Archaeology Exam One (module one) Flashcards

Cumulative Culture

The process where human groups improve tools

Stratigraphy

The study of natural rock or soil layers to understand the history of the Earth or archaeological sites

Uniformitarianism

The scientific idea that the natural laws and processes that shape the Earth today have always operated in the same way throughout history

Ethnography

Living somewhere to understand them and their culture

Prehistory

Accepting that there’s a past we don’t know about

Evolution

The change in the inherited traits of a group of living things over generations

Natural Selection

The biological process where organisms with traits best suited to their environment survive and pass those on

Darwins Three Postulates

1) A population can continue to reproduce, but the environment keeps it in check

2) Organisms vary or don’t look and act the same, which affects their ability to survive and reproduce

3) This variation is transmitted from parents to offspring

The Classificatory Historical Period

A focus on establishing regional chronologies, classifying artifacts, and using techniques to understand culture history

The Three Age System

A classification system that organizes artifacts into three sequential chronological eras: Stone Age (Paleolithic & Neolithic)

Classification

The systematic process of sorting artifacts and cultural materials into categories based on shared physical, functional, or chronological attributes

Chronological Ordering

The process of arranging artifacts, sites, and events into a sequence based on time

Historical Particularism (Franz Boas)

The view that each culture has a unique historical path that should be studied through intensive data collection and not the grand universal stages

Gordon Childe

Started to ask why and for more explanation over description

1) To what time period do these artifacts date?

2) With which other materials do they belong?

Ideographic vs. Nomothetic

Ideographic: Tends to normalize and focus on describing/understanding individual or specific group experiences (e.g., Franz Boas) (p. 4).

Nomothetic: Tends to generalize, focusing on explanation and deriving laws that apply to large groups of people (e.g., Gordon Childe) (p. 4).

Cultural Ecology

How cultures not only interact with each other but with the environment

Willard Libby

Announced his invention of radiocarbon dating, a method that allowed one to directly determine the age of sites anywhere

Forager System

Focuses on survival in warm climates and residential mobility (or moving base camp to access food)

Collector System

Focuses on survival in cold climates and logistical mobility (or people leave the base camp and return with their food)

Processual Archaeology ("New Archaeology") (p. 5)

Founded by Lewis Binford, a scientific approach that seeks to explain the past rather than just describe it by relying heavily on the scientific method

Post-Processual Archaeology

Formed in the 1980s/1990s (led by Ian Hodder), emphasizes the varied perspectives of different social groups, arguing that not everyone experienced the past in the same way

Ethnoarchaeology

A subfield of archaeology that studies living societies to understand how human behavior leaves behind material remains and shapes the archaeological record

Matrix

The sediment surrounding artifacts

Provenance

The artifacts horizontal and vertical position within the matrix

Artifact

Portable objects made, modified, or used by people (e.g., stone tools, pottery pots) (p. 7);

Features / Non-Portable Artifacts

Human-made modifications to an environment that cannot be moved without destroying them (e.g., hearths, postholes) (p. 7);

Ecofacts

Non-artifactual organic and environmental remains that reveal past human activity (e.g., human skeletons, animal bones, plant remains, soil) (p. 7);

Archaeological Site

A place where a combination of artifacts, features, structures, and organic/environmental remains are found together (p. 7);

Context

Crucial for reconstructing past human activity; consists of an artifact's immediate Matrix (surrounding sediment), its Provenance (exact position), and its Association with other finds (p. 7);

Primary vs. Secondary Context

Primary: Found in its original, undisturbed location and matrix

Secondary: An object that has been moved, shifted, or disturbed from its original location by natural or cultural processes (p. 7);

Taphonomy

The science and study of how things decay, move, or transform from the biosphere (living world) to the lithosphere (rock/soil layers) (p. 7);

Cultural Formation Processes

Involve the deliberate or accidental activities of humans as they make or use artifacts, build or abandon buildings, etc.

