Intro Archaeology Midterm Review

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards covering key definitions, methodologies, dating techniques, and paradigms for the Introduction to Archaeology midterm exam.

Archaeological Site

Any place where material evidence exists about the human past, or a spatial cluster of artifacts, ecofacts, and features; defined by geographic location, function, cultural affiliation, and chronological affiliation.

Artifact

A portable object made, used, or modified by humans (e.g., stone tools, ceramics, bone tools, weapons, textiles).

Ecofact

A portable object with cultural significance that does NOT owe its form to humans (e.g., plant remains, animal bones, pollen, seeds).

Feature

A non-portable human-made remain that cannot be moved without destroying its original form (e.g., post holes, hearths, kilns, pits, buildings).

Matrix

The physical sediment or soil surrounding artifacts, ecofacts, and features.

Context

The most vital concept in archaeology, defined as Provenience + Matrix + Association; provides spatial relationships between elements to interpret past human behavior.

Primary Context

Artifacts remain in the exact place and position as originally deposited.

Secondary Context

Artifacts have been moved from their original position after deposition by natural or human forces.

Provenience

The 3D location of an artifact or feature ($X/Y$ horizontal coordinates and $Z$ depth/elevation).

Taphonomy

The study of post-depositional processes and how decay and decomposition act upon an artifact or site over time.

C-Transforms

(Cultural) Human-induced modifications or behaviors that affect site formation, including acquisition, manufacture, use, discard, burial, looting, and destruction.

N-Transforms

(Natural) Natural physical processes affecting archaeological remains, such as floods, erosion, volcanic ash, freeze-thaw cycles, and bioturbation.

Sediment

Physical particles produced by weathering that are transported and accumulated via wind (eolian), water (alluvial), gravity (colluvial), or humans (midden).

Soil

Sediments undergoing in situ chemical or mechanical weathering, organized into O, A, B, C, and R horizons.

Random Sampling

A survey sampling strategy where every unit in a grid has an equal chance of selection.

Stratified Random Sampling

A survey sampling strategy in which a region is divided into environmental zones (e.g., hills vs. river valleys) before sampling units randomly.

Active Sensing

A remote sensing method where a machine emits a signal/energy and measures its reflection or return (e.g., LiDAR, Ground Penetrating Radar, Soil Conductivity).

Passive Sensing

A remote sensing method where a sensor measures naturally occurring physical phenomena or light (e.g., Magnetometry, Satellite Imagery, Aerial Photography).

Datum

A permanent fixed spatial reference point linked to elevation or USGS benchmarks, used to anchor the excavation grid system.

Temper

Non-plastic inclusions (sand, crushed shell, limestone, grog, crushed bone) added to clay to prevent cracking, shrinking, and thermal shock during firing.

Flotation

The primary macro-botanical recovery method using water to separate the light organic fraction from the heavy sediment.

Pollen (Palynology)

Micro-botanical remains consisting of male plant gametes; best suited for reconstructing regional climate and environment.

Phytoliths

Microscopic opaline silica bodies formed inside plant cells that are highly durable.

Starch Grains

Microscopic carbohydrate residues found preserved on tool edges and teeth.

Domestication Syndrome

A cluster of plant characteristics resulting from human cultivation: non-shattering rachis, simultaneous maturation, larger seed size, thinner seed coat, and loss of natural seed dispersal.

NISP

Number of Identified Specimens; the raw total count of all identified bone fragments in a faunal sample.

MNI

Minimum Number of Individuals; the lowest number of individual animals needed to account for all identified bones.

Butchery Cut Marks

Modifications on bone produced by stone tool butchery that display crisp, V-shaped cross-sections.

Carnivore / Rodent Gnawing

Bone modifications produced by animal teeth that leave smooth, rounded, U-shaped channels.

Wolff's Law

The biological principle stating that bone remodels dynamically in response to physical stress and workload.

NAGPRA (1990)

Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act; requires federal agencies and museums to consult and repatriate ancestral remains and sacred objects.

Dendrochronology

An absolute dating method based on annual tree-ring patterns and highly precise master chronologies.

Radiocarbon Dating ($^{14}\text{C}$)

An absolute dating method based on the decay of $^{14}\text{C}$ to $^{14}\text{N}$ in organic matter; half-life: $5{,}730\text{ yrs}$; dating limit: approximately $50\text{ kya}$; requires calibration.

Potassium-Argon Dating

An absolute dating method based on $^{40}\text{K} \rightarrow {}^{40}\text{Ar}$ decay in volcanic rock; half-life: $1.25\text{ billion yrs}$.

Optically Stimulated Luminescence (OSL)

An absolute dating method that measures trapped radiation energy to determine the time elapsed since sediment was buried and last exposed to sunlight.

Thermoluminescence (TL)

An absolute dating technique measuring trapped radiation energy to calculate the time elapsed since ceramic material was fired.

Culture History

An early 20th-century archaeological paradigm focusing on ordering artifacts into spatial and temporal grids to answer questions of what, when, and where.

Processual Archaeology (New Archaeology)

A 1960s paradigm associated with Lewis Binford that uses a scientific, objective, and ecosystem-based model to discover universal laws of human behavior.

Post-Processual Archaeology

A 1980s paradigm associated with Ian Hodder focusing on human agency, subjective interpretation, symbolism, and power.

Ethnoarchaeology

The study of living with modern societies to investigate how active human behaviors create physical material records.

Thomas Jefferson

Details on his 1784 Monticello trench excavation, his usage of stratigraphy to test the "Moundbuilder" hypothesis, and why he is credited as the first scientific archaeologist.

Christian Jürgensen Thomsen

Deep-dive into the Three-Age System (Stone, Bronze, Iron Ages), closed contexts, and how relative dating was systematized at the National Museum of Denmark.

General Augustus Pitt-Rivers

Explanation of total recording methods, cross-sectional mapping, Cranborne Chase excavations, and his philosophy that everyday material culture is more valuable than treasure.

Sir William Flinders Petrie

Step-by-step breakdown of Frequency & Stylistic Seriation, sequence dating of Naqada graves in Egypt, and meticulous pottery collection.

Howard Carter

Technical details on the 1922 excavation of KV62 (Tutankhamun), Grid system mapping, object-by-object preservation, and public engagement.

Mary and Louis Leakey

Excavations at Olduvai Gorge & Laetoli, discovery of Zinj (Paranthropus boisei), Homo habilis, Oldowan stone tool industry, and the 3.6 million-year-old fossilized hominin footprints.

Kathleen Kenyon

Mechanics of the Wheeler-Kenyon Method (square-grid excavation with vertical soil balks), and her groundbreaking work at Jericho and Jerusalem.

Willard Libby

Scientific breakdown of Radiocarbon ($^{14}\text{C}$) dating, the 5,730-year half-life, half-life decay equations, atmospheric carbon fluctuation, and the creation of absolute chronology

Lewis Binford

"New Archaeology" paradigm, scientific method application, hypothesis testing, systems theory, and ethnoarchaeology among the Nunamiut Eskimo

Ian Hodder

Post-Processual critique, human agency, symbolism, reflexivity, and active excavation insights from his decades of work at Çatalhöyük, Turkey.