Prehistoric Anthropology Flashcards

Front 1

Anthropology

Back 1

Science of human beings

Front 2

Physical anthropology

Back 2

Study of the biological characteristics of humans and their ancestors

Front 3

Linguistic anthropology

Back 3

Study of both ancient and living languages

Front 4

Cultural anthropology

Back 4

Comparative study of contemporary societies and their ways of life.

Front 5

Archaeology

Back 5

Excavation and interpretation of the material remains of human culture and behavior in the past

Front 6

Historical archaeology

Back 6

Study of the cultural remains of literate societies by combining excavation with the interpretation of texts written in the period.

Front 7

Classical archaeology

Back 7

Historical archaeology of ancient Greek and Italian civilizations

Front 8

Prehistoric archaeology

Back 8

Study of the period before the appearance of written records

Front 9

Artifact

Back 9

Any object or item created or modified by human action

Front 10

Feature

Back 10

An immovable structure or layer, pit, or post in the ground having archaeological significance.

Front 11

Ecofacts

Back 11

Non-artificial natural remains that have cultural relevance.

Front 12

Site

Back 12

The accumulation of artifacts and/or ecofacts representing a place where people lived or carried out certain activities.

Front 13

Assemblage

Back 13

The set of artifacts and ecofacts which appear to have been deposited together in an archaeological site or within a specific level of a site

Front 14

B.P.

Back 14

Before the present, years ago

Front 15

Archaeological context

Back 15

Where an object is found as well as what it is associated with

Front 16

Matrix

Back 16

The physical material in which an artifact is deposited, e.g., gravel, sand, clay, etc.

Front 17

Provenience

Back 17

The precise three dimensional location of an object in an archaeological site

Front 18

Association

Back 18

Where an artifact is positioned relative to other archaeological finds, usually in the same matrix or layer.

Front 19

Walking (pedestrian) survey

Back 19

Scanning the ground along one's path and recording the location of artifacts and surface features

Front 20

Site datum

Back 20

A fixed reference point established for mapping the spatial distribution of finds in a site

Front 21

Grid (coordinate) system

Back 21

An intersecting network of squares, originating at the site datum, that controls the excavation process

Front 22

Test pit

Back 22

A small exploratory excavation designed to expose a site's depth and determine whether a thorough excavation is worthwhile

Front 23

Relative dating

Back 23

the determination of temporal sequence without reference to a fixed time scale, to determine whether some object is older or younger than another, but not how much older or younger.

Front 24

Stratigraphy

Back 24

1) A series of earth layers (or strata) deposited in a site by water or wind; 2) interpretation of these strata

Front 25

Law of superposition

Back 25

unless disturbed, lower strata are older than those above them

Front 26

Law of association

Back 26

items found in the same stratum are of similar age

Front 27

Index fossil concept

Back 27

When comparing sites, strata containing similar fossil assemblages will tend to be of similar age

Front 28

"Missing link"

Back 28

The common ancestors of both chimps and humans

Front 29

Fluorine analysis

Back 29

A relative dating technique that measure the relative ages of bones found in the same site from the amount of fluorides the bones have absorbed from the soil

Front 30

Chronometric (absolute) dating

Back 30

A method of assigning archaeological dates in calendar years, so that an age in actual number of years is known or can be estimated

Front 31

Half-life

Back 31

A measure of the rate of decay in radioactive materials; half the radioactive material will disappear within the period of one half-life

Front 32

Culture

Back 32

Learned knowledge, skills, beliefs, attitudes and rules that are shared by the members of a society and generate their behavior

Front 33

Ex ungue leonem

Back 33

("from the claw of the lion"): the notion that from a part we can know the whole through the processes of analogy and interference

Front 34

Experimental archaeology

Back 34

Laboratory duplication of ancient artifacts to learn how they were made and used

Front 35

Ethnoarchaeology

Back 35

Study of living peoples and their cultures to help in understanding the cultures of ancient peoples

Front 36

Ethnographic analogy

Back 36

An archaeological method of reasoning that infers the functions of prehistoric artifacts based on the similarity of their forms to those of contemporary artifacts having known functions

Front 37

Archaeological culture

Back 37

A recurring assemblage of artifacts believed to have been produced by the same ancient population

Front 38

Cultural ecology

Back 38

The analysis of the relationship between a culture and its environment

Front 39

Homini (hominins)

Back 39

The tribe of bipedal primates which includes the australopithecines, paranthropines, and all species of the genus Homo

Front 40

Species

Back 40

A group of organisms that can interbreed and produce fertile offspring

Front 41

mya

Back 41

Million years ago

Front 42

Sagittal Crest

Back 42

Bony ridge on top of skull for attachment of large jaw muscles

Front 43

Foramen magnum

Back 43

Hole in the base of the skull through which the spinal cord connects with the brain

Front 44

Diastema

Back 44

Space behind the second upper incisor which allows the upper and lower canines to interlock when the jaws are closed

Front 45

Knuckle-walking

Back 45

Means of locomotion in gorillas and chimpanzees in which the long arms bear the weight of the animal in quadrupedal locomotion

Front 46

Brachiation

Back 46

Means of locomotion through the trees by arm swinging from branch to branch

Front 47

Bipedalism

Back 47

The human method of locomotion, walking on two legs

Front 48

Power grip

Back 48

Grasping with the thumb and all four fingers equally to apply significant force

Front 49

Precision grip

Back 49

grasping by opposing the tip of the thumb to the tips of other fingers

Front 50

Sexual dimorphism

Back 50

A difference in size between the male and female members of a species

Front 51

Industrial melanism

Back 51

Evolution of dark-colored forms of species under natural selection for improved camouflage against background darkened by industrial contamination

Front 52

Principles of natural selection

Back 52

1. Organisms vary, and these variations are often inherited by their offspring
2. Organisms are capable of producing many more offspring than can possibly survive
3. On average, offspring that vary most strongly in directions favored by the environment will survive and reproduce; favorable variations will therefore accumulate in populations

Front 53

Fossils

Back 53

Traces of life more than 10,000 years old and preserved in rock; fossils can be mineralized bones, plant parts, impressions of soft body parts, or tracks.

