Intro To Archaeology Exam 1

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"Father of Processual Archaeology"
Used scientific method: sampling strategies and testable hypotheses
Used measurements to quantify and compare between sites

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Lewis Binford

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Was a culture historian
Used ceramics as time markers
Linked types to specific areas/cultural groups of Southwest North America
Used strata to compare ages of pottery between regions
Concept of seriation - Battleship curve

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Alfred Kidder

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Came up with historical materialism
Social inequality stems from unequal access to natural resources/tools used to produce food/goods, control land and labor
First to articulate why some are more privileged than others: wealth and land

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Karl Marx

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Attributed with natural selection: "survival of the fittest"
Theory of evolution where species change over time to adapt to the environment

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Charles Darwin

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Discovered H. habilis with Oldowan tools when excavating Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania in the 1930s to 50s
Also found A. afarensis footprints in Laetoli

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Mary and Louis Leakey

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Colonized 1000 AD
Patterned burials and pottery were found within the mounds of this culture
Americans theorized who could have made the mounds: Vikings, lost citizens of Atlantis, Chinese
Did not want to say Native Americans because of desire to overpower them

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Mississippians "Mound-Builders"

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Male and female (with child) A. afarensis footprints were found here by Mary Leakey
Made in volcanic ash from 3.6 mya
Female's footprints were much smaller than male's indicating sexual dimorphism in species

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Laetoli

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H. habilis with Oldowan tools was found here by Mary and Louis Leakey
Cradle of mankind: first definite evidence of tool use - flakes knicked off of stone
Bipedalism

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Olduvai Gorge

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Approximately when did hominins diverge from other great apes?

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7 mya

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How old is the earliest evidence of stone tool use?

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A. gahri was discovered near butchered animal bones, although there is no definite link: 2.5 mya
H. habilis is first species known to definitely use tools: 2.5-2 mya - Oldowan lithic tools

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When did our genus Homo emerge?

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2.5 mya Homo habilis

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Approximately how far back in time can we successfully use radiocarbon dating? What determines this dating limitations for radiocarbon and other radiometric dating methods?

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Useful on sites up to 45,000 years old. After that the half-life gets too small to calculate
In some the half-life is too large to measure findings from more recent history

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What are the 3 parts of the Stone Age and what characterizes them?

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Paleolithic - mobile groups of hunter-gatherers with a variety of stone tools
Mesolithic - specialization of tools and increased use of rivers and oceans
Neolithic - Some become sedentary with the construction of more substantial buildings and pottery

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What period is characterized by being in the Pleistocene with mobile groups of hunter-gatherers who hunted large megafauna?

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Paleoindian

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What period is after the Ice Age

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Archaic period

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What period takes place in Eastern North America?

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Woodland period 1000 BC to 1600 AD

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What period takes place in Southeast and Midwest North America?

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Mississippian period

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This genus had the first truly bipedal apes and first signs of relationship to material culture
Ape-like arms, brain size between apes and humans
Diet: fruit, nuts, berries, seeds, plants
4.1 mya +

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Australopithecus

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This genus was characterized by having a large brain size, was fully upright bipedally, had longer and stronger thumbs for tools and ate a varied omnivorous diet
2.5 mya +

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Homo

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Which two species are candidates for the first users of controlled fire? Based on what evidence?

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H. ergaster: based on their rapid migration rate, it is hypothesized they used fire to sustain the populations
H. erectus: found with hearth features 780,000 BP

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Which two species may have been the first to manufacture and use lithic tools? Based on what evidence?

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H. habilis: Oldowan tools, found with flakes knicked off of stone
H. erectus: Acheulian tools, found with symmetrical features and a consistent pattern with manufacturing

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Which species may have been the first to use clothing for warmth? Based on what evidence?

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H. sapiens neanderthalensis: found with Mousterian burins and awls

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Which species of Homo existed on Earth for the longest amount of time?

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H. erectus

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Which species was the first to be found outside of Africa?

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H. ergaster

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A systematic examination of material evidence

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Archaeology

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A learned system of beliefs and practices shared by a group of people
Funeral rituals, weddings, religion

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Culture

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Four sub-fields of Anthropology

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Biological, Cultural, Linguistic Anthropology & Archaeology:
Explains why and how patterns in human behavior occur

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Theory-driven, comparative study of behavior

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Ethnology

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Qualitative study of behavior aimed to understand phenomena of a specific cultural group

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Ethnography

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Discrete groups are associated with regions and use time, space, and artifacts to infer about culture
Alfred Kidder

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Culture History

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Layers of rock/dirt tell us about different topography of the Earth over time

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Stratigraphy

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The deeper the layer of rock/dirt, the older it is geologically

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Stratum/strata

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Strata is deposited horizontally due to gravity

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Principle of Original Horizontality

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Deeper soil/rock layers are older if they are undisturbed

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Law of Superposition

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Within a species there is genetic variability and the selected traits, those that are beneficial to survival in a given environment, will be the ones passed on in greater proportions

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Natural Selection

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Species change over time to adapt to their environment.
The fossil record supports this theory

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Evolution

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Geological processes in the past are similar to the present

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Uniformitarianism

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History and culture are influenced by ways societies produce food/goods which then shapes technology and economy

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Historical Materialism

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More of an interest in rare, exotic objects than the meaning behind them and the people who used them

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Antiquarianism

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Place with evidence of the human past

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Archaeological site

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Evidence of culturally significant plants/animals
Ex. food or religion

