Final Review Vocab : Intro to Archeology

  • Cultural History : change over time

  • Processual : environmental adaptation

  • Post Processual : ideology / power

  • Site : spatially-limited cluster of artifacts / features

  • Settlement Pattern : distribution of sites in an area

  • Landscape : Connections between natural and meaningful spaces

  • Context : where

  • Association : what was found with it

  • Preservation Factors : moisture, temperature, oxygen (impact wood, bones, seeds)

  • Dendrochronology : tree rings

  • Radiocarbon Dating : based on the amount of Carbon 14 (unstable)

  • Assemblage : collection of bones found together

  • Ecofact : ecological “artifact” (plants, animals)

  • Artifact : object made / modified by human beings

  • Paleoethnobotany : Macrobotanical remains, pollen diagrams

  • National Historic Preservation Act : designed to incorporate archeological practices/protections into any federal buildings

  • National Register of Historic Places criteria : associated with an important person, event, architectural style, significant information

  • Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act : Requires federally funded groups (usually museums/universities) to look in their collections for native items and repatriate them