archeology notes 2

**Stratigraphy

Soil and sediment accumulate in layers over time; Law of Superposition: in undisturbed deposits, older layers lie below younger layers; Important for establishing relative chronology, understanding site formation, and linking artifacts to occupation phases; Issues: disturbance by roots, rodents, erosion, human digging.

**Archaeological Survey

Goals: locate sites, determine size/boundaries, understand settlement patterns, mobility, and trade; Methods: pedestrian transects, aerial imagery, LIDAR, satellite data, surface artifact collection, test pits.

**Artifact Variability: Typology & Technology

Typology: classifying artifacts by shape, style, and attributes to identify culture, period, and activity areas; Technology: study of raw material selection, reduction sequence (chaîne opératoire), percussion techniques, flake patterns, and retouch; Middle Paleolithic focused on prepared-core technologies like Levallois, Discoidal, and Quina.

**Radiocarbon Dating (C-14)

Based on decay of Carbon-14 to Nitrogen-14; half-life ~5,730 years; works on bone, charcoal, shell, plant remains; range up to ~50,000 years; requires calibration for atmospheric fluctuations.

**V. Gordon Childe

Key figure; introduced Neolithic Revolution (farming) and Urban Revolution (cities); emphasized diffusion of ideas and economic drivers of social change.

**Processual Archaeology (New Archaeology)

Led by Lewis Binford; scientific, hypothesis-driven; views cultures as systems responding to environment and economy; uses statistics, ecology, and middle-range theory; critiques descriptive culture-history approaches.

**Postprocessual Archaeology

Led by Ian Hodder; emphasizes human agency, symbolism, identity, gender, and ideology; interpretive approach, qualitative rather than strictly scientific.

**Cultural Resource Management (CRM)

Legal protection of archaeological sites during development; includes surveys, excavation, and documentation before destruction; common in Canada, US, UK.

**Hadar (Ethiopia)

Location: Ethiopia; Age: ~3.4 mya; Dating: stratigraphy + volcanic tuffs; Significance: earliest evidence of cut marks on bones; tool use by Australopithecus afarensis; suggests early hominins processed food before Oldowan.

**Lokalalei (Kenya)

Location: West Turkana, Kenya; Age: ~2.34 mya; Dating: volcanic ash (Ar/Ar); Significance: high-quality flake production; skilled knapping and planning; early Homo cognitive abilities.

**Oldowan

Age: 2.6–1.7 mya; Hominins: Homo habilis and early Homo erectus; Tools: simple flakes, cores, choppers, hammerstones; Significance: earliest widespread stone technology, allowed access to high-calorie foods.

**Acheulean

Age: 1.7 mya–200 kya; Associated with Homo erectus; Tools: symmetrical handaxes, cleavers, bifaces; Significance: planning depth, motor control, long-term technological stability, long-distance raw material transport.

**Glynn Isaac’s Home Base / Food Sharing Model

Early hominins brought meat/resources to central areas; shows cooperation, possible division of labor, social bonds; precursor to human family structure.

**Homo erectus

Age: 1.9 mya–150 kya; First hominin to migrate out of Africa (Georgia, Southeast Asia, China, Europe); Key Features: brain ~900 cc, modern body proportions, narrow hips, long legs, reduced teeth/face, less sexual dimorphism; Likely used fire.

**East African Rift Valley

Location: Ethiopia → Kenya → Tanzania; Age: 4–1 mya (multiple sites); Dating: stratigraphy, volcanic tuffs, radiometric; Significance: major fossil and tool preservation region; critical for understanding evolution, dispersal, and ecological adaptations.

**DK1 (Olduvai Gorge)

Location: Tanzania; Age: ~1.8 mya; Dating: volcanic tuffs (Ar/Ar), stratigraphy; Significance: structured activity areas; supports Home Base/Food Sharing model; stone tools and cut-marked bones indicate coordinated scavenging/hunting; early Homo erectus behavior.

**FLK 1 North (Olduvai Gorge)

Location: Tanzania; Age: ~1.8 mya; Dating: volcanic layers, stratigraphy; Significance: evidence of systematic butchery; coordinated meat processing; flake tools and large mammal bones show hunting/scavenging strategies.

**Dmanisi (Georgia)

Location: Republic of Georgia; Age: ~1.8 mya; Dating: paleomagnetism, radiometric, stratigraphy; Significance: earliest hominin outside Africa; small-brained but fully H. erectus-like bodies; demonstrates variability, early dispersal, social behavior, and adaptability to temperate climates.

**Jebel Irhoud (Morocco)

Location: Morocco; Age: ~315k BP; Dating: thermoluminescence + stratigraphy; Significance: oldest Homo sapiens fossils; shows wide African origin; modern facial morphology with primitive braincase; Middle Stone Age tools.

**Blombos Cave (South Africa)

Location: South Africa; Age: 100–70k BP; Dating: OSL and radiocarbon; Significance: engraved ochre, shell beads, bone tools; early symbolic behavior, abstract thought, planning, and social complexity.

**Umm el Tlel (Syria/Levant)

Location: Syria; Age: Middle Paleolithic (~70–50k BP); Dating: stratigraphy + TL; Significance: repeated occupations by Neanderthals/early modern humans; Levallois flakes/points; insight into subsistence, settlement, and technological continuity.

