Chapter 5
Field Methods in Archaeology
and Paleoanthropology
Chapter Preview

How Are the Physical and Cultural Remains
of Past Humans Investigated?

Are Human Physical and Cultural Remains
Always Found Together?

How Are Archaeological or Fossil Remains
Dated?
Prehistory and History
The term prehistory is used to refer to
the period of time before the
appearance of written records.
 This does not deny the existence of
history, merely of written history.

Paleoanthropology
The study of the physical remains of
our ancestors and other ancient
primates.
 Paleoanthropologists do more than
find and catalogue old bones.
 Paleoanthropologists recover,
describe, and organize these remains
to see what they can tell us about
human biological and cultural
evolution.

Recovering Cultural And
Biological Remains
The only way to thoroughly investigate
our past is to excavate (dig) sites
where biological and cultural remains
are found.
Recovering Cultural And
Biological Remains
The fundamental premise of excavation is that all digging is
destructive, even that done by experts. The archaeologist’s
primary responsibility, therefore, is to record a site for posterity as
it is dug because there are no second chances.
- Brian Fagan, archaeologist
What kinds of information can we get from recording a site?
ANSWER – Material Culture and Skeletal Remains/Fossils
Material Culture
The term material culture refers to
the durable aspects of culture such as
tools, structures, and art.
Types of Material Culture




Artifacts = objects which have been
modified by hominids (stone tools,
ceramics, wood tools, etc.)
Manuports = natural objects that were
carried by hominids but not modified
Ecofacts = natural objects found in
association with hominids (e.g. plant
remains, animal remains)
Features = large, non-portable modified
objects found at hominid sites (e.g. hearths,
buildings, large statues, rock art, etc.)
Types of Material Culture:
For Class Discussion
Is this example of one of the Nazca Lines in
Peru a feature, artifact, ecofact or manuport?
Types of Material Culture:
For Class Discussion
Are these examples of Maya sculpture
features, artifacts, ecofacts or manuports?
Types of Material Culture:
For Class Discussion
Look over this list of material objects
and decide if they are artifacts,
manuports, ecofacts, or features:
1. A lucky rabbit’s foot
2. Bones of a dairy cow
3. A stepped-pyramid
4. A stone tool
5. A hearth or ring of stones
The Nature of Fossils

The term fossil refers to any mineralized
trace or impression of an organism that has
been preserved in earth’s crust from past
geological time.
The Nature of Fossils
•It is also important to understand the kinds of
factors that led to the placement of the fossil
within the ground as well as affected its
preservation
• TAPHONOMY = the study of what happens to
bones and other material remains once they
have been discarded or the animal has died,
and before they are excavated.
Taphonomy
• Cultural Transforms – burial, mortuary ritual,
plowing, looting
• Natural Transforms – erosion, weathering,
scavenging, natural disasters, animal
action in the soil, climatic conditions
Natural and Cultural Burial of
the Dead

Entirely preserved fossil skeletons dating
before the cultural practice of burial about
100,000 years ago are quite rare.

The human fossil record from before this
period consists primarily of fragmentary
remains.
Natural and Cultural Burial of
the Dead

The fossil record for many fossil primates is
even poorer, because organic materials
decay rapidly in the tropical forests where
they lived.

By contrast, the fossils of our pre-human
ancestors are generally better preserved
because of the arid savanna in which they
were located.
Searching For Artifacts
And Fossils

Places containing archaeological remains of
previous human activity are known as sites.
Searching For Artifacts
And Fossils

There are many kinds
of sites, and
sometimes it is difficult
to define their
boundaries, for
remains may be strewn
over large areas. Sites
are even found
underwater.
Site Identification
• The first task for the archaeologist is actually
finding sites to investigate.
• Usually archaeologists survey a region in order
to plot the sites available for excavation. A survey
can be made from the ground, but more territory
can be covered using aerial photography.
•Innovations such as geographic information
systems (GIS), remote sensing, and ground
penetrating radar (GPR) often complement these
exploration methods.
Site Identification
•What archaeologists look for:
(1) soil marks or stains that show up on
the surface of recently plowed fields.
These may reveal an archaeological site.
(2) middens or refuse or garbage disposal
areas in an archaeological site. May
appear to be large mounds.
Excavation
Since excavations are destructive, archaeologists must
carefully record the location of material remains in threedimensional space.
Excavation

To begin, the land is cleared, and the places
to be excavated are plotted as a grid
system – a system for recording data in
three dimensions from an archaeological
excavation. Usually divides a site into
squares (1m x 1m).

Grids are established using a datum point
or reference point for a grid system.
Excavation

Trowels are used to scrape the soil, and
screens are used to sift all the loose soils so
that even the smallest artifacts, such as flint
chips or beads, are recovered.

Some archaeologists use flotation – a
technique used to recover very tiny objects
by immersion of soil samples in water to
separate heavy from light particles.
Excavation

If a site is stratified (i.e. contains layers of
cultural and biological remains), each layer
or strata is excavated separately.

