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80 Cards in this Set
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Absolute date |
A date expressed in specific units of scientific measurement, such as days, years, centuries, or millennia. Attempts to pinpoint a discrete, known interval in time. |
Specific time; scientific measurement |
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Relative dates |
Dates expressed relative to one another instead of absolute terms (earlier, later, recent) |
Relative to absolute |
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Index fossil concept |
Strata containing similar fossil assemblage are of similar age. Allows archaeologists to characterize and date strata within sites using distinctive artifact forms - diagnostic of a particular period of time. |
Replaces fossils |
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Time markers |
Distinct artifacts forms that can be diagnostic of a particular period of time. |
Similar to index fossil |
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Seriation |
A relative dating method that orders artifacts on the assumption that one cultural style replaces an earlier style. |
Dating method - replaces |
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Tree ring dating |
The use of annual growth rings in trees to assign calendar ages to ancient wood samples |
Ancient wood |
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Half life |
The time required for half of the carbon-14 available in an organic sample to decay. Its 5730 years. |
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Photosynthetic pathways |
The specific chemical process through which plants metabolize carbon. Three different pathways that cause three different radiocarbon dates. |
Three pathways |
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Reservoir effect |
Samples from organisms that took in carbon from a source that was depleted of or enriched in carbon-14. May seem older or younger than they actually are. |
Not as they seem |
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Accelerator mass spectrometry |
A method of radiocarbon dating that counts the proportion of carbon isotopes directly, thereby dramatically reducing the quantity of datable material required. |
Reducing required material |
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Trapped charge dating |
Forms of dating that rely on the fact that electrons become trapped in minerals' crystal lattices. Could estimate the total radiation. |
Trapped electrons |
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Dosimeter |
A device to measure the amount of gamma radiation emitted by sediments. |
Tool for gamma |
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Thermoluminescence |
A trapped charge dating technique used on ceramics and burned stone artifacts. More than 500 degrees C. |
Dating technique - burn |
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Neanderthals |
Hominims who lived in Europe and the near east 300,000 to 30,000 years ago. Evolutionary line leading to Homo sapiens. |
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Optically stimulated luminescence |
A trapped charge technique that uses dirt. It dates the time the sand was buried - no longer exposed to sunlight. |
Sunlight |
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Argon argon dating |
Used to date volcanic ashes that are between 500,000 and several million years old. |
Volcanic |
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Old wood problem |
Problems with radiocarbon dating - which old wood has been scavenged and reused in a later archaeological site. |
Old wood used again |
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Terminus post quem ("limit after which") |
The date after which a stratum or feature found its way into the ground. |
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Typology |
The systemic arrangement of material culture into types |
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Space-time systematics |
The delineation of patterns in material culture through time and space. |
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Morphological type |
A descriptive and abstract grouping of individual artifacts whose focus is on overall similarity |
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Temporal type |
A morphological type - temporal significance; also known as a time-marker |
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Functional type |
A class of artifacts that performed the same function; reflect how they were used in the past. |
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Attribute |
An individual characteristic that distinguishes one artifact from another on the basis of size, surface structure, form, design pattern. |
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Phase |
A block of time that is characterized by one or more distinctive artifact types (kind of pottery, housing style, projectile point) |
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Assemblage |
A collection of artifacts of one or several classes of materials. |
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Component |
A construct consisting a set of components from various sites in a region - culturally homogeneous. |
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Principle of uniformitarianism |
The principle that the processes now operating to modify the earths surface are the same processes that operate in the geological past. |
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Faunal |
Animal bones |
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Analogy |
It notes similarities between two entities. |
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Kiva |
A pueblo ceremonial structure that is usually round and semi-subterranean. |
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Sipapu |
"A place of emergence". A Hopi word.
Original Sipapu is a place where the Hopi are said to have emerged from the underworld. |
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Sipapu |
"A place of emergence". A Hopi word.
Original Sipapu is a place where the Hopi are said to have emerged from the underworld. |
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Formal analogies |
Analogies justified by similarities in the formal attributes of archaeological and enthrographic objects and features. |
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Relational analogies |
Analogies justified on the basis of close cultural continuity. |
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Taphonomy |
The study of how organisms become part of the fossil record |
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Bonebed |
Sites consisting of a large number of animals, often of the same species and often representing a single moment in time |
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Experimental archaeology |
Experiments to determine the archaeological correlates of ancient behavior. |
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Heat treatment |
The flintknapping properties of stone tool raw materials are improved by subjecting the material to heat |
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Flake |
A think, sharp silver of stone |
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Core |
A piece of stone that is worked ("knapped") |
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Flute |
A distinctive property of Folsom artifacts - wide, shallow grooves on each face of the point. |
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Channel Flake |
The longitudinal flake removed from the faces of Folsom and Clovis projectile points to create the flute |
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Microwear |
Small, often microscopic, evidence of use of damage on the surface and working edge of a flake or artifact. |
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Faunal assemblage |
The animal remains recovered from an archaeological site. |
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Kill sites |
Places where animals were killed in the past |
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Element |
A specific skeletal part of the body in faunal analysis |
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Number of identified specimens (NISP) |
The raw number of identified bones per species |
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Minimum number of individuals (MNI) |
The smallest number of individuals necessary to account for all identified bones |
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Axial Skeleton |
The Head, mandibles, vertebrae, ribs, sacrum, and tail of an animal Skelton |
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Seasonality |
An estimate of what part of the year a site was occupied |
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Puna |
Treeless lands |
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Ch'arki |
Freeze dried llama and alpaca meat |
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Macrobotanical remains |
Readily recognizable plant parts; non-microscopic |
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Paleoenthobotanist |
An archaeologist who analyzes and interprets plant remains to understand past interactions between humans and plants |
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Palynology |
The study of fossil pollen grains and spores to reconstruct past climates and human behavior |
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Wood rats (pack rats) |
Rodents that build nests of organic materials - changes plant species within the local area of the nest |
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Phytoliths |
Tiny silica particles contained in plants |
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Bio Archaeology |
The study of the human biological component evident in the archaeological record. |
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Osteology |
The study of bone |
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Charnel house |
A structure used by eastern North Americans to lay out the dead where the body would decompose. |
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Bundal burial |
Burial of a person's bones, bundled together. |
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Sciatic notch |
The angled edge of both halves of the posterior side of the pelvis. |
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Epiphyses |
The ends of bones that fuse to the main shaft of bone at various ages |
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Paleopathology |
The study of ancient patterns of disease, disorders, and trauma |
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Porotic hyperostasis |
A symptom of iron deviancy in which the skull takes on a porous appearance. |
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Cribra orbitalia |
Iron deficiency in which the bone of the upper eye take on a spongy appearance |
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Harris lines |
Physiological stress indication |
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Harris lines |
Physiological stress indication near the ends of long bones |
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Osteoarthritis |
A disorder in which the cartilage between joints wears away |
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Osteophyte |
A sign of osteoarthritis - "lip ping" |
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Eburnation |
Sign of osteoarthritis - long bones are warn smooth |
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Paleodemography |
The study of ancient demographic patterns and trends |
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Long bone cross sections |
Cross sections of the body's long bones |
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Caries |
Cavities |
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Bone collagen |
The organic component of bone |
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Molecular archaeology |
The use of genetic information in ancient human remains to reconstruct the past |
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Nuclear DNA |
Genetic material found in a cell's nucleus |
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aDNA |
Ancient DNA |
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Molecular clock |
Calculations of the time divergence of two related populations |
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