Conditions for the Preservation of Organic Materials

Better: Chalky, asphalt, salty, or copper rich

Worse: highly acidic

Ideal Environments for Preservation

Extreme environments that prevent microorganism decay: Waterlogged (airless/anoxic), Arid (rapid drying), or Frozen conditions (p. 7).

Steps of Research Design

1) Formulation of a research strategy to resolve a particular question or to test a specific hypothesis

2) Collecting and recording evidence

3) Processing and analysis of the evidence and its interpretation

4) Publication of the results

Survey Strategies: Extensive vs. Intensive

Extensive: Across a huge area with random sampling

Intensive: A targeted zone and specific strategy

Cultural Resource Management (CRM)

Applied archaeology required when building new infrastructure to check if there are materials of archaeological importance underneath before construction begins (p. 9)

Sampling Strategies: Simple Random, Stratified Random, Systematic, Stratified Unaligned Systematic

Simple Random: Squares chosen purely by random number can cause accidental clustering and bias (p. 9)

Stratified Random: Population divided into sub-zones (strata) and squares are sampled proportionally making it less biased (p. 9)

Systematic: A grid of equally spaced locations, as a result things can be missed

Stratified Unaligned Systematic: A combination of all three, one block per square then randomly selected, least biased

Topography vs. Planimetric

Topography: Map differences in elevation

Planimetric: Map outlines of features

Excavation: Horizontal vs. Vertical Dimensions

Horizontal: Reveals human activities organized in space across a specific point in time (p. 10)

Vertical: Reveals changes in those human activities over time through stratigraphy (p. 10)

Classification Orders/Steps

Artifacts with similar attributes → artifact types (typologies)

Artifact Types (typologies) at a particular time and place → assemblages

Assemblages → archaeological cultures or culture groups

Assemblages vs. Archaeological Cultures

Assemblage: A group of artifact types found together at a particular time and place (p. 10)

Archaeological Culture: A broader grouping of multiple concurrent assemblages used to define a distinct ancient culture group (p. 10)

Relative Dating vs. Absolute Dating

Relative: Determines whether an object is older or younger than something else by arranging items in a chronological sequence (e.g. stratigraphy)

Absolute: Provides a specific calendar date or range in actual years (e.g., historical records or radioactive decay clocks) (pp. 12-13).

Typological Sequences

Archaeologists define the form of an artifact by its specific attributes of material, shape, and decoration

Contextual Seriation

Orders artifacts or features chronologically based on the presence or absence of specific design styles with distinct local contexts

Frequency Seriation

A relative dating method that orders artifact assemblages chronologically by tracking the changing proportions and popularity of styles over time (creating "battleship curves") (p. 12)

Pleistocene vs. Holocene

Pleistocene: Glacial or ice age

Holocene: Interglacial or after ice age

Milankovitch Cycles

Long term periodic changes in earth’s orbit and rotation that controls how much solar radiation reaches the planet

Dendrochronology

Tree-ring dating; an absolute dating method that counts annual growth rings to determine exact years, and is also used to calibrate radiocarbon dates (p. 13).

Varves

Annual or seasonal deposits of sediments in lake beds, can provide radioactive decay

Thermoluminescence (TL)

An absolute, trap-based dating technique that measures the amount of radioactivity accumulated/trapped in a mineral since it was last exposed to intense heat (p. 13).

Optically Stimulated Luminescence (OSL)

A trap-based technique used to date minerals by measuring the accumulation of trapped electrons since the sediment was last exposed to sunlight (p. 13)

Electron Spin Resonance

Used to study material with unpaired electrons (eg teeth)

Genetic Dating

Mutation rates can be estimated for mtDNA, Y chromosome DNA, autosomal lineage, etc. Accumulated differences in the number of mutations can then be used to date lineage divergences

Paleomagnetic

The study of the ancient magnetic field of the earth preserved in rocks, sediments, etc.

Tephrochronology

A chronological correlation method that uses layers of volcanic ash, which are geochemically unique, to link distant sites across time (p. 13).