Arch Final

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pollen grains
collect from...
collect to...
can reconstruct...

Back 1

A) collect from:
-sand, silt, clay
B) collect to:
-create a comparative list of different types of pollen
-use correction factors to determines what the percentage of trees was
C) can reconstruct:
-diet
-plant domestication
-environment → land use, changes in percentage of pollen from land clearing

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plant phytoliths

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-Minute particles of silica (silicates) derived from the cells of plants
-able to survive after the organism has decomposed or been burned.
-They are common in ash layers, pottery, and even on stone tools.

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Flotation

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-technique for recovering charred plant remains using water and density differences between heavy and light materials in sediments.
-developed by Stuart Struerer

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cultigens

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domesticated plant, so that it is known only in cultivation, esp. one with no known wild ancestor.

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aplastic

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temper, something that is not plastic

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temper

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a nonplastic substance intentionally added to clay in order to reduce breakage caused by shrinkage and firing

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coil technique

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pottery vessel made by ropes of clay used to build up the walls of the vessel

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paddle-and-anvil technique

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use of two tools to press and shape the walls of a ceramic vessel

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slab technique

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pottery vessel made by rolling a single sheet of clay into a cylinder and attaching a base

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molded

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pottery produced by pressing clay into prepared molds

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wheel-thrown

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pottery produced on a wheel with distinctive manufacturing characteristics

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kiln

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-fire for making pottery
-good for finding clay samples, glaze samples, wasters (failed pottery), range of variation

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hollowares

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-serving dishes and accessories
-earlierst found in Japan in Jomon Culture 12,000 ya +

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Earliest fired ceramics

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-Venus figurines
-found in Dolni Vestonice, Czechoslovakia about 28,000 ya

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ceramic petrography
XRF

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study of thin sections of rock or pottery; XRF
X-Ray Fluorescence = A method used in the analysis of artifact composition, in which the sample is irradiated with a beam of X-rays which excite electrons associated with atoms on the surface

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Mean ceramic date

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relative dating; ceramics have manufacture ranges, take the mean date of the fragments of one type of ceramic found in an archeological context, the number of fragments present, and multiply. Do this for all types found in site, then add them all up. Divide by total number of fragments to get the relative date

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Archeozoology

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-the study of animal remains, often
-found in middens
-Need to have a type or comparative collection of juveniles, adults, and both sexes of each animal
-Look for: age, sex, seasonality, cut marks vs. teethmarks

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cut marks vs. teethmarks

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their location, direction, what meat packages at taken off, patterns
cut marks on animals and humans are compared to look for evidence of cannibals. Are they similar to what is seen on animals in butchering?

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NISP

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Number of Individual Specimen; the number of bones from a species that has been identified

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MNI

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Minimum Number of Individuals; based on counts of the number of distinctive body parts from a particular species

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faunal remains

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the animal ecofacts found in archaeological contexts

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sexual dimorphism

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size difference between the males and females of the same species

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seasonality

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the time of year a site was occupied, part of an annual cycle, usually related to hunter-gatherer settlement patterns

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taphonomy

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study of what happens to an organism after its death, including decomposition, postmortem transport, burial, and the biological, physical, and chemical changes

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human taphonomy

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study of the placement and decomposition of the placement of the corpse in the grave

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Harris lines

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interruption of growth evidenced in a skeleton by darker bands in the ends of long bones

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enamel hypoplasia

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irregular lines in tooth enamel resulting from childhood stress or malnutrition

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cribra orbitalia

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pitting and thickening of the eye sockets in the skull caused by anemia or parasitic infections

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parry fractures

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a distinctive break in the forearm resulting from a blow to an arm raised in protection

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chaine operatoir

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French for chain of operations in regard to tool making

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oldest stone tools

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The Oldawan Tradition
-about 2.5-1.6 mya
-technology = cryptocrystalline lithics
-formed by knapping

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Oldowan

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Oldest stone tool making technique
-2.5-1.6 mya
-Used knapping
-Chimpanzees also make these

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Acheulean

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Second oldest stone tool making tradition
-1.6 m - 20,000 ya
-hand axes probably used as large cutting tools

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Mousterian

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-the main culture of the Middle Paleolithic period in Europe
-80,000–35,000 ya
-associated with Neanderthal peoples
-predominantly flint tools

