anth 1500 week 1

Archaeology

The systematic, scientific study of the human past based on the investigation of material culture in its context

Culture

A society’s shared and socially transmitted ideas, values, and perceptions

5 W’s

Where, When, Who, What, & Why?

Finding sites

Survey methods (pedestrian, test pitting), geophysical survey (sonar, resistivity) and aerial reconnaissance, remote sensing

Excavation

Team based, led by a director, Specialists work with excavators

Archaeobotanist

Studies plant remains

Archaeozoologist

Studies animal remains

Bioarchaeologist

Study ancient biomolecules

Geoarchaeologist

Studies ancient sediments

Vertical emphases

address questions regarding change through time

Horizontal emphases

address questions regarding spatial differentiation across a site

Stratigraphy

layers of cultural and natural materials accumulate one on top of another (law of superposition). Reveals sequence of deposition

Context

The in situ location and associations (3D) of finds

Artifacts

Portable objects made or altered by humans

Ecofacts

Natural plant, animal, or sediment remains resulting from human activity

Features

Non-portable structures (houses, walls, fireplaces)

Landscape Arch

Site and settlement patterns, spatial distribution of rooms, sites, group of sites

James Ussher

1650, determined that the Earth was created on the nightfall before Sunday Oct 23 40004 BECAUSE

1600-1700s

Realization of vast scales of space allowed acceptance of vast scales of time

James Hutton

“Theory of the Earth,” formation of sedimentary rock suggested great antiquity of Earth

Uniformitarianism

James Hutton, The laws of nature are constant and do not change with time, the rate of sedimentation in oceans is very slow, due to the thickness of deposition, the world is old

Charles Lyell

Principles of Geology, documented antiquity of the Earth with work on eriosion

Superposition

Belief that the bottom layer of sediment is the oldest

Charles Darwin

Origin of Species, natural selection, Discussed gradual evolutionary change in plant and animals (not humans)

Jacques Boucher de Perthes

recovered extinct animals in the Somme River Valley, first association of stone tools w early humans

John Lubbock

Coined the terms Paleolithic and Neolithic in “Prehistoric Times,” applied Darwinism concepts to the archaeological record, saw moral and technological progress as inevitable and unlinear

Three Age System (Stone, Bronze, Iron)

Developed by Christian Jurgensen Thomsen

Christian Jurgensen Thomsen

Curator of the National Museum of Denmark, arbitrary technological labels

19th Century view of Social Evolution

Progress is inevitable

Foragers/Hunter-gatherers

Savages, starving, ignorant, superstitious, & violent

Basic Farming

Barbarians, less starving, ignorant, superstitious, & violent

Complex societies

Civilized, orderly, moral, wealthy, sophisticated, reasonable

Processual Archaeology

Objective, Evolutionary and scientific perspective, seeks universal laws of social change, sees societies as systems with environment and technology as most significant variables

Post-Processual Archaeology

subjective, part of general trends towards postmodernism, often more particular and less universal in scope, explicit recognition of political context of archaeology, focus on role of individuals, not systems in the past

Dating Methods

Establish a sequence of change, pace of change, and allow correlation with other phenomena

Absolute Dating

Provide a date such as (3500 B.C), can be expensive, historical texts

Relative Dating

Provides a sequence but not the pace of change (ex older younger), used in conjunction with absolute techniques