Chapter 3

Reconstructing the Past: Analysis and Interpretation

Conservation

The process of treating artifacts, ecofacts, and sometimes features to stop decay

• Potentially reverse the deterioration process

Examples of Conservation

• simple: cleaning and drying the item

• complex: chemical treatments, controlled conditions (ex: Ice Man)

Process Of Reconstructing Pottery

• Sort by types (colour, shape, decoration)

• Compare similar potsherds to see if they come from the same one

• Assemblement

First step of Analyzing found artifacts (from archeologists)

The form: How it is shaped

Typology

A way of organizing artifacts in categories based on characteristics

• said to be FORMAL ANALYSIS, puts into context

Information Typology Provides on Artifacts

• age

• cultural affiliation

• how it is made/used/exchanged

Second step of Analyzing found artifacts (from archeologists)

Measuring the dimensions of an artifact:

• Maximum length

• Maximum Width

• Neck Width

• Base Width

Third step of Analyzing found artifacts (from archeologists) + How

Understanding how the artifact is made

• Learning how we made things now + assuming the past did the same

Information gotten from Understanding how an Artifact was made

• technology/technical ability

• economy (not locally available, shows trade)

• exchange system

• beliefs (religious)

of people of that time who made the artifact

Fourth step of Analyzing found artifacts (from archeologists)

Understanding the Artifacts Function

Use-Wear Analysis

Relevant to finding the function of an artifact

• Examining wear on the edges of an artifact

• Ex: seeing the residue (wear down) of a clay pot to see what it held

Osteology

The study of form and function of the human skeleton

• biological remains of past populations

• branch of biological anthropology

First step of Osteology

Identifying the skeletal remains as being human

• Can be hard to estimate sex and age!

• Early hominins especially who were really different

Skeletal Age-Indicator Techniques

Techniques to estimate the age-at-death of an individual from skeletal remains

• micro or macroscopic

Macroscopic Skeletal Age-Indicator Techniques

Examining…

• Public Symphysis (joints)

• Auricular Surface on Hip Bone

• End of Fourth Rib

• Closure of Suture b/w bones and skull

Remodelling

Process of seeing how Microscopic Fractures may occur normally from “everyday wear and tear”

Best means of Analyzing the Skeletal Remains of Children

Development of Dental and Skeletal Tissue (growing bones and teeth)

T/F It is easier to estimate the age of a child than an adult (off bones)

TRUE

Factor that stopped women from fishing so much shellfish

They were moved to agricultural labour, particularly for Chenopodium + its Food production

Most reliable means of Sex Determination

Analysis of the Pelvis or hipbone to determine sex, particularly

• metric measurements

• morphological (shape/size) techniques

Sexually Dismorphic

A species in which males differ markedly from females in size and appearance

• not enough studies use this

Method with most sufficient accuracy in sex determination in oesteology

DNA extracted from bones/teeth for sex determination

aDNA

Ancient DNA, just DNA extracted from archelogically recovered materials

Problems with aDNA analysis

• DNA deteriorates over time

• DNA can be damaged/degraded to a point where it provides no useful information

PCR Benefits

Allows for the amplification of DNA sequences from trace amounts of the o.g. genetic material

Potential Problem with PCR

It only uses a small amount of sample

• Thus if it is contaminated, it is basically FUCKED more if it was bigger (proportionally less affected)

3 Doors opened up in Anthropological Research thanks to DNA and PCR

1. Determination of Sex

2. Population affinity, determining biological lineages (mito DNA)

3. Identifying what DNA gets what disease

Paleopathology

The study of health and disease in the past from skeletal evidence

• why disease in prevalent among certain populations in context

Major determinant in disease prevelance

Culture

• Not biology typically!

• The way we spread apart and act determines how disease is spread among a population

Differential Diagnosis

assessment of potential disease that are consistent with the observable traits/criteria

Limitation of Paleopathological Analysis

Only diseases that affect hard tissues can be studied, and only a fraction of THOSE will affect bones (what we study)

Factors that create lesions of skeletal remains

• Differential preservation

• Bias/incomplete excavation

• age and sex of skeleton

Archeologists ask: WHAT DO THEY MEAN??

Primary Paleopathologist Assumption about Bones and Disease

The more evidence a disease affects an archeological record, the more risk of illness/death from that disease the people had of that time

Jim Wood Proposition

Not all individual may have the same chance of being exposed to a particular disease on a biological level

• NOT ALL CULTURE!!

Selective Mortality + Conclusion of it

Notion that skeletal samples are all from DEAD people, not the ALIVE people, hence remains fail to show the prevalence of disease and just the prevalence of dead people

How Paleopathology is Improving

More epidemiology!

