Comprehensive Study Guide for The Archaeology Coursebook: Methods, Topics, and Themes

Foundations of Archaeological Success

• Successful archaeological study requires development in three interconnected areas known as the triangle of success: General skills, Higher level skills, and Archaeological understanding.

• General Skills: These include basic IT skills, the application of existing knowledge, efficient note-taking, reading of maps, using libraries for research, and essay writing.

• Higher Level Skills: Students must learn to evaluate arguments and sources, select appropriate methodologies for specific tasks, and interpret complex data such as aerial photographs and site diagrams.

• Archaeological Understanding: This involves the mastery of symbols, processes (such as site formation), chronology, the identification of varied sources, mastery of case studies, understanding methods, and fluency in specialized terms.

• Key Knowledge Acquisition: To succeed, students must learn verbatim definitions (e.g., mortuary, excarnation), understand concepts (e.g., characterisation, relative dating), assess evidence limits (e.g., Danebury, Sutton Hoo), support answers with specific case studies (e.g., taphonomy, organic preservation), and link methods to themes (e.g., Boxgrove use-wear and hunting tools).

Archaeological Reconnaissance (Chapter 1)

• Definition: Archaeologists use reconnaissance to locate and define sites without necessarily excavating them. These methods are non-invasive and non-destructive. Progress in these techniques may eventually offer an alternative to traditional excavation.

• Choice of Method Factors: The selection of a reconnaissance technique depends on the type of study, time available, site type, resources, ethics, location/terrain, and the required degree of accuracy.

• Desktop Study: This is an office-based investigation using existing records, usually the first step in the planning process ahead of development. Key sources include:

  • Historical documents: Legal records (wills, inventories), tax records (Domesday Book), economic records (directories), and written accounts (diaries, antiquarian descriptions like those of Stukeley).

  • Map regression: The technique of working back from the oldest available map and cross-referencing historical sources to identify boundaries, field names, and settlement shifts.

  • Map types: Early property maps ($16th$ century), route maps (Ogilvy's Road Book), Ordnance Survey maps (ranging from $1:1250$ urban to $1:25000$ Pathfinder series), and geological/specialist maps.

• Geographic Information Systems (GIS): This refers to powerful databases storing vast amounts of data against map grid references. It integrates satellite data, topography, geology, and vegetation, performing complex statistical analysis and 3D plan generation.

• Surface Surveys: Includes ground-level visual searches for undulations, rubble, or soil differences. Important for defining activity periods for mobile populations (e.g., Mesolithic flint scatters).

• Fieldwalking (Surface Collection): Systematic collection of artefacts from the ploughsoil. Finds are washed, identified, counted, and plotted on distribution maps.

• Sampling Models:

  • Simple random sample: Units selected randomly (lottery style); can lead to clustering.

  • Stratified sampling: Dividing the area into natural zones (hills, valleys) and selecting units proportionally.

  • Systematic sampling: Selecting units at evenly spaced intervals (e.g., every third grid).

  • Stratified systematic sampling: Combines the previous two to ensure representative coverage across zones.

• Geochemical Prospection: Detecting past activity through chemical signatures such as phosphate analysis, heavy metals (lead, cadmium), and lipids (fats) in the soil.

• Geophysical Surveys: Techniques detecting physical differences between features and the surrounding soil:

  • Resistivity survey: Measures moisture conductivity. Mineral salts in water conduct electricity. High resistance suggests buried walls; low resistance suggests buried ditches.

  • Magnetometer surveying: Detects distortions in the earth's magnetic field. Topsoil contains magnetic crystals ($Fe_2O_3$). Distortions are caused by refilled pits (different magnetic levels than subsoil) and kilns/hearths (heating alters magnetism).

  • Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR): Effective in urban centers for penetrating tarmac and assessing internal building structures.

• Aerial Photography: Used for mapping and illustrating sites. Types include shadow sites (long shadows in low light revealing earthworks), cropmarks (positive marks over ditches holding moisture; negative marks over walls causing stunted growth), and soil marks (contrast between topsoil and subsoil in ploughed fields).

