Exam #4 Flash Cards

First Settlement

Norse in Greenland

Polynesian Contact?

Potential contact on the S. American coast, hard to demonstrate evidence for

Norse Settlements

• Brathild

• People occupy the same spaces over & over

• Remnant Viking Structures

• Permafrost Loss

  • Salvage archaeology

McGovern’s beliefs on populations

4000-5000 in Eastern Settlement

1000-15000 in Western Settlement

Loss of Contact

• Western Settlement - Gone by 1360

• Eastern Settlement - Gone by 1500

  • Last written records - 1408

Seals in Norse Greenland

• From the beginning, Norse farmers heavily exploited seals

• Local common seals regularly make up 30-70% of the bone collections from Norse Greenland

Western Vs Eastern Norse Settlements

• Data suggests something happened to Norse hunters’ access to common seals in the latter half of the thirteenth century in parts of E. Settlement but not W. Settlement

• Most likely hypothesis - influence of climate change and transition to conditions of increased summer drift ice

Unique Contributions of Historical Archaeology

• Adds to our understanding of an experience in a unique way; through the countless objects left behind

• Arbitrary designations vs. non-arbitrary designations

Focuses from Historical Archaelogy

• Can focus on commonplace activities

• Can be used in concert with historical records

  • Not to say oral traditions don’t play a part

• Can speak to global influence & interactions

• Provides information from not available sources

Distinctions from prehistoric archaeology

• Availability of
  Perishable artifacts (buildings)

  • Museum collections

  • Photographs

  • Historic records

    • Ex. Census

  • Dating methods

  • “Informants” - This is a version they are telling you

Historic Archaeology Further Definitions

• Provides a voice to otherwise muted & disenfranchised people

• Oral traditions provide surprising detail but perfect accord does not always exist

• Access to the “mundane quotient of life”

Sand Creek Massacre National Historic Site (SAND) - legal

• Created to preserve, protect, interpret & memorialize the site

• NPS must protect “the cultural landscape of the site in a manner that preserves, as closely as practical

SAND Importance of trees and spiritual

• Cottonwood forests were (and remain) a critical element of the cultural landscape (shelter, firewood habitat)

• Different stories from different groups

• Individual trees along have cultural & spiritual significance because of the massacre

“Official Story” of Sand Creek Massacre

• Colorado Calvary attacked Cheyenne & Arapaho: 150-200 killed, Nov. 29th, 1864

Witness Trees

Using dendrochronology (ring width) to find whether trees where there during the massacre, through cross-dating with absolute dates
Flooding is the main influence of cottonwood establishment (It happened in the cottonwoods)

Witness Tree Data from SAND

• 39 trees cored

  • 8 trees split to innermost ring, 2 oldest date to 1866

  • 1864 is within uncertainty of estimated germination year

  • 24 other have characteristic that suggest similar age

• Witness trees are present at the site

National Historic Preservation Act. 58

1966
Federal Agencies (like BLM, NPS, TVA,etc.) must comply responsibility

Needs for undertaking in NHPA

License
federal funds
Property

What is NHPA

• How Federal Agencies manage cultural resources

  • Dependent on sites National Register eligibility

    • If Archaeologists agree

Section 106

Only for “historic properties” eligible for National Register

Criterion A

Archaeological site with significant event

Criterion B

Identifiable with specific important individuals

Criterion C

Historic (or more recent) resources

Design & Construction of Criterion C

• Distinctive characteristics of a period

• Work of a master

• High artistic value

• Significant & distinguishable entity whose components lack individual distinction - applies to districts

  • Gets murky with capitalism

• Show adaptation over time or reflect cultural or technological changes

  • Ship of Theseus

Aerial Archaeology

Use of technologies such as ArcGIS, and data & imagery to explain data
Need to be able to show people the work that is being done

Seriation

• styles are introduced, become common, & decline

Bottle Typology

The Change in Bottles over time
Sequence is

Hole-and-cap

• Hole-in-cap 

• Vent hole

• Sanitary

Message of Historical Archaeology

• Material objects & historical records complement one another
  Purpose - Celebrating shared cultural heritage

Basic Precepts of Historical Archaeology

• Biocultural organisms

• Lot of material culture

• Value in trying to preserve & interpret it

Archaeology as science

• Behavior is patterned, & we can study that

STEAM in Archaeology

• S-Science - Archaeology

• T - new technologies like Digital Elevation Models

• E - Stuff happening with engineers in Thunder Bay

  • Geoarchaeology

• A - Art & Imagery for the public

  • Details like tailored clothing, various hairstyles

• M - Archie system of barcodes to document data

Role of Outreach

All archaeology is local & involved in community

Social evolution

• Archaeology & Anthropology continued to develop theories of how cultures & societies develop

• Social theory is complex with many right answers

Biases in Social Evolution

• Old biases are still present but it’s come a long way

• New biases - most is based in modern western societies

  • Lack of indigenous perspectives

Cultural Heritage Preservation

• We all have shared heritage

  • Working to understand it today & preserving it for tomorrow

Tanner’s Presentation

Data sovereignty in apps and using Native methodologies