Foundations of Archaeology and Human Prehistory

Comprehensive review flashcards covering archaeological foundations, survey and dating techniques, lithic technology, human evolution, the agricultural transition, and social complexity.

Archaeology

The study of human history and past societies through the excavation, recovery, and analysis of their material culture.

Anthropology

The holistic study of humanity across time and space, encompassing human physical characteristics as well as nonbiological characteristics, such as culture.

Material Culture

The physical objects, resources, and spaces that surround people and form part of their lives, defining human culture (e.g., tools, buildings, clothing).

Artifact

Any portable object that has been made, modified, or used by humans (e.g., a stone tool, pottery shard, or cell phone).

Ecofact

Unmodified natural organic or environmental remains not manufactured by people but relevant to human activity (e.g., animal bones, charcoal, plant seeds).

Feature

A nonportable human-made artifact or modification to the earth that cannot be removed as an individual object without altering its form (e.g., hearth, posthole, storage pit, wall).

Context

An artifact's immediate surroundings, encompassing its matrix (surrounding soil/material), provenience (exact 3D coordinates), and association with other archaeological materials.

Provenience

The exact three-dimensional horizontal and vertical location of an artifact, ecofact, or feature within the matrix of an archaeological site.

Association

The spatial co-occurrence and relationship between archaeological materials found together in the same matrix or stratigraphic layer, indicating contemporaneous use or deposition.

Harris Matrix

A schematic diagram or description used in archaeology to document and visualize the chronological sequence of excavation contexts, stratigraphic layers, disturbances, and features.

Stratigraphy

The study and succession of rock and soil layers (strata) accumulated at a site over time, providing a relative chronological sequence.

Law of Superposition

The geological principle stating that in undisturbed strata, the lowest layer was deposited earliest and is oldest, while higher layers are progressively younger.

Epistemology

The branch of philosophy concerned with how we know what we know—distinguishing justified belief from mere opinion using empirical evidence, science, and interpretation.

Uniformitarianism

The geological principle stating that the natural processes operating to modify the Earth's crust today (such as sedimentation and erosion) operated in the past in the same manner.

Relative Dating

Dating methods that order artifacts, deposits, or events as older or younger relative to one another without assigning a specific calendar date.

Numerical Dating

Dating methods (also known as absolute dating) that assign an actual calendar age or numerical date range to an artifact, feature, or site.

Seriation

A relative dating technique that places artifacts or assemblages into chronological order based on stylistic changes and popularity trends over time (e.g., changes in New England headstone decorations).

Radiocarbon Dating

A numerical dating method measuring the decay of radioactive isotope $C^{14}$ in organic materials, with a half-life of $5,730\text{ years}$ and an effective range up to approximately $50,000\text{--}80,000\text{ years ago}$.

Potassium-Argon Dating

A numerical dating method measuring the accumulation of argon gas from the radioactive decay of potassium in volcanic rock, reliable from approximately $100,000$ to $5\text{ million years before present}$.

Dendrochronology

Tree-ring dating; the science of analyzing and matching overlapping sequences of annual growth rings in preserved wood to produce exact calendar chronologies and paleoclimatic data.

Antiquarian

An amateur collector focused on collecting ancient treasures or curiosities for aesthetics, status, or profit, often displayed in "Cabinets of Curiosity" without recording archaeological context.

Three Age System

A chronological classification developed by C. J. Thomsen dividing prehistory into the Stone Age, Bronze Age, and Iron Age based on technological progression (primarily applied to Europe).

Thomas Jefferson

Often recognized as a pioneer in American archaeology; he excavated a Native American burial mound in Virginia in 1784 using early stratigraphic observation, published in Notes on the State of Virginia ($1785$).

Wet Preservation

A preservation condition where waterlogged, anaerobic environments prevent organic decay, preserving delicate items like wood, leather, textiles, and unburned bone exceptionally well.

Dry Preservation

A preservation condition found in extremely arid, desert environments where the lack of moisture inhibits bacterial and fungal decay, preserving wood, textiles, basketry, and human remains.

Desiccation

Extreme moisture loss and drying out of organic tissues in arid conditions, capable of mummifying human remains naturally without artificial intervention.

LiDAR

Light Detection and Ranging; an aerial remote-sensing method using airborne laser pulses to penetrate dense forest and jungle canopies, mapping topography and revealing hidden architectural features.

Survey

The systematic search, location, and non-destructive recording of archaeological sites across a landscape using pedestrian walking, aerial imagery, surface collection, and shovel test pits.

