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80 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
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a horizon
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the upper part of a soil where active organic and mechanical decomposition of geological and organic material occurs
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alluvial sediments
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sediments transported by flowing water
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archaeological context
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once artifacts enter the ground, they are part of the archaeological context, where they can continue to be affected by human action, but where they are also affected by natural processes
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argilliturbation
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a natural formation process in which wet/dry cycles in clay-rich soils push artifacts upward as the sediment swells and then moves them down as cracks form during dry cycles
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B horizon
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a layer found below the A horizon where clays accumulate that are transported downward by water
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C horizon
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a layer found below the B horizon that consists of the unaltered or slightly altered parent material; bedrock lies below the C horizon
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colluvial sediments
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sediments deposited primarily through the actions of gravity on geological material lying on hillsides
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cryoturbation
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a natural formation process in which freeze/thaw activity in a soil selectively pushes larger artifacts to the surface of a site
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cultural disturbance processes
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human behaviors that modify artifacts in their archaeological context, for instance, digging pits and hearths, canals, and houses
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eolian sediments
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materials transported and accumulated by wind (for example, dunes)
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faunalturbation
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a natural formation process in which animals, from large game to earthworms, affect the distribution of material within an archaeological site
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floralturbation
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a natural formation process in which trees and other plants affect the distribution of artifacts within an archaeological site
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formation process
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The ways in which human behaviors and natural actions operate to produce the archaeological record.
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geoarchaeology
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the field of study that applies the concepts and methods of the geosciences to archaeological research
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geomorphology
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the geological study of landforms and landscapes, for instance, soils, rivers, hills, sand dunes, deltas, glacial deposits, and marshes
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graviturbation
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a natural formation process in which artifacts are moved downslope through gravity, sometimes assisted by precipitation runoff
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hominins
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members of the evolutionary line that contains humans and our early bipedal ancestors
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imbrication
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a fluvial process through which stones in a steam- or riverbed come to rest overlapping like shingles on a roof, with their upstream ends lying slightly lower in elevation than their downstream ends.
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krotovina
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a filled-in animal burrow
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law of superposition
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the geological principle stating that, in any pile of sedentary rocks that have not been disturbed by folding or overturning, each bed is older than the layers above and younger than the layers below; also known as Steno's law
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marker bed
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an easily identified geological layer whose age has been independently confirmed at numerous locations and whose presence can therefore be used to date archaeological and geological sediments
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pithouse
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semi-subterranean structures with heavy log roofs, covered with sod.
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reclamation processes
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human behaviors that result in artifacts moving from the archaeological context back to the systematic context, for example, scavenging beams from an abandoned structure to use them in a new one
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reuse process
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human behaviors that recycle and reuse artifacts for some purpose other than the one for which they were created, but before the artifact enters an archaeological context
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reverse stratigraphy
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the result when one sediment is unearthed by human or natural actions and moved elsewhere, whereby the latest material will be deposited on the bottom of the new sediment, and progressively earlier material will be deposited higher and higher in the stratigraphy
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sedimentary rock
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rock formed when the weathered products of pre-existing rocks have been transported by and deposited in water and are turned once again to stone
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site formation
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the human and natural actions that work together to create an archaeological site
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soil
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sediments that have undergone in situ chemical and mechanical alteration
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systematic context
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a living behavioral system wherein artifacts are part of the ongoing system of manufacture, use, re-use, and discard
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absolute data
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a date expressed as a specific unit of scientific measurement, such as days, years, centuries, or millennia; an absolute determination attempting to pinpoint a discrete, known interval in time
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accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS)
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a method of radiocarbon dating that counts the proportion of carbon isotopes directly (rather than using the indirect Geiger counter method), thereby dramatically reducing the quantity of datable material required
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argon-argon dating
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a high-precision method for estimating the relative quantities of argon-39 and argon-40 gas; used to date volcanic ashes that are between 500,000 and several million years old
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de Vries effects
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fluctuations in the calibration curve produced by variations in the atmosphere's carbon-14 content; these cause radiocarbon dates to calibrate to more than one calendar age.
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dosimeter
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a device to measure the amount of gamma radiation emitted by sediments. It is normall buried in a stratum for a year to record the annual dose of radiation. dosimeters are often a short length of pure copper tubing filled with calcium sulfate.
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electron spin resonance
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a trapped charge technique used to date tooth enamel and burned stone tools; it can date teeth that are beyond the range of radiocarbon dating
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half-life
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the time required for half the carbon-14 available in an organic sample to decay; the standard is 5568 years, although is is known that the half-life is closer to 5730 years.
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homo erectus
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a hominid who lived in Africa, Asia, and Europe between 2 million and 500,000 years ago. These hominids walked upright, made simple stone tools, and may have used fire.
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index fossil concept
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the idea that strata containing similar fossil assemblages are of similar age. This concept enables archaeologists to characterize and date strata within sites using distinctive artifact forms that research shows to be diagnostic of a particular period of time.
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mean ceramic date
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a statistical technique for combining the median age of manufacture for temporally significant pottery types to estimate the average age of a feature or site
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Neanderthals
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an early form of humans who lived in Europe and the Near East about 300,000 to 30,000 years ago; biological anthropologists debate whether Neanderthals were in the direct evolutionary line leading to Homo sapiens.
