Lecture 3 - Archeology

Bog Body

A body still with soft tissue and organs that were preserved

Tollund Man

A bog body preserved by a peat bog, known:

- been hung

- his last meal had barely

- his eyes were closed with care

T/F Change is Linear

False, as our supposed innovation are, in reality, problems

- evolution and culture do not always improve with time

Relative Dating

Making comparisons in age; saying something is older than this and younger than this in a temporal sequence

Problems with relative dating

no information on how long something ago something began, lasted, or ended

Absolute Dating

Required analysis [often in lab] of an artifact or material to assign an age in years

Margin of Error

A range you propose in absolute dating, usually (+) or (-) quantitively

Stratigraphic Superimposition

- Relative Dating Method

- Going off the Law of Superimposition to compare the ages of different artifacts and strata

Why Archeology should be precise, not chaotic

Digging up things chaotically may disorganize strata and cause the Law of Superimposition to not apply

Seriation

- Relative Dating Method

- Making comparison in the style of different artifacts to determine their age relative to others

Battle Ship Curve Formation

- Something is Made (low frequency)

- Something becomes trendy (high frequency)

- Something new takes the place, loss of trend (low frequency)

- Abnormal: Rebirth/Resurgence of the lost trend! (Ex: carigans..?)

Dendrochronology

- Absolute Dating Technique

- Using know wood rings that form on logs to determine the conditions and age of something: use of the Regional Master Chronology

Nature's Fingerprint

Wood Rings; they are all unique and known for given temperatures, times, humidity, etc.

Radioactive Isotopes

- Absolute Dating Technique

- Use of the knowledge of half-lives, in collaboration with physicists, to determine the age based on given []

Material to which Radiocarbon Dating applies

ONY ORGANIC MATERIAL, no rocks >v<

How C14 Forms

Cosmic Rays hitting N14

How C4 ends up in humans

• Plants take in the C14 from the atmosphere

• Humans eat Plants

Trend of C14 Concentration until we Die

- Accumulates, but typically steady, until we die and C14 starts to reconvert to N14

Half-life of C14

5730 Years

Units of measure the [] of C14

Beta-Radiation

In what organic material we find C14

- Faunal Remains (including humans)

- Egg Shells

- Mollusk Shells