannabis used for treating cancer, whose European DNA profile contested local Altaian ownership claims.

Mungo Man

The oldest human skeleton found in Australia ($42\,000\text{ years}$ old), discovered at Lake Mungo in a ritual burial sprinkled with red ochre.