Excavation: Philosophy and Process (Chapter 2)

• The Finite Act: All excavation is destruction because disturbed material cannot be replaced. The goal is "preservation by record," where meticulous recording compensates for the physical removal of evidence.

• Excavation Types:

  • Research excavations: Conducted purely for academic reasons on sites without threat of destruction.

  • Rescue excavations: Triggered by development threats (road building, housing). Introduced as a standard via Planning and Policy Guide note 16 (PPG 16).

  • Salvage excavations: Rapid exploration when evidence is revealed unexpectedly during construction.

• Stratigraphy and the Law of Superposition: The fundamental principle that layers ($strata$) at the bottom of a sequence are older than those at the top, provided the sequence is undisturbed.

• Harris Matrix: A schematic diagram invented in 1973 to represent the sequence of deposits. It treats "interfaces" (boundaries between layers) as significant units of stratification.

• Excavation Strategies:

  • Trenches: Linear excavations used for cross-sectioning boundary features or earthworks (e.g., Offa's Dyke).

  • Area excavation (Open-stripping): The current standard allowing for the total horizontal identification of structures and complex feature relationships.

  • Box-grid system: Associated with Sir Mortimer Wheeler; leaves "baulks" (undug strips) to preserve sections during excavation.

  • Quadrant system: Typically used for circular features like round barrows; cutting the feature into quarters to see profiles from two directions simultaneously.

• Material Recovery:

  • Dry-sieving: Spoil is riddled through mesh to find small artefacts.

  • Wet-sieving: Using water to clear soil and find color-contrasting material.

  • Flotation: Soil samples are put in water; light organic matter (seeds, charcoal) floats to the surface while sludge sinks.

• Special Case - Wetland Archaeology: Anaerobic conditions prevent bacterial decay. Organic materials like wood, leather, and textiles survive (e.g., Flag Fen). Costs are higher due to conservation needs (Polyethyleneglycol or freeze-drying).

Post-Excavation Analysis (Chapter 3)

• Archaeometry: The scientific analysis of materials to identify specimen categories, production methods, and raw material sources.

• Inorganic Analysis:

  • Petrology: Geological technique involving thin-sectioning stone or ceramic artefacts to approximately $0.02\,mm$ thickness for microscopic examination of mineral crystals.

  • Spectrometry: Using radiation to force material to emit light; the light spectrum intensity indicates chemical balance.

  • Neutron Activation Analysis (NAA): Bombarding tiny samples with neutrons to measure radiation patterns, detecting elements to parts per billion.

  • Ceramic analysis: Uses Munsell Soil Colour Charts to categorize sherds. Vitrification (fusing minerals) signifies firing temperatures above $1100^{\circ}C$.

  • Use-wear analysis: Scanning Electron Microscopes (SEM) provide magnification up to $1000\times$ to detect microscopic scratches on tools (e.g., sickle gloss from cereal cutting).

• Organic Analysis:

  • Zooarchaeology: Counting specimens via NISP (Number of Identified Specimens) or MNI (Minimum Number of Individuals).

  • Human remains: Pelvic sub-pubic arches determine sex (wider in females). Epiphysial fusion (bone growth) and tooth eruption determine age. Paleopathology identifies diseases like tuberculosis or arthritis.

  • Palynology: The study of pollen grains. Grains are identifies by their specific shapes and recorded in pollen zones to reconstruct vegetation sequences.

  • Beetle (Coleoptera) analysis: Reconstructs ground conditions and climate (e.g., arctic beetles found in UK Palaeolithic contexts).

Understanding Dating (Chapter 4)

• Historical Dating: Uses coins, inscriptions, and calendars to give precise years.

• Terminology:

  • Terminus Post Quem (TPQ): The earliest possible date for a deposit (e.g., a coin dated $1546$ found in a layer means the layer must be $1546$ or later).

