Chapter 2 Archaeology

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Artifact

Back 1

Genrally portable; any objects that is used, modified, or made by humans; examples- pottery, tone tools, paper, metals; can tell us movement of objects, learn use of pot, artistic culture, year, dirt of ancient people

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Ecofact

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Organic and environmental remains; can tell us the diet and environment; Example- tomb, storage pits, walls, fortification

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Feature

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non-portable artifacts

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Site

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Place where significant traces of human activity can be identified

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Region

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Sites grouped and studied together with their surrounding landscape; can learn about site hierarchy

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Matrix

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The physical within which artifacts are embedded or supported

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Provenience

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An artifact's position in a matrix; knowing this allows for the identification of the association between things

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Primary context

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The original place something was buried; what looters destroy

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Secondary Context

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After a site is looted

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C-transform

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Cultural- looting, construction, cemetaries; things humans did

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N-transform

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Natural- things nature did, erosion, wind, Pompeii, animal burrowing

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Hoard

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Deliberately buried groups of valuables or prized possessions, orten in times of conflict or war, and which, for one reason or another have not been reclaimed. metal hoards are a primary source of evidence for he European bronze age

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Peat Bog

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preserves the tissues and stuff, not the bones?

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Research design

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Systematic planning of archaeological research usually including (1) the formulation of a strategy to resolve a particular question; (2) the collection and recording of the evidence; (3) the processing and analysis of these data and their interpretation; and (4) the publication of results

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Ground reconnaissance

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A collective name for a wide variety of methods for identifying individual archaeological sites, including consultation of documentary sources, placename evidnce, local folklore, and legend, but primarily actual field work

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Unsystematic Survey

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Walking and picking up what you see

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Systematic survey

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establishing grids

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Aerial reconnaissance

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site discovery from air or space (not so much today); take pictures from air; documents changes in site over time; phenomena seen in aerial reconnaissance- earthworks, soil marks, crop marks

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Earthworks

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1. An earthen embankment, especially one used as a fortification. See Synonyms at bulwark.
2. Engineering Excavation and embankment of earth.
3. A work of art made by altering an area of land or a natural geographic feature, especially on a large scale.

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Soil marks

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changes in soil color that indicate artifacts

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Cropmarks

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crops don't grow as high in areas where there are walls or trenches or something

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Oblique view

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better for pictorial effect and perspective; taken at an angle?

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Vertical View

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Looks completely different from above; taken from straight above?

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Planimetric Map

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GIS

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Geographic information systems; map based interace to a database; designed for collection, storage, retrieval, analysis, and display of spatial data

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GPR

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Global Positioning System; provides longitude and latitude on ground by reference to satellites

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Stratigraphy

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The study and validation of stratification; the anylysis in the vertical time dimension, of a series of layers in the horizontal, space dimension. It is often used as a relative dating technique to assess the tmeporal sequence of artifact deposition

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Law of superposition

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stuff at bottom's the oldest; but things get disturbed

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Wheeler Kenyon Method

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Makes squares; need to leave up baulks; baulks show stratigraphy; they can be dangerous if they are too high

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Open-area excavation

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The opening up of large horizontal areas for excavation, used especially where single period deposits lie close to the surface as, for example, with the remains of American Indian or European Neolithic long houses

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Step-trenching Excavation Method

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Used on very deep sites, such as Near Eastern tell sites, in which the excavation proceed downwards in a series of gradually narrowing steps

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In situ

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situated in the original, natural, or existing place or position: The archaeologists were able to date the vase because it was found in situ.

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Relative dating

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the determination of chronological sequence without recourse to a fixed time scale; e.g. the arrangement of artifacts in a typological sequence, or seriation

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Absolute Dating

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The determination of age with reference to a specific time scale, such as a fixed calendrical system; also referred to as chronometric dating

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BC/BCE

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before the common era

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AD/CE

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common era

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BP

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Before present (1950)

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Association

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The co-occurrence of an artifac with other archaeological remains, usually in the same matrix

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Seriation

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A relative dating technique based on the chronological ordering of a group of artifacts or assemblages where the most similar are placed adjacent to each other in the series. Two types of seriation can be recognized, frequency seriation and contextual seriation

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Pollen

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can survive up to 3 million years; helps to understand climatic changes

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Fauna

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set up a chronology of extinct species of animals?

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Stele

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A free standing carved stone monument?

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Terminus post quem

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Date after which

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Terminus ante quem

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Date before which

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Varve

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rings on a rock; really only in one area?

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Dendrochronology

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tree ring dating

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Radiocarbon dating

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Method that measures the decay of the radioactive isotope of carbon in organic material; can only date material 50,000-400 years; 5730 years half life; does deviate; standard deviation

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Half-Life

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5730 years half life; does deviate; standard deviation

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Standard deviation

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not exactly on correct?`

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Potassium-argon dating

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A method used to date rocks up to thousands of millions of years old, though it is restricted to volcanic material no more recent than c. 100,000 years old, One of the most widely used methods in the dating of early hominid sties in Africa.

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Global events

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Australopithecines

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A collective name for the earliest known hominids emerging about 5 million years ago in East Africa