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Ecofact

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Object created or modified by human hands

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Artifact

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Non-portable evidence of human activity
Usually made of dirt or is a building
Anomalies that interrupt strata which cannot be taken back to the lab

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Feature

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all tangible items that have been modified by cultural behavior

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Material culture

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A refuse deposit of artifacts, food remains

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Midden

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Hole dug to set in a post for a building, palisade, or fence line /
Feature resulting from the post itself (dirt in hole is younger than around)

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Posthole /
Postmold

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The artifact has not been moved from its original position

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In situ

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3-dimensional location of archaeologica evidence, including the spatial relationship between artifacts

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Provenience

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Floralturbation: plant roots move stuff underground, fallen trees
Faunalturbation: burrowing animals

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Bioturbation

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Cryoturbation: freezing soil expanding/contracting
Argilliturbation: wet/dry clay
Graviturbation: movement downslope

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Geoturbation

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Asking if excavation is really necessary, for in the future, archaeologists may have better, more appropriate tools for analyzing the data/artifacts gotten from the site

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Conservation ethic

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A point on the site that is easy to find, immovable, permanent and ideally represented on local maps
Public buildings that won't be torn down

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Site datum or Datum point

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Survey line of known compass orientation

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Transect

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Specify intervals between where the digging is

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Shovel testing

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Pedestrian visual survey locates and maps scattered items

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Surface collection

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High altitude imagery (how topography has been impacted by humans
Soil resistivity (overall plan)
Proton precession magnetometry
Ground penetrating radar
Underwater (sonar)

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Remote sensing methods

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Provides an estimated calendar date or range vs. establishing the order of events based on provenience with no calendar date

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Absolute dating vs. relative dating

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When the atomic structure changes, useful up to 300,000 years:
thermoluminescense (pottery, stone),
Optically Stimulated Luminescense (when stratum was covered),
Electron Spin Resonance (documents)

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Trapped charge dating methods

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tree ring dating, wood. Can give us climatic data as well as dates

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Dendrochronology

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requires well-preserved organic material (usually a sample of charcoal), mainly for prehistoric sites, accuracies with 50-80 years of error

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Radiocarbon

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dates the last time an artifact was heated: pottery, kiln sites, hearths, heat-treated stone tools

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Thermoluminescence

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Predictable rate of decay, when 50% of an unstable atom’s energy is released as radiation

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Half-life

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dates must calibrated for accuracy due to the Radiocarbon Calibration Curve

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Calibration

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(“the date after which”) dates the earliest date a stratum was deposited, based on known manufacture date for the most recent artifact of a provenience

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Terminus post quem dating

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recovers plants remains, small mesh recovers small/fragile contents

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Flotation

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group of artifacts from the same site or same provenience

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Assemblage

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based on shared, observable attributes

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Typology, artifact type

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form
style
decoration
color
material (ceramic, lithic)

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Artifact attributes

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Can be used to arrive at a date

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Diagnostic artifact

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Made of stone

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Lithic

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Made of fired clay (pottery). They are common, fragile yet durable once already broken, easily dated, have regional associations (trade, intermarriage, migration), and styles decorations that change over time (social status)

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Ceramic

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way of life based on obtaining food

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Subsistence strategy

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rely on wild foods, they are very mobile communities who follow herds, water sources, plants in season

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Forager (a.k.a. “hunter-gatherer”)

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Produce staple crops which are supplemented by hunting, fishing, and/or domesticated livestock, they are at least seasonally sedentary

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Horticulturalist

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Live off of livestock and no crops, their plant foods are gathered or imported, they are mobile communities who follow herds

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Pastoralist

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Domesticate plants and animals and are fully sedentary

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Agriculturalist

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Fossil record supports this theory of how change occurs in a species: abruptly

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Punctuated equilibrium

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one species branches into many with each new species specialized for its ecological niche

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Adaptive Radiation

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Development of separate species from a common ancestor due to geographic and/or reproductive isolation

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Speciation

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human beings and ancestors since divergence from great apes

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Hominin/Hominidae

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Ice Age

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Pleistocene

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walking on two feet: frees hands for tools, reduces sun exposure, allows long distance vision on the Savannah, although it makes childbirth more difficult/painful

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Bipedalism

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H. sapiens; begin to appear 180,000-150,000 years ago during the intense cold period of the Pleistocene; indistinguishable in features from modern humans

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Anatomically modern humans

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H. habilis in Olduvai Gorge; simple flakes, choppers, and hand axes; were spur of the moment and perishable tools; showed a mechanical understanding, but there were no formal consistencies between them.

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Oldowan lithic technology

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H.erectus; these have formal consistencies which shows that ideas are being exchanged and communication is taking place between people

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Acheulian lithic technology

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H. sapiens Neanderthalensis; variety of specialized and diverse with tool designs that were equipped for specific functions; hand axes, scrapers, notched and serated flakes; awls for clothing possibly

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Mousterian lithic technology

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There is little variation globally, but in Africa, there is the greatest amount of genetic variation (more time to interbreed with other populations: supports the Out of Africa model.

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Mitochondrial DNA

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shared physical characteristics of H. erectus and H. sapiens in same regions with a rapid spread to all 3 continents vs. H. erectus acquiring selected traits and becomes H. sapiens in Africa then they spread to Europe and Asia where they were more successful at hunting/gathering than H. erectus

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Multi-regional vs. Out-of-Africa models