ANT304 Exam 1

Antiquarianism

• The collection and study of historical objects, artifacts, and ancient texts

• Mostly wealthy landowners, travelers

• Dates back to 19th century Europe

Cultural Evolutionism

• A belief in uniform, progressive cultural evolution

• Identified by technology:

  • Savagery

  • Barbarism

  • Civilization

• 19th century Europe origins

Historical Particularism

• Cultural practices and characteristics are the result of particular, historical circumstances

• Not determined by race or environment

• Boaz

C. J. Thomsen

• Danish antiquarian, head of national museum

• Developed chronological sequence of artifacts: Stone Age, Bronze Age, Iron Age

• Focused on the “find circumstances” and didn’t assume age based on materials

Thomas Jefferson

• “Mound Builders”

• First to conduct excavation in controlled way

• Dug on family land, which had been Monacan land

• Kept careful records and went a little at a time

Franz Boas

• German anthropologist/physicist/geographer

• “Father of American Anthropology”

• Proponent of fieldwork (Lives years with the people he studies)

• Credited for cultural relativism & historical particularism

Culture-history

• Goal: identify prehistoric cultures and describe them

• What happened? Where? When?

• Rejection of cultural evolutionism

• Believed that people are resistant to change

• Each archaeological “culture” is equivalent to a modern “ethnicity”

• Change is external – the result of diffusion and migration (rarely invention)

Processualism

• Goal: explain cultural processes

• Why did societies change? How?

• Culture is an adaptive system

• Culture change is the result of environmental pressure, technological innovation, population dynamics…

• Changes are scientifically predictable if we can understand the relationship between variables

Post-processualism

• Goal: understand the meaning, symbols, power relations, and lived experiences embedded in material culture

• How did people experience and shape change?

• Culture change is historically contingent, shaped by human agency, influenced by ideology, identity, power, gender

• Interested in context-specific relationships

Context

• The complete surroundings of an artifact or feature

• Different types

  • Chronological

  • Historical

  • Cultural

  • Social

  • Geographic

Provenience

• Exact location

• Horizontal & Vertical

Matrix

• The surrounding dirt (sediment)

Artifact

• ’Portable’ objects made or modified by people

Feature

• Non-portable remains of human activity

Organic materials

• Material from living things

• textiles, plant materials, animal materials

Inorganic materials

• Material from nonliving things

• Stone, baked clay, some metals

Good preservation environments

• Totally wet sites

• Totally dry

• Very cold

Bad preservation environments

• Extreme soil chemistry

• Movement

• Change

Swartkrans Cave Complex

• Site in South Africa

• Deep caves in which rocks, dirt, & animal bones accumulated

• Remains of Australopithecus/Hominina

• Stone tools, evidence of regular burning

Olduvai Gorge

• Site in Tanzania

• Lakebed regularly covered by lava flows and ash from nearby volcano

• Remains of several human ancestors & Homo sapiens

• Stone and bone tools

• Evidence of hunting, scavenging, gathering

Natural formation processes

• Erosion: materials leaving site

• Deposition: materials being deposited into site

• Bioturbation: materials being turned up by animals

Cultural formation processes

• Artifacts going into the ground

• Features being created

• Sites being occupied

Primary context

• Where something was first deposited

Secondary context

• Where did it end up after primary context?

Reconnaissance

• First step in any survey

• Have knowledge on site

• Talk to local informants

• Literature review

• Check out environment

Field/ground survey

• Creek bank survey

• Shovel testing

  • Digging hole into ground to see what’s there

  • Done when there’s deposition

• Pedestrian (walking) survey

  • Done if you think artifacts will be on survey

Aerial/remote survey

• Often what archaeologists start with

• Lidar

  • Scanning ground with lasers

  • High resolution, super detailed

• Aerial photography

  • Planes

  • For big, open area

• Satellite imagery

  • Contemporary update to aerial photgraphy

Systematic v. unsystematic sampling

• Systematic: Follows strategy designed to result in representative data

• Unsystematic: Focuses on accessible areas they think are most likely to have sites/based on judgement

Extensive v. intensive

• Extensive: Covers big area

• Intensive: Doing most you can in small area

Probabilistic v. non-probabilistic surveys

• Probabilistic: incorporates chance/randomness

• Non-probabilistic: judgmental/based on previous knowledge

Paleolithic

• Stone age

• 3.3 million years ago to about 11,700 years ago

• Characterized by use of stone tools

• Humans living in small groups

• Hunting, fishing, gathering (Hunter-gatherers)

• Lower, Middle, Upper Paleolithic

Jebel Irhoud

• Inhabited beginning about 315,000 years ago

• Earliest Homo sapiens identified so far

• Site in Morocco

• Challenges earlier assumptions about human origins in East Africa

• “Mousterian” tech

Bizmoune Cave

• Inhabited as early as 150,000 year ago

• Occupied exclusively by Homo sapiens

• Aterian technology

• World’s oldest known personal adornment items (jewelry: shell beads)

Law of superposition

• In any undisturbed sequence, oldest layers are at the bottom and youngest layers are at the top

Grid system

• Part of recording the process

Datum

• Origin point for grid

  • Everything measured from this point

• Arbitrary but should be something permanent

Types of excavation records

• Field forms

  • Primary record of excavation details

• Maps

  • Detailed record of relationships in horizontal plane

• Profiles

  • Detailed record of relationships in vertical plane

• Photography

  • Visual record of excavation details

Map v. profile

• Maps: detailed records of horizontal plane

• Profile: detailed records of vertical plane

Screening

• Filtering objects through dirt

Relative dating

• Dating by comparison and establishment of a sequence

Absolute dating

• Also called chronometric dating

• Determining a specific numerical age in calendar years for artifacts/features/sites

• Uses Gregorian (solar) calendar

Stratigraphy

• Study of stratification

• The deposition (laying down) of strata (layers/deposits)

Stratigraphic sequence

• Relative chronological sequence of the strata/layers/deposits

• Usually described by soil type, color, inclusions

Typology

• Classification system

• Based on shape, decoration, etc.

• Used to create timeline

Radiocarbon dating

• Used to determine the age of organic materials (wood, bone, shell, plant)

• Up to about 60,000 years old

• Carbon-14 decays

• Carbon-12 doesn’t decay. Used for comparison

Correlation

• Aligning and comparing sequences and chronometrically dated artifacts, features, and layers (strata)

Homo sapiens

• Complex language, abstract reasoning, music, spirituality, warfare, group identity, etc.

• c. 300,000 years ago

• Only remaining ones on our “family” tree

Hominini/hominins

• Moving upright on two legs

• Broad flat face

• c. 7 million years ago

Trends in hominin evolution

• Bigger brains

• Flatter faces

• Smaller jaws

• Increased reliance on tools

Out-of-Africa

• Followed a southern route beginning about 70,000 years ago