Shovel Test Pit (STP)

A small, standardized subsurface excavation (e.g., circular pits approximately $30\text{ cm}$ wide or square pits approximately $50\text{ cm}$ wide) systematically placed across an area to assess soil layers and artifact density.

Unit Excavation

The systematic, controlled hand-excavation of square or rectangular grid units at a site, peeling back soil by arbitrary or natural cultural levels while recording 3D provenience.

Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR)

A non-destructive geophysical remote sensing technique that transmits electromagnetic radar waves into the subsoil and measures reflection times to map buried anomalies and features in depth.

Mound Builders

Prehistoric Indigenous cultures of North America that constructed earthen mounds (such as Cahokia and Poverty Point); previously credited to a mythical "lost race" until disproven by systematic research.

Ethnographic Analogy

The archaeological method of inferring the function or cultural meaning of ancient artifacts and sites by comparing them with observations of living, traditional contemporary societies.

Mtoto Child, Kenya

An early archaeological child-burial site discovered in East Africa that provides critical evidence of intentional, symbolic mortuary treatment, ritual care, and social emotion in early hominins.

Paleoanthropology

The multidisciplinary scientific branch of anthropology dedicated to studying fossil hominins, human evolution, and the anatomical lineage of modern humans.

Swartkrans Cave

A South African fossil cave site containing early hominin remains (Australopithecus and Homo), early stone tools, evidence of early fire, bone tools used to dig for tubers or termites, and evidence of predation by big cats.

Core

The parent block or nodule of workable stone from which flakes or blades are detached during lithic tool manufacturing.

Flake

A sharp-edged piece of stone detached from a core by percussion or pressure flaking, utilized directly as a cutting tool or discarded as knapping debris.

Lomekwian

The earliest recognized stone-tool industry, dating to approximately $3.3\text{ million years ago}$ in West Turkana, Kenya, manufactured by striking stone against a flat anvil before the emergence of genus Homo.

Oldowan

An early Lower Paleolithic tool industry dating to approximately $2.6\text{ million years ago}$ in the East African Rift Valley, characterized by simple stone cores and sharp flakes used for hammering, butchering, and scraping.

Acheulean

A Lower Paleolithic stone-tool industry associated with Homo erectus from approximately $1.7\text{--}1.5\text{ million years ago}$, characterized by bifacially worked, symmetrical teardrop handaxes displaying standardized planning.

Man the Hunter

An obsolete, male-centric hypothesis proposing that aggressive, big-game hunting by males was the primary driver of human physical, social, and technological evolution.

Scavenging

The opportunistic gathering of meat and marrow from carcasses killed by carnivores, recognized as a primary early hominin subsistence strategy preceding organized big-game hunting.

Microwear Analysis

The microscopic analysis of polishes, scratches, striations, and edge micro-flaking on stone or bone tools under high magnification to empirically identify their working function.

Experimental Archaeology

A research methodology that tests archaeological hypotheses by replicating ancient artifacts, manufacturing techniques, butchery, or structural processes under controlled scientific conditions.

Zooarchaeology

The study and taxonomic identification of faunal remains (animal bones, teeth, shells) from archaeological sites to reconstruct past human diet, butchery practices, and paleoenvironments.

Ethnobotany

The recovery and identification of botanical remains from archaeological contexts to investigate how human groups interacted with, consumed, and utilized wild and domestic plants.

Flotation

An archaeological recovery method using water immersion to separate low-density microscopic botanical remains (seeds, charcoal) from dense soil matrix by causing them to float to the surface.

Macro/Microbotanical Remains

Categories of plant evidence: macrobotanical includes visible specimens (seeds, wood, nutshells, grains), while microbotanical includes microscopic residues (pollen grains, phytoliths).

Paleolithic

The Old Stone Age, spanning from approximately $2.6\text{ million}$ (possibly $3.3\text{ million}$) to $10,000\text{ BP}$, divided into Lower, Middle, and Upper periods, characterized by mobile foraging and chipped stone tools.

Use and Control of Fire

The behavioral shift from opportunistically using natural wildfires to intentionally igniting, maintaining, and controlling fire, with definitive evidence established around $400,000\text{--}300,000\text{ BP}$.

Cooking Hypothesis

The evolutionary theory proposed by Richard Wrangham suggesting that cooking food around $1.8\text{ million years ago}$ predigested calories, facilitating reduced gut and tooth size and fuel for encephalization.

Hunting

The strategic, coordinated tracking, trapping, and active killing of wild animals, supported by fire, cooperation, and projectile weaponry, evidenced directly at Schöningen around $400,000\text{ BP}$.

