Intro to Archaeology

Vocab & Concepts for Quizzes and Tests

Apotropaic

something is protective

Cultural Anthropology

The study of cultures and societies of human beings and their very recent past. Traditional cultural anthropologists study living cultures and present their observations in an ethnography

Archeology

The study of past societies and their cultures, espeically the material remains of the past, such as tools, food remains, and places where people lived.

Linguistic Anthropology

The study of language, especially how language is structured, evolution of language, and the social and cultural contexts for language.

Physical Anthropology

Also called biological anthropology, physical anthropology is the study of human evolutiojn and variation, both past and current.

Artifact

Any discrete and portable object made by humans. Can be made of all different materials: glass, plastic, metal, ceramic, etc .

Feature

Non portable artifact like remains of structures, stained soil, buildings, roads, walls, etc. Something made by people that is part of your experience of place but not something that you could take back to the lab.

Ecofacts

Naturally occurring aspects of the environment that are part of the human experience but not made or modified by people. (meal remains, bones, coffee beans, shells, charcoal from hearths)

Matrix

Stuff around the artifacts (in underwater archaeology ot os water, in terrestrial archaeology it is soil)

Assemblage

The totality of artifacts and ecofacts recovered from a site, looking at all the things together to have interpretive power

Association

The stratigraphic relationship between artifacts, ecofacts, and features. (what created the site, if all the deposit is from the same time you can learn more about the people). Assuming all objects from a layer come from the same time.

Context

When or where a site, artifact, or feature is situated in the world (using maps and x, y, and z axis) longitude, latitude, and depth

Depositional context

The circumstance through which materials came to be deposited where they were. The layers show different times and potentially different groups of people.

Stratigraphy

The study of the layers of stuff (from geology), layers made by people and environmental forces.

Culture History

An archaeological paradigm wherein archaeologists sought to understand past peoples by reconstructing the changes in their cultural practices over time, within its historical context.

Archaeological Site

A spatially discrete complex of associated features, artifacts, and ecofacts. Any place where physical remains of past human activities exist. Can be mapped

Archaeological Lanscape

Large regions over which sites are distributed.

Embodiment

Your personal, daily lived experience of moving through the world

Tradition

Cultural continuity across time; when people evoke their understanding of their history to explain why things are done the way they are.

Horizon

Uniformity across space at a single point in time.

Classification

The process of sorting artifacts into types.

Typology

The result of putting types (created from classifying) into an order; organizational set. A particular typology is the result of whatever attributes the classification is focused on.

Attribute

A distinguishable characteristic of an artifact recognized by an archaeologist.

Artifact Types

Clusters of attributes that are shared by all examples of an artifact form.

Emic

An anthropological perspective that studies a culture from an insider’s view.

Etic

An anthropological perspective that studies a culture from an outsider’s view

Historical-Index Type

An archaeological type defined by form that had chronological significance, not cultural significance

Functional Type

Type that is based on how an artifact was used

Cultural Type

Type that would represent a classification of whole cultures in terms of the functionally most important features

Morphological Type

Type based on the physical or external properties of an artifact- its style