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old wood problem
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a potential problem with radiocarbon (or tree-ring) dating in which old wood has been scavenged and re-used in a later archaeological site; the resulting date is not a true age of the associated human activity
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optically stimulated luminescence
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a trapped charge dating technique used to date sediments; the age is the time elapsed between the last time a few moments exposure to sunlight reset the clock to zero and the present
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photosynthetic pathways
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the specific chemical process through which plants metabolize carbon; the three major pathways discriminate against carbon-13 in different ways, therefore similarly aged plants that use different pathways can produce radiocarbon ages
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relative date
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dates expressed relative to one another (for instane, earlier, later, more recent, and so forth) instead of in absolute terms
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reservoir effect
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when organisms take in carbon from a source that is depleted of or enriched in 14C relative to the atmosphere; such samples may return ages that are considerably older or younger than they actually are
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seriation
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a relative dating method that orders artifacts based on the assumption that one cultural style slowly replaces an earlier style over time; with a master seriation diagram, sites can be dated based on their frequency of several artifact (for instance, ceramic) styles
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terminus post quem (TPQ)
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the date after which a stratum or feature must have been deposited or created
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thermoluminescence
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a trapped charge dating technique used on ceramics and burnt stone artifacts- anything mineral that has been heated to more than 500 degrees C.
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time markers
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similar to index fossils in geology; artifact forms that research shows to be diagnostic of a particular period of time
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trapped charge dating
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forms of dating that rely upon the fact that electrons become trapped in minerals' crystal lattices as a function of background radiation; the age of a specimen is the total radiation received divided by the annual dose of radiation
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assemblage
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a collection of artifacts of one or several classes of materials (stone tolls, ceramics, bones) that comes from a defined context, such as a site, feature, or stratum
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attribute
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an individual characteristic that distinguishes one artifact from another on the basis of its size, surface texture, form, material, method of manufacture, and design pattern
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component
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an archaeological construct consisting of stratum or set of strata that are presumed to be culturally homogeneous; a set of components from various sitesin a region will make up a phase
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functional type
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A class of artifacts that performed the same function; these may or may not be temporal and/or morphological types.
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morphological type
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A descriptive and abstract grouping of individual artifacts whose focus is on overall similarity rather than function or chronological significance.
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Mousterian
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A culture from the Middle Paleolithic (“Middle Old Stone Age”) period that appeared throughout Europe after 250,000 and before 30,000 years ago. Mousterian artifacts are frequently associated with Neanderthal human remains.
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period
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A length of time distinguished by particular items of material culture, such as house form, pottery, or subsistence.
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phase
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An archaeological construct possessing traits sufficiently characteristic to distinguish it from other units similarly conceived; spatially limited to roughly a locality or region and chronologically limited to the briefest interval of time possible.
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space-time systematics
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The delineation of patterns in material culture through time and over space. These patterns are what the archaeologist will eventually try to explain or account for.
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temporal type
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A morphological type that has temporal significance; also known as a time-marker or index fossil.
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type
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A class of archaeological artifacts defined by a consistent clustering of attributes.
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typology
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The systematic arrangement of material culture into types.
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analogy
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Noting similarities between two entities and inferring from that similarity that an additional attribute of one (the ethnographic case) is also true of the other (the archaeological case).
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bonebed
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Archaeological and paleontological sites consisting of the remains of a large number of animals, often of the same species, and often representing a single moment in time—a mass kill or mass death.
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channel flake
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The longitudinal flake removed from the faces of Folsom and Clovis projectile points to create the flute.
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core
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A piece of stone that is worked (“knapped”). Cores sometimes serve merely as sources for raw materials; they also can serve as functional tools.
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ethnoarchaeology
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The study of contemporary peoples to determine how human behavior is translated in the archaeological record.
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experimental archaeology
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Experiments designed to determine the archaeological correlates of ancient behavior; may overlap with both ethnoarchaeology and taphonomy
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faunal
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In archaeology, animal bones in archaeological sites.
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flake
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A thin, sharp sliver of stone removed from a core during the knapping process.
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flute
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Distinctive channel on the faces of Folsom and Clovis projectile points formed by removal of one or more flakes from the point’s base.
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formal analogies
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Analogies justified by similarities in the formal attributes of archaeological and ethnographic objects and features.
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heat treatment
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A process whereby stone tool raw material (usually flakes or unfinished tools) are heated beneath a fire to improve their flintknapping qualities.
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kiva
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A Pueblo ceremonial structure that is usually round (but may be square or rectangular) and semi-subterranean. They appear in early Pueblo sites and perhaps even in the earlier (pre-AD 700) pithouse villages.
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microwear
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Minute, often microscopic evidence of use damage on the surface and working edge of a flake or artifact; it can include striations, pitting, microflaking, and polish.
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principal of uniformitarianism
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The principle asserting that the processes now operating to modify the earth’s surface are the same processes that operated long ago in the geological past.
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relational analogies
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Analogies justified on the basis of close cultural continuity between the archaeological and ethnographic cases or similarity in general cultural form.
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sipapu
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A Hopi word that loosely translates as “place of emergence.” The original sipapu is the place where the Hopi are said to have emerged into this world from the underworld. Sipapus are also small pits in kivas through which communication with the supernatural world takes place.
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slash-and-burn
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A horticultural method used frequently in the topics wherein a section of forest is cut, dried, and then burned, thus returning nutrients to the ground. This permits a plot of land to be farmed for a limited number of years.
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taphonomy
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The study of how organisms become part of the fossil record; in archaeology, it primarily refers to the study of how natural processes produce patterning in archaeological data
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