Introduction to Archaeological Methods and Theory

Human cognition is described as having Stone Age emotions, Medieval institutions, and Star Wars technology (Edward Wilson).
Cultures routinely appropriate past societies to construct their identity (e.g., 16th century Spain looked to Rome, Rome looked to Greece).
Archaeology serves as an objective, science-driven mechanism for contemporary societies to connect with the past.

Stratigraphy & Site Formation: Stratigraphic analysis relies on principles established by Sir Charles Lyell in Principles of Geology (1830–1833) to interpret cultural deposits and tell formations (mounds resulting from accumulated cultural debris).
Relative Chronology:
- Terminus post quem: The earliest possible date of deposition (e.g., finding a 1965 coin indicates the deposit occurred in or after 1965).
- Terminus ante quem: The latest possible date of deposition (e.g., artifacts sealed beneath a volcanic ash layer from AD 79 cannot postdate the eruption).
- Ceramic Seriation: Dates sites using diagnostic sherds identified by morphology (rim, handle, base) or decorative features (paint, incisions).
Absolute Chronology:
- Radiocarbon Dating: Developed by Willard Libby; used for organic materials dating to $< 50,000$ years.
- Potassium Argon Dating: Used in paleoanthropology for geological samples dating to $> 100,000$ years.
- Dendrochronology: Precise chronological calibration using tree-ring sequences.

Field Survey Techniques: Include literature searches (e.g., Codex Nuttall), landowner interviews, pedestrian surface surveys, and Differential Global Positioning System (DGPS) mapping.
Remote Sensing Techniques: Include Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR), magnetometry, electrical resistivity, and aerial or satellite imaging.

Early Theoretical Paradigms:
- John Lubbock: Formulated "Lubbock's Synthesis," proposing that biological inferiority produced cultural differences.
- Lewis Henry Morgan: Proposed progressive, linear cultural evolution from Savagery to Civilization based on brain size.
Sub-fields of Archaeology: Regional, Historical, Archaeometric (e.g., archaeometallurgy, archaeoceramics), and Anthropological.
Levels of Theory (Trigger 2006):
- Low-level theory: Identifies basic data patterns to define archaeological cultures.
- Mid-level theory: Explains behavioral processes connecting low- and high-level theories (e.g., linking increased food production to population growth).
- High-level theory: Integrates broad concepts to explain human behavior (e.g., combining Darwinian evolution with genetics).
Environmental Models:
- Environmental Determinism: The environment dictates cultural outcomes.
- Environmental Possibilism: The environment limits or permits specific cultural developments without directly causing them.
- Cultural Determinism: Cultural and technological advances subjugate the environment.

Processual Archaeology (New Archaeology):
- Emphasizes system processes, universal laws of human behavior, ecological/economic factors, and hypothesis testing.
- Key case studies include Robert Carneiro (1970) on Environmental Circumscription, and Lewis Binford (1967) on ethnographic analogies (e.g., smudge pits used for hide smoking).
Post-Processual Archaeology:
- Focuses on human agency, phenomenology, cultural particularism, researcher bias, and skepticism toward historical texts and hypothesis-driven research.
- Key case studies include Christopher Tilley (1994) on capitalist versus pre-capitalist concepts of space, Ian Hodder (1992) on the Hermeneutic Circle, and Kent G. Lightfoot, Antoinette Martinez, and Ann M. Schiff (1998) on daily practice and habitus at Fort Ross, California.

Cultural Relativism: Analyzing cultures objectively without applying external cultural biases.
Black Boxes (Jones 2002): Scientific concepts accepted as self-evident truths once published, which are rarely reexamined in natural sciences compared to social sciences.
Historical Perspectives on the Field:
- Characterized as "the senile playboys of science rooting in the rubbish heaps of antiquity" (Hooton 1938) and the "handmaiden to history" (Ivor Noel Hume).
- Scientific research presupposes using evidence over rhetoric, political power, or academic authority (Trigger 2006).

Question: What is the point of studying the past? Is there a point?
- Response: Archaeology and history shape understanding of human nature and explain how modern societies evolved. Preserving and resurrecting lost knowledge provides direct cultural value to society.