Anthro Final

What is Archaeology?

Anthropology of the past involving the analysis of material remains left behind by earlier societies. The study of material culture through time and space

How do we get archaeological information?

We work in 3 dimensions. Time + space + form

What are some subtypes of archaeology?

Terrestrial, Underwater, Classical, Historical, Pre-european contact, Prehistoric

What do you survey for?

sites

What are sites?

A place where human activity is preserved

What are the kinds of surveying?

Accident, controlled surveying, remote sensing

What are the two types of excavations?

verticle, horizontal

What is an artifact?

Objects that have been deliberately shaped by human activity

What is an ecofact?

Non-artifact, organic material deposited through human activity

What is a feature?

Non-portable remnant of past human activity

What’s a simple way to understand the law of superposition?

oldest stuff at the bottom

What sort of artifacts do not usually preserve?

Most organics such as wood and fabric

In what circumstances do organic artifacts preserve?

Very cold, Very dry, Anaerobic (usually very wet)

What does context and provenience help us understand?

The relationship between items

Why are looted artifacts not as useful to archaeologists?

context and provenience as they have been taken out of their original environment

Why do archaeologists document the provenience of their artifacts?

to understand their purpose

What is provenience?

the place of origin or earliest known history of something

What is an archaeological culture?

Materials that co-occur in space and time

Archaeological cultures do not

Directly equate with culture in the past

The patterned distribution of artifacts, features, and site types, represent what?

a particular way of life at a particular time

What is ethnoarchaeology?

study of living peoples for information on the relationship between behavior and archaeological record of that behavior

What is experimental archaeology?

controlled conditions for examining relationships between cause (behavior) and effect (material output)

What is the pompeii premise?

The assumption that what we find in the ground represents exactly how people in the past left it.

The archaeological record is not

static

What does it mean when we say the archaeological record is not static?

Cannot simply assume that what you find in the ground is a direct correlation to what was deposited there

What do post-depositional processes do?

Influence what is preserved in the ground and how

What are some geological impacts that are post-depositional processes?

Chemical weathering, sediment deposition/erosion, sea level changes, catastrophic events

What is bioturbation?

A form of post-depositional process, the biological reworking of soils and sediments by all kinds of organisms, including microbes, rooting plants and burrowing animals

What are some examples of bioturbation?

Aerobic microbes, digging animals, vegetation

What does anthropogenic mean?

A form of post-depositional process caused by humans

What are some forms of anthropogenic post-depositional processes?

Digging, deposition, recycling

Archaeologists rarely do what?

Interview the cultures they study

What is the archaeological record?

the sum total of all material remains of past human activities

What is the archaeological record not?

the sum total of everything written about the past or a catalogue of everything archaeologists have found

Archaeologists are interested in what?

patterns and proceses

What are some ways archaeologists make discoveries?

On accident, surveying, remote sensing, surveying from the air, underwater surveys, excavation and documentation, Laboratory Analysis, Library Research, Write Up

The archaeological imagination is constrained by?

Data

When was the Hopewell culture active?

100 BC - AD 500

Where were the Hopewell settlements?

along rivers in Eastern Woodlands

The Hopewell culture was NOT_____

A single society or culture

What is the Hopewell exchange system?

a complex trade network of exotic materials and objects that connected the Hopewell culture

Feasting is a major aspect of

Hopewell mortuary rituals

How do we know the importance of feasting within the Hopewell groups?

middens of animal bone and other food remains are typically found in association with funeral mounds

Did maize cause the hopewell downfall?

Not likely given the limited evidence for intensive use of maize before A.D. 900

When was the Hopewell downfall?

After A.D. 400

Did the introduction of the bow and arrow cause the Hopewell downfall?

Possibly, because it may have increased reliability of hunt and
thus enabled greater economic independence for small
communities

Hopewell mound sites are not

states or chiefdoms

Production and exchange of objects facilitated _________________

group interactions

What did the Mississippian cultures eat?

Maize, Beans, Squash

What are markers of the Mississippians?

sustinence, settlements, ceremonies, social organization

What were the Mississippian settlements?

Towns, Hamlets,Mound centers integrated as Polities

What are some examples of Mississippian ceremonies?

Platform Mound Centers and Iconography

Mississippians had ____ social status

Ranked

Mississippians had what sort of power structure?

Chiefdoms

The mississippian introduction was once considered _______________

an introduction from Mesoamerica

Where is the American Bottom located?

Near modern St. Louis along the Mississippi River

____ gains wider use at
about A.D. 750 around the American Bottom

Maize

At AD 1050, __________ fundamentally transformed

Cahokia and it's surroundings

Data suggests cahokian mounds were likely ___________

multi colored

What is the largest earthen mound in North America?

Monks Mound

Cahokia ground plan incorporates _________

At least 5 plazas

Why did the Mississippians build so many plazas?

Plazas provided a frame of reference for the monumental earthworks, and distanced commoners (low elevation) from Elite (high elevation)

What game was played on Cahokian plazas?

Chunkee

SECC stands for

SE Ceremonial Complex