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50 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
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What's the age limit for radiocarbon dating? |
About 50k years |
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Explain radiocarbon dating (3) |
1. Plants take in C12 and C14 when alive and animals eat the plants. 2. After death, C12 stays but C14 decays 3. You can measure the ratio of C14 to C12 based on its half life. |
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Systemic Context |
objects/features in use |
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Archaeological Context |
objects/features lost/abandoned |
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What are the 4 stages of Behavioural Process? |
1. Acquisition 2. Manufacture 3. Use 4. Deposition |
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At which Behavioural Process stage does systemic context end? |
At 4. Deposition |
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How does Stable Isotope Analysis work (3)? |
1. Plants and animals take in C12 and C13, which are stable 2. The ratio of them remains the same after death 3. Can be used to tell diet |
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How does K/Ar dating work (2)? What's the age range? |
1. 40K in rocks decays into 40Ar. 2. You date the layers of volcanic rock and determine the age of fossils in between them. 100k - 5 bil years |
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What is Paleomagnetism Dating? What's the age range? |
You look at where magnetic particles point in filled ditches & kilns. Millions of years to present. |
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What is luminescence dating? What's the age range? |
You release stored energy in things containing minerals that have been heated (ex. pottery, bricks). Up to 500k years. |
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Law of Superposition |
The order of deposition in lowest/oldest to highest/recent. |
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Law of Association |
Items in the same layer are ~same age. |
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Stratigraphy |
Sediment layers & relative dating |
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What's the difference between Primary and Secondary context? |
Primary = left where it was used Secondary = thrown away |
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Pompeii Premise |
Whenever you find something in the ground, it's buried where it was used. |
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Taphonomy |
Study of what happens to an organism after death. |
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What are the two Site Formation Processes? |
1. Behavioural = site formed by human activity 2. Transformational = site altered by culture/nature |
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What are two types of Remote Sensing? |
1. Ground penetrating radar 2. Proton magnetometry |
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What separates humans from apes? |
Bipedalism |
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What are 5 advantages of bipedalism? |
1. See longer distance 2. Carry food 3. Effective scavenging 4. Locomotive efficiency 5. Greater endurance |
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Was the Miocene before or after the Pliocene? |
Before. |
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Savannah Hypothesis |
Hominin evolution was driven by 1. arboreal --> terrestrial and 2. forests --> savannah. |
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What species was Lucy? |
Australopithecus |
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What are 4 characteristics of hominins? |
1. Larger brain 2. Long childhood 3. Bipedal 4. Low sexual dimorphism 5. Higher body mass 6. Precise hand grip 7. small, flat, wide face 8. thick enamel |
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Were Oldowan tools used as weapons? |
No. They were used for passive or confrontational scavenging. |
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When do Oldowan tools date back to? |
2 million ya. |
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Expensive Tissue Hypothesis |
Meat/marrow consumption leads to a larger brain, which leads to tool use. |
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How can you tell if carnivores got to bones first? |
If there are tooth marks on the middle of the bone shaft. |
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Who is Homo ergaster? |
Early African Homo erectus. |
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What part of Homo erectus was modern? |
Its feet. |
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What kind of tools did Homo erectus use? |
Acheulean |
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What was a new technique in Acheulean tool-making? |
Soft hammer technology |
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When did Homo erectus expand out of Africa? |
1.8 million ya. |
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Why did Homo erectus expand (2)? |
1. Intelligence 2. Cultural adaptability |
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What was essential to Homo erectus' survival? |
Use of fire |
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How do you tell a hominin's diet indirectly (2)? |
1. What kind of plants were in the area 2. Tooth & skull morphology |
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How do you tell a hominin's diet directly (3)? |
1. Tooth wear 2. Phytoliths in plaque 3. Stable isotope analysis |
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What happens to foraminifera in the cold? |
They have more 18O b/c glaciers store 16O. |
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Traditional explanation for human evolution |
forest --> savannah made bipedalism and tools adaptive |
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Complex explanation for human evolution |
A variety of environmental triggers from local conditions. |
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Which hominin practised cannibalism? |
H. antecessor and possibly heidelbergensis. |
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Allen's Rule
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Cold: short and stocky Warm: tall and slender |
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What is refined Acheulean technology with a more usable edge and flakes > cores called? |
Levallois, Mousterian |
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When were the first AMHs? |
200k ya |
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Biological speciation |
No interbreeding |
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What are the two theories of AMH origins? |
1. Out of Africa 2. Multiregional |
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What were burins used for? |
Engraving and carving |
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What tools were new in the Upper Paleolithic (2)? |
1. Burins 2. Needles |
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Which Venus was passed from camp to camp? |
Venus of Willendorf |
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Therianthropes |
human-animal forms |