Mesolithic

The Middle Stone Age transition between the Upper Paleolithic and Neolithic ($\sim 20,000\text{--}5,000\text{ BP}$), marked by diverse broad-spectrum foraging, post-glacial adaptations, and specialized tools like microliths and fishhooks.

Neolithic

The New Stone Age (beginning around $12,000\text{--}10,000\text{ BP}$ in the Near East), defined by the emergence of food production (agriculture and pastoralism), polished stone tools, pottery, and permanent villages.

Holocene

The current geological epoch that began approximately $11,700\text{ BP}$ following the Pleistocene Ice Age, characterized by a warmer, more stable climate that enabled the spread of agriculture.

Natufian

A sedentary Mesolithic cultural tradition in the Levant ($\sim 15,000\text{ BP}$) that established permanent stone-built villages and intensive harvesting of wild cereals prior to the advent of farming.

Agricultural "Revolution"

The gradual, multi-generational, and independent global transition from foraging and hunting to the deliberate cultivation of crops and pastoralism during the Holocene.

Cultivation

The intentional human preparation of soil, sowing, weeding, and harvesting of wild plant species without necessarily causing irreversible genetic and morphological modifications.

Domestication of Plants

A multi-generational human selection process causing morphological and genetic changes in plant species (such as non-shattering rachises in wheat and barley), making them reliant on humans for propagation.

Domesticated Animals

Animals selectively bred and managed by humans, resulting in altered genetics, morphology, and docility; dogs were the earliest domesticates at least $15,000\text{ BP}$ (possibly $30,000\text{ BP}$).

Consequences of Agriculture

The complex outcomes of food production, which included permanent settlements and surplus, alongside costs such as nutritional deficiencies, dental decay, infectious disease, strenuous labor, and social inequality.

Early Farming Dispersal Hypothesis

The model proposing that early agricultural lifestyles and domesticates expanded outward from primary centers of origin via migrating populations who brought their crops, genes, and languages with them.

Surplus

The production of agricultural yields in excess of immediate subsistence needs, providing stored food that could be concentrated, taxed, and controlled by emerging elites.

Inequality

Systemic disparities in social status, wealth, authority, and resource access among members of a society, heavily intensified by property ownership and the monopolization of surplus.

Social Organization

The patterned institutional frameworks and cultural rules through which societies structure authority, labor, and social interaction across bands, segmentary societies, chiefdoms, and states.

Hunter-Gatherers

Small-scale, highly mobile or semi-mobile foraging societies with low population densities, non-centralized leadership, and egalitarian social dynamics based on wild resources.

Segmentary Societies

Settled tribal farming or pastoral societies of up to a few thousand individuals living in permanent villages, integrated through lineage segments, religious elders, shrines, and burial mounds without centralized coercive rule.

Chiefdoms

Ranked societies of approximately $5,000\text{--}20,000$ individuals governed by hereditary leaders, characterized by prestige ranking, religious authority, and the centralized accumulation and redistribution of surplus.

Early States

Large, stratified political societies of $20,000$ or more individuals characterized by centralized bureaucracies, formal legal codes, urban centers, taxation/tribute, and marked class divisions.

Megalithic

Refers to monumental architecture constructed from massive stone slabs or boulders without mortar, constructed by segmentary societies or chiefdoms for ritual, burial, and cosmological functions.

Stonehenge

A world-famous Neolithic and Bronze Age megalithic monument in southern England dating to approximately $4,800\text{ BP}$, exemplifying advanced astronomical alignment and organized cooperative labor.

Cultural Diffusion and Exchange

The spread and mutual transmission of material artifacts, religious concepts, knowledge, and cultural technologies across geographic distances between distinct human societies.

Archaeology of the Senses

An archaeological subfield studying how past humans experienced their cultural and architectural surroundings through sensory perceptions including sight, sound, smell, touch, and taste.

Early Writing and Record Keeping

Graphic recording systems (such as cuneiform, cylinder seals, and hieroglyphics) developed to monitor agricultural surplus, redistribute commodities, record laws, and enforce administrative taxation.

Symbols and Symbolism

The cognitive and cultural capacity of humans to use material objects, art, and imagery to represent abstract meanings, communicate ideas, and reinforce shared communal ideologies.

Venus Figurines

Small, portable Upper Paleolithic statuettes carving female bodies with accentuated breasts, hips, and torsos, representing early symbolic representations of fertility, femininity, or self-depiction.

Bonampak

A Classic Maya archaeological site renowned for its exceptionally preserved, vivid mural frescoes illustrating royal court ceremonies, musical processions, warfare, and ritual bloodletting.