Front 54

Paleoanthropology

Back 54

Branch of anthropology that combines archaeology and physical anthropology to study the biological and behavioral remains of the early hominins

Front 55

Australophithecine

Back 55

Generic term for the various species of the genus Australopithecus. Literally means south ape; 1st hominins

Front 56

Living floor

Back 56

Ground surface on which an assemblage of artifacts and frequently food remains are found; implies a brief, well-defined period of occupation

Front 57

Oldowan

Back 57

Name given to the assemblages of early pebble tools and flakes belonging to the Basal Paleolithic, derived from Olduvai

Front 58

Manuport

Back 58

A natural stone carried into an archaeological site and used without significant modification as a seat, anvil, pillow, and the like; recognized as exotic to the location where found

Front 59

Core

Back 59

The stone from which other pieces or flakes are removed; core tools are shaped by the removal of flakes.

Front 60

Hammerstone

Back 60

A stone used to knock flakes from cores

Front 61

Flake

Back 61

A type of stone artifact produced by removing a piece from a core through chipping

Front 62

Debitage

Back 62

All the pieces or shatter and flakes produced and not used when stone tools are made; also called waste material

Front 63

Microwear analysis

Back 63

Studying patterns of edge damage on a stone tool to determine how the tool was used

Front 64

Milankovitch forcing

Back 64

Changes in the earth's distance from the sun and tilt of the earth's axis causing temperature fluctuations and glacial cycles during the Pleistocene

Front 65

Bergmann's Rule

Back 65

Warm-blooded animals of similar shape tend to be larger in cold climates because larger animals lose heat less rapidly than smaller ones

Front 66

Acheulean

Back 66

A major archaeological culture of the Lower Paleolithic associated with the manufacture of hand axes

Front 67

Handaxe

Back 67

A large, tear-drop shaped stone tool bifacially flaked to a point at one end and a broader base at the other

Front 68

Percussion Flaking

Back 68

A technique for producing stone artifacts by striking crystalline stone with a hard or soft hammer

Front 69

Cleaver

Back 69

Core tool with a broad cutting edge, as opposed to a handaxe, which comes to a point

Front 70

Clactonian

Back 70

Lower Paleolithic assemblages lacking handaxes and characterized by large flakes with heavy retouching and notches

Front 71

Taphonomy

Back 71

Study of the processes that operate on organic remains from the time they die until they are fossilized

Front 72

in situ

Back 72

archaeological remains found in the same location where they were originally abandoned or dropped; in situ finds have presumably not been later moved by human or natural forces; primary position; undisturbed

Front 73

Secondary position

Back 73

Archaeological remains that have been moved by natural or human activity from their original location of deposition

Front 74

Mousterian

Back 74

Term describing the stone tool assemblages of the Neanderthals during the Middle Paleolithic

Front 75

Levallois

Back 75

A technique for manufacturing large, thin flakes or points from a carefully prepared core...common during the Middle Paleolithic

Front 76

Cro-Magnons

Back 76

Early Europen H. sapiens

Front 77

Competitive exclusion principle

Back 77

Two species with similar food habits cannot long occupy the same ecological niche

Front 78

Loess

Back 78

wind-blown silt

Front 79

Blade

Back 79

A special kind of elongated flake with 2 parallel sides and a length at least twice the width of the piece

Front 80

Burin

Back 80

A stone tool with a head like a chisel, used for planning and engraving

Front 81

Atlatl

Back 81

A spear thrower, or wooden shaft used to propel a spear or dart

Front 82

Magic

Back 82

The performance of certain rituals that are believed to compel supernatural powers to act in particular ways

Front 83

Homeopathic magic

Back 83

Operates according to the "law of similarity," which states that like affects like

Front 84

Cognitive archaeology

Back 84

The study of ancient processes of thought and symbolic behavior as inferred from material remains

Front 85

Band

Back 85

A small, nomadic, politically autonomous community the members of which are often related to each other by ties of blood and marriage

Front 86

Reciprocity

Back 86

The sharing of food and goods freely and directly among the members of a community

Front 87

Egalitarian

Back 87

All individuals of similar age and sex have equal access to economic resources, power and prestige

Front 88

Mesolithic

Back 88

Period of hunter-gatherers in Europe, North Africa, and parts of Asia between the end of the Pleistocene and the introduction of farming

Front 89

Microliths

Back 89

Small, geometrically-shaped stone tools characteristic of the Mesolithic used as arrow points, harpoon barbs, knives, scrapers and awls

Front 90

Sedentism

Back 90

Living in permanent, year-round contexts, such as villages

Front 91

Shell middens

Back 91

mounds of oyster, clam, mussel, and other marine shells accumulated from human collection, consumption, and disposal