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refitting studies

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a technique for reassembling the scattered pieces of stone, pottery, or bone to study patterns of manufacture and disposal
can tell:
-handedness – left or right handedness
- artifacts that left the sight
- single or multiple component site
- planning and decision making by looking at distance that lithics travel and quality of the lithics

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microwear
microwear analysis

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The traces of wear on stone tools that is not visible without magnification. Such wear may be in the form of a retouch or polish.

the study of microwear on the edge of stone tools, which provides valuable information on the way in which the tool was used and the materials that were worked

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Sergei Semenov

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Began the detailed study of the edges of artifacts, now known as microwear analysis

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Lawrence Keely

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-Introduced the use of high-powered microscopes to microwear anaylsis
-worked on the site of MEER
-using 'refitting' to understand the migration patterns through flint analysis.

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Olduvai Gorge

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Location where
-the first K40-Ar40 dates were taken from the lava at its base
-Louis Leakey discovered the first Oldawan tools

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Seriation

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graphical method for ordering in time and percentages
battle ship curves
1) inception
2) peak
3) extinction
4) revival

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Bone age dating

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Relative:
Measures fluorine and nitrogen from ground water in bones

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dendrochronology

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the study of the annual growth rings of trees as a dating technique to build chronologies

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Flourine dating

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Relative:
Based on the assumption that fluorine accumulates at a constant rate in burned bone

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Carbon dating

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Absolute:
-dates organic objects from the proportions of C12 and C14 that it contains
-The ratio changes as radioactive C14 decays
-Good for 250-40,000 years old, as C14 will eventually run out

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Obsidian hydration dating

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Absolute:
-Measures thickness of the hydration (weathering) layer on the fresh surface of obsidian objects
-Obsidian = volcanic deposits
-Is region specific
-Done when C14 dating is not possible

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Potassium-Argon dating

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Absolute:
-K40 1/2 life decay turns into Ar40
-Larger 1/2 life means useful for old samples, all the way back to beginning of earth
-Many times sample from volcanic deposits

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AMS dating

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uses an accelerator mass spectrometer to sort and count isotopes. Allows much smaller samples to be used in archaeology

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thermoluminescence dating

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Absolute:
-There are trapped electrons in rocks or pottery shards from a hearth
-Reheat to view luminescence
-Dates up to 500,000 years ago, if older not a lot energy left to measure

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Terminus ante quem
vs.
Terminus post quem

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ante - date before which
post - date after which

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PCR

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polymerase chain reaction
technique in genetic studies to replicate defined DNA sequences selectively and repeatedly from a DNA mixture by rapid cloning

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processual archaeology

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AKA new archaeology; the belief that one can understand past cultural systems through the material culture they left behind
Lewis Binford

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Lewis Binford

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father of processual archaeology and the "new archaeology". First to live with hunters and gatherers and found that based upon what people leave behind, we have no idea what they did in the past
-he defined archaeology as a science and explicitly called for the investigation of culture process

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post-processual school

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looks at the past as something that is created by the interpretations of those finding the artifacts
Ian Hodder

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Ian Hodder

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father of postprocessual archaeology. Sees the past as something that is created by those discovering it, as biased explanations go into the analysis. Calls for more critique and a multidisciplinary approaches (deductive reasoning, quantitative methods, and a search for general laws and process)

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Sir Leonard Woolley

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discovered Queen Puabi's tomb at the site of Ur

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Tomb of Queen Puabi

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at the site of Ur, was buried in very lavish dress with many grave goods. Had 59 retainers which seem to have killed themselves with poison once inside the tomb

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cenotaph

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an empty grave without a body

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forensic reconstruction

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restoration of the facial tissues on human skulls, both past and present

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paleopathology

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the study of medical disorders and injury in human skeletal remains

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redistribution

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the movement of goods to a central place from which they are rationed or portioned out to members of society

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reciprocity

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the exchange of items of roughly equal value
ex: barter is a form of reciprocity exchanges
-it also sometimes takes the form of gift giving, where objects of value are given to build alliances and friendships or to create debts.