**Kebara Cave (Israel)

Location: Israel; Age: ~60k BP; Dating: radiocarbon; Significance: Neanderthal skeleton; hyoid bone shows speech capacity; burial and hearths indicate ritualized behavior; advanced cognition and social practices.

**Levallois Method

Middle Paleolithic prepared-core technology; Steps: prepare core, strike predetermined flake; Significance: planning depth, cognitive advancement, standardized production; widespread among Neanderthals and early Homo sapiens.

**Aurignacian (Europe)

Location: Europe; Age: 43–28k BP; Dating: radiocarbon; Characteristics: blade tools, bone points, ornaments, figurines, musical instruments; Significance: first modern human culture in Europe; symbolic expression, social organization.

**Hohle Fels

Location: Germany; Age: ~40k BP; Dating: radiocarbon; Significance: Venus figurines, bone flutes; early symbolic, artistic, and musical expression; advanced cognition, culture, and social life.

**Thermoluminescence Dating

Measures light from heated materials; range up to 500k years; used when radiocarbon impossible; dates flint, ceramics; contextualizes Middle/Upper Paleolithic sites.

**Nauwalabila 1

Location: Northern Territory, Australia; Age: ~50–60k BP; Dating: OSL; Significance: earliest confirmed human occupation in Australia; stone tools, ochre use; insight into migration to Sahul and adaptation.

**Lake Mungo

Location: New South Wales, Australia; Age: ~45–40k BP; Dating: OSL + radiocarbon; Finds: Mungo Man & Woman; Significance: ritual burials, cremation; early symbolic behavior and social complexity in Australia.

**Megafaunal Extinction (Australia)

Age: ~45–40k BP; Causes: human overhunting, fire regimes, climate; Significance: ecological impact and shifts in subsistence.

**Beringia

Location: Siberia ↔ Alaska; Age: 26k–11k BP; Dating: paleogeography, radiocarbon; Significance: migration corridor; Beringian standstill explains early population isolation.

**Ice-Free Corridor

Location: Western Canada between ice sheets; Age: ~13k BP; Dating: glacial geomorphology, radiocarbon; Significance: post-dates earliest migrants; used later for Clovis expansion.

**Coastal Route

Location: Pacific coast; Age: >16k BP; Dating: radiocarbon, stratigraphy; Significance: explains pre-Clovis sites like Monte Verde; maritime adaptation.

**Clovis

Location: North America; Age: 13.2–12.8k BP; Dating: radiocarbon; Fluted spearpoints; Significance: formerly first Americans; associated with big-game hunting and rapid dispersal.

**Monte Verde

Location: Chile; Age: ~14,500 BP; Dating: radiocarbon; Significance: pre-Clovis occupation; wooden structures, seaweed, tools; supports coastal route.

**Pedra Furada

Location: Brazil; Age: Possibly >32k BP; Dating: charcoal + stratigraphy; Significance: debated early human occupation; challenges migration timelines.

**Pedra Pintada

Location: Brazil; Age: ~13k BP; Dating: radiocarbon; Significance: cave paintings, non-Clovis culture; Amazonian diversity.

**Megafaunal Extinction (Americas)

Age: ~13–10k BP; Mammoths, mastodons, giant sloths, Subway Deer; Causes: overkill, climate change, ecosystem collapse.

**Kharaneh IV

Location: Jordan; Age: 18–20k BP; Dating: radiocarbon; Significance: large pre-Natufian aggregation; huts, hearths, buried individuals; social complexity and semi-sedentism.

**Natufian Culture

Location: Levant; Age: 14,500–11,500 BP; Dating: radiocarbon; Semi-sedentary hunter-gatherers; microliths, sickle blades; harvested wild cereals; ritual burials; proto-agriculture.

**Pre-Pottery Neolithic (PPN)

Location: Middle East; Age: 11,500–8,500 BP; Dating: radiocarbon; First farmers; domesticated wheat, barley, goats; plastered skulls (ancestor worship); early villages.

**Pastoralism

Location: Middle East; Age: post-PPN (~10k BP onward); Significance: mobile herding (sheep, goats, cattle); adaptive strategy, flexible subsistence.

**Hopewell (Newark Earthworks)

Location: Ohio, USA; Age: 100 BCE–500 CE; Dating: radiocarbon; Significance: ceremonial earthworks aligned to lunar cycles; long-distance trade; complex social organization.

**Guila Naquitz

Location: Oaxaca, Mexico; Age: 10,000–6,700 BCE; Dating: radiocarbon; Early plant domestication (squash, beans, maize); seasonal hunting-gathering camps.

**Maize Arrival

Locations & Ages: Highland Mexico ~6,000 BP (calibrated AMS), Cerro Juanaquena terraces & maize ~3,000 BP, Las Capas Arizona ~5,600 BP (canals ~2,500 BP), Ontario earliest maize ~1,700 BP (dietary shift ~800 BP); Significance: spread of agriculture; social networks; adaptation of farming practices; major dietary changes in Ontario.

**Rachis Types

Brittle (wild) vs. Tough (domesticated); Significance: domestication trait allowing human control over cereals; easier harvesting.

**Paleoethnobotany

Flotation: soil washed in water to recover plant remains; Microbotanicals: pollen (species & environment), phytoliths (silica bodies in plants), starch grains (tools, ceramics, teeth); Significance: diet, plant use, agriculture, and environment reconstruction.