• ex: determining sensitivity and specificity of skeletal lesions

Palaedemography

Study of Demographic Structures in the past

• age/sex structure of a population'

• population growth

• morality patterns

Why paleodemography relies on archeology

• Skeletal samples + Morality Statistics provide information about past populations

• Settlement Size and Distribution can estimate population growth

Ethnographic Analogy

Comparing cultures of the past to recent/current society to model prehistoric populations

Why skeletal remains give only fertility rate data and not mortality rate data

• if fertility rate is large, the morality rate is not necessarily fast [ate-birth deaths skew data is small populations]

• The amount of skeletons is what determines the fertility rate

Stationary Populations

Populations with no immigration of emigration: # deaths = # births

Why Immigration Skews paleodemography

Not representing the current population can make unequal birth/death rates

• Also, new genes (gene flow) can change susceptibility to disease

Zooarchaeology + Information gotten from It

The analysis of animal remains in an archeological record, giving information about:

• Domestication

• Hunting practices/strategies

Sedentism

Living in one place for a prolonged period

Reason for Increased Salmon Fishing in BC

• Development of wood storage

• Social feasting becoming more common

Why certain populations lived more in the Artic instead of moving based on the season

Whale Hunting associated with warmer climatic conditions was GOOD SUBSISTENCE! (FOOD!)

Exploratory Archeology

• Answering historical questions about diet/subsistence

• Reproducing technological traits and patterns in the archeological record

UofM Example of Exploratory Archeology

Haskel Greenfield of UofM recreated stone tools and used them to make similar dents

• This shows the technological state/evolution of the time

• Ex: testing tool with meat, shows the same tear, BOOM proof it cut meat

Molecular Anthropology

Tracking material left on prehistoric tools by genetic evidence

• Ex: blood residues

• Ex: Protein residues (in clay pots, for diet)

Paleoethnobotany / Archaeobotany

The study of plant remains and their relationship with prehistoric peoples

• seeds, hearths (cooking), pots

Phytoliths + The info they provide

Microscopic particles of silica from plants, which can be collected from archeological remains (teeth, feces)

• Tells of diet / consumation

Gas Chromatopgraphy

Examination for proportions of different substances within a sample

• ex: Finding lipid residue in pots/artifacts/cooking rocks

Evidence of Beer in Ancient Egypt

From Scanning Electron Microscopes:

• Yeast colonies and lactic acid bacteria (fermentation) in interior of pots

• Calcium Oxalate (makes Beer)

Coprolites + Evidence they provide

Fossilized Feces…

• Evidence of diet

• Most commonly in caves

• Analysis through DNA!

Stable Isotope Analysis

Analyzing isotopes of the same elements with different atomic masses

• Their frequency of C4 plants eaten (C13 used) and C3 plants eaten (C12 used) can be inferred

• Ex: Shows the time when Maize agriculture grew

How to Analyze Coastal vs Terrestrial Food importance

Stable Isotope Analysis!

• Marine: C13

• Terrestrial: Not C13 ;-;

How to analyze the frequency of Breast Feeding in past Populations

Stable Isotope Analysis!

• More N15 isotope, more breast milk consummed

Trace Element Analysis

Measuring Ca, Sr, and Ba in bones

• The more meat you eat, the less strontium in your bones (carnivores have the least, herbivores have the most)

Problems with Trace Element Analysis

• Diagenesis: trace elements that come in from burial

• Infants absorb trace elements more than adults

Means of Reconstructing a Past Environment

• Analysis of Soil/Sediments/Remains of Former Life Forms

• Former life forms: Invertebrates, vertebrates >v<

Difference with Environmental Archeology and Paleoecology

Paleoecology: ecological phenomena (tree growth, freq in one location)

Env. Archeology: Use of ecological and climate conditions of the past to infer how past humans lived

Biotic Evidence

Evidence used by Env. Archeologists; the remains of biological organisms of the past

Abiotic Evidence

Evidence used by Env. Archeologists; Remains of chemical components or sediment

Palynology

The study of pollen rom different periods (archeological time periods)

• indicate vegetable conditions, b/c certain vegetables live in specific conditions

Oxygen Isotope Measures

Analyzing the climate on a global scale:

• 16O evaporates and locks up in cold, so 18O is high

• Less snowfall, less 18O concentration

Settlement Archeology + 2 Key Studies

Study of settlement patterns within an archeological record:

• distribution of sites across landscape

• rs with structures and community

How Settlement Archeology Analyzes

• size, organization, and locations of buildings infer social/political structure

• also tells of family organization, economy, and SES differences