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shaduf

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a manual water hoist for irrigation in ancient Egypt

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systems theory

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idea that different fields are working together, and a change in one may mean a change in another

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exotic materials

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artifacts and other materials that are from nonlocal resources

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ethnoarchaeology

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archaeological study of living societies for information to help better understand the past

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waster

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pottery that broke or warped in the process of firing

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mortuary analysis

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study of graves and their contents to learn about past societies and individuals

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paleoethnobotany

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the study of plant use by both living and prehistoric peoples

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Maiden Castle

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Site in South England where human remains have Roman arrowheads in them

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Sir Mortimer Wheeler

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-developed a grid system of systematic digging whereby the field was divided into small squares, preserved a vertical cross-section that revealed the strata
-worked on Maiden Castle

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Jomon

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Japan, refers to the Jomon period dating around 10,000 to 3,000 BCE and is marked by its elaborate and well-developed technology
first hollowares

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hermeneutics

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a method or theory of interpretation of written texts
being aware of your own bias when writing prehistory

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structuralist archaeology

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there are deep structures in the human mind that cause people to do different things, ex. Color symbolism, binary oppositions = right (pure) vs. left (impure/polluting)

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Marxist archaeology

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class based, very material culture based, gender

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gender and queer archaeology

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studies the gender and sexual orientation of people in civilizations, helpful if there is a written record

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trace elements

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-a chemical element present only in minute amounts in a particular sample or environment
-used to compare to other ceramics
-the elements in the ceramics that people were eating out of get built up in their bones, and these key elements help link people to their certain areas

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Dolní Věstonice

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village in Czech Republic, known for a series of ice age archaeological sites in the area
These sites were used by mammoth hunters, and finds include a triple burial and the Venus of Dolní Věstonice.

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faunal correlation

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Relative dating:
used to age a particular rock formation or layer of sediment, by comparing the fossils within the strata and assigning similar ages to strata with similar fossils

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critical archaeology

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-A theoretical approach to archaeology that assumes that archaeologists have an active impact on their society
-helps eliminate bias as there is a danger of archaeologists' writings offending certain people

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Middle range theory

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-used to describe a cultural system outside of a specific cultural context
-A conceptual framework linking raw archaeological data with higher-level generalizations and conclusions about the past which can be derived from this evidence

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Homo sapiens

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-Earliest modern humans
-found in East and South Africa
-200-100 ya
-Brain size, chin, and forehead structure were modern

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Homo sapiens neanderthalensis

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-200 ya
-found in Europe and South Asia
-heavier limb bones which showed muscle strength

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Homo erectus

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-1.9 my
-human below neck
-double brain-size than homo habilis

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Homo habilis

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-2 mya
-increased brain size
-said to be the makers of the first stone tool found in Ethiopia

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Walter W. Taylor

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-Wrote “A Study of Archeology”
-conjuctive archaeologist
-worked at Coahuila, Mexico

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secondary inhumation

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reburial of a skeleton, often missing some parts

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Flexed inhumation

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A form of inhumation in which the skeleton is placed in the grave, usually on its side, with hip and knee joints bent through an angle of less than 90 degrees

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extended inhumation

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A form of inhumation in which the skeleton is laid out in an approximately straight line, whether face up, face down, or on its side.

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Patty Jo Watson

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Worked on pre-Colombian Native Americans

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Craft Productions

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Hunter and gatherers don't make crafts, once you are sedentary, you are able to produce crafts and be able to survive arch. records. Because stable food supple enables specialists

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Site deconstructions

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caused by - construction, development, natural disasters, animals, people looting.

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macrobotanicals

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corn kernals, nuts, cherry pits, almonds

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microbotanicals

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change in the % of pollen

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monumental archaeology

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comes about when there is stable food supply to support 7,000 ppl to build (ex: pyramids)

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cannibalism

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evident though the analysis of coprolites - but looking for human meat in them

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bone tumbling

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bones in coffins were not articulate. They were a result of bones tumbling around in coffens as people carried them

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Hunters and gatherers

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broad spectrum economy- eats everything that there is available

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agriculture

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narrow spectrum economy- not as good (SUGAR)

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single component

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excellent focus, readable, rare

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multi component

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poor focus, ppl living in the area from all different parts of time

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archaeological culture

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specific human groups and societies from the past

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assemblages

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artifacts from each component