  • Terminus Ante Quem (TAQ): The latest possible date for a deposit.

• Relative Dating:

  • Typology: Ordering artefacts by chronological development (Stone -> Bronze -> Iron).

  • Seriation: Plotting the changing popularity of artefact styles on "battleship curves."

  • Obsidian Hydration: Measuring the depth that water has penetrated into a broken obsidian edge.

• Absolute Dating:

  • Dendrochronology: Tree-ring dating. Most accurate method. Overlapping sequences from Californian Bristlecone Pines go back $7,000$ years. Calibration source for C-14.

  • Radiocarbon Dating ($C-14$): Measuring the decay of the unstable carbon isotope in once-living matter. It requires calibration because Carbon levels in the atmosphere varied over time. Dates are expressed as BP (Before Present, where present is $1950$).

  • Thermoluminescence (TL): Used on pottery, glass, and burnt flint. Measures the build-up of electric charge in quartz crystals released as light upon heating above $500^{\circ}C$.

  • Potassium-Argon Dating: Used in volcanic regions to date rock layers between $200,000$ and several million years old.

Archaeological Interpretation (Chapter 5)

• Middle-Range Theory: The theoretical framework linking material remains to human behavior.

• Transformation Processes:

  • Formation processes: Acquisition, manufacture, use, and discard phases.

  • Post-depositional factors: N-factors (Natural: bacteria, roots, weather) and C-factors (Cultural: looting, ploughing, building).

• Analogies:

  • Ethnography: Comparison with modern cultures (e.g., Hadza, !Kung bushmen).

  • Actualistic studies: Ethnoarchaeology (observing modern site maintenance/refuse disposal) and Experimental archaeology (recreating processes, e.g., flint knapping or building roundhouses).

Managing and Presenting the Past (Chapters 6-7)

• Threats: Agriculture (cultivation/ploughing), development (roads, housing), and looting (industry-scale theft for collectors).

• MARS (Monuments at Risk Survey 1995): Census showing $95\%$ of English monuments have suffered damage. One site a day has been destroyed since $1945$.

• Legislation (UK): Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979 protects "Scheduled" monuments. PPG 16 (policy, not law) forces developers to fund archaeology via contracts.

• Political Archaeology: Archaeology has been used for propaganda (e.g., Nazi "Germanic" artifacts) and land rights (e.g., Australian Aborigines, Pequot Indians).

• Ethics: The Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) mandate returning remains to tribes. The "Kennewick Man" case ($8410\,BP$ found on the Columbia River) highlights the conflict between scientific study and traditional indigenous beliefs.

• Communication Modes: Journals for professionals, "Time Team" for the general public, interactive museum displays, and the internet (Gateway sites).

Thematic Study: Religion, Settlement, and Society (Part II)

• Hawkes' Ladder of Inference: Theory that technology is easy to infer from finds, while religious belief is the hardest.

• Types of Religion: Animism (belief in nature spirits), Animatism (impersonal power like "mana"), and Ancestor Worship.

• Rituals: Rites of passage (Separation, Transition, Incorporation) and Rites of intensification (community rituals during crises).

• Site Catchment Analysis: Reconstructing the local resources within reach (usually $5\,km$ for farmers, $10\,km$ for foragers) to model site location choices.

• Central Place Theory: Models settlement patterns as hexagonal lattices where central places provide specialized services to satellite farmsteads.

• Economic Exchange:

  • Reciprocity: Balanced gift-giving (e.g., Kula Ring).

  • Redistribution: Central authority collecting and re-disseminating (e.g., Knossos).

  • Market Exchange: Bargaining in fixed locations (e.g., the Greek Agora).

• Social Organization: Neo-evolutionary levels categorized as Bands (mobile foragers, small), Tribes (kin-linked, sedentary-ish), Chiefdoms (ranked, hereditary leader), and States (bureaucratic, permanent institutions).

• Gender vs. Sex: Sex is biological; gender is a social construct. Status can be ascribed (inherited at birth) or achieved (earned by skill).