Archaeologists can also use stratigraphy
to relatively date the remains by means of
strata. Objects in lower strata are older
than objects in higher strata.
Example of Stratigraphy
Stratigraphy
Exercise
Which material remain is
older?
Excavation of Fossils
• Both skill and caution are required to remove
a fossil from its burial place without damage.
• Paleoanthropologists use a combination of
tools and materials to do this: pickaxes, dental
tools, enamel coating, burlap for bandages,
and sculpting plaster.
State of Preservation

Artifacts made of inorganic materials such
as stones are preserved better than artifacts
made of perishable materials (unless there
are favorable climatic conditions).
State of Preservation

Sometimes the impressions of organic
objects (such as post holes) can
provide clues about the objects
themselves.
Sorting Out the Evidence
Excavation records include a scale
map of all the features, the
stratification of each excavated
square, a description of the exact
location and depth of every artifact or
bone unearthed, and photographs and
scale drawings of the objects.
Sorting Out the Evidence
In the lab, artifacts that have been
recovered from an excavation must be
cleaned and catalogued before they are
ready for analysis.
From the shapes of the artifacts as well as
from the traces of manufacture and wear,
archaeologists can usually determine their
function.
Sorting Out the Evidence

Other kinds of information gathered
from fossils:
(1) Endocasts - Casts of the inside of a
skull which can help determine the
size and shape of the brain.
(2) Coprolites - Preserved fecal
material providing evidence of the diet
and health of past organisms.
Sorting Out the Evidence

Other kinds of information gathered
from fossils:
(3) Small fragments of DNA can be
amplified or copied repeatedly using
polymerase chain reaction (PCR)
technology to provide a sufficient
amount of material to perform these
analyses.
Bioarchaeology and
Forensics
The term bioarchaeology refers to
the archaeological study of human
remains emphasizing the preservation
of cultural and social processes in the
skeleton.
Examples include: forensic
anthropology, human osteology, and
paleopathology.
Human Osteology
(1) determine the sex, age (at death),
and ancestral population of a skeleton
from morphological features
(2) determine wear patterns on the
bones and teeth from repeated
activities
(3) comparison with other skeletons to
determine species affiliation
Human Osteology
Paleopathology
•
- Iron deficiency causes anemia = porous bones
•
- Vitamin D deficiency causes legs to grow bent.
•
- Malnutrition or under-nutrition is inferred from
measurements.
•
- Certain infections leave specific traces in the
skeleton.
•
- Various cancers are identifiable in the skeleton.
skeletal
Paleopathology
- Trauma in skeletons is clearly evident in bone
fractures, especially when they have not healed
successfully.
- The individual workload leaves traces in the skeleton.
- Growth-disrupting and growth-retarding stresses
during childhood will leave transverse lines of
dense bone visible in radiographs of long bones of
the body.
Case Studies in
Paleopathology
Tibias from a 50-60 year
old Roman Soldier, 3rd-4th
Century, AD
Case Studies in
Paleopathology
Spear injury to right tibia
Osteoporosis on both tibias
Case Studies in
Paleopathology
Patellas of a 40 year old
Moche potter (350-600 AD)
Case Studies in
Paleopathology
Both show wear from
extended periods of
kneeling
Case Studies in
Paleopathology
Female Skull, 500 AD
Case Studies in
Paleopathology
Blunt force trauma to left
side of the face
Case Studies in
Paleopathology
Male Skull, Belize,
Postclassic Period (1300
AD)
Case Studies in
Paleopathology
Possible anemia or
syphilitic infection
Case Studies in
Paleopathology
Yde Girl – a bog body from
the Netherlands
(1st Century AD)
Case Studies in
Paleopathology
Hair has been cut off
Evidence of strangulation
or hanging
Case Studies in
Paleopathology
Skulls with evidence for
cranial re-shaping
Bioarchaeology and Ethics
As scientists, anthropologists know the
importance of the information that can
be gleaned from studies of human
skeletons, but as scholars subject to
ethical principles, they are bound to
respect the feelings of those who give
skeletons a deep cultural and spiritual
significance.
Dating the Past

Two types of dating:
(1) relative dating - designating an event,
object, or fossil as being older or younger
than another.
(2) absolute or chronometric dating –
provides dates for recovered material based
on solar years, centuries, or other units of
absolute time.
Relative Dating Techniques
Seriation = a technique for
relative dating by putting groups
of objects into a sequence in
relation to one another.
Stratigraphy = a technique for
relative dating based on
organizing remains by means of
strata. Objects in lower strata
are older than objects in higher
strata.
Relative Dating Techniques
Palynology = a method of
relative dating based on
changes in fossil pollen over
time.
Absolute Dating Techniques
Radiocarbon dating = a
technique of dating based on
measuring the amount of
radioactive carbon (14C ) left in
organic materials found in
archaeological sites.
Dendrochronology = a method of
dating based on the number of
rings of growth found in a tree
trunk.
Absolute Dating Techniques
Potassium-argon dating = a
method of absolute dating based
on measuring the amount of
radioactive potassium left in a
layer of volcanic rock.
Absolute Dating Techniques
Electron spin resonance =
measures the number of trapped
electrons in bone
Thermo-luminescence =
measures the amount of light
emitted from a specimen when
heated to high temperatures.
Chance and the Study of the
Past

The archaeological and fossil
records are imperfect, partial, and
non-representative.

Chance circumstances of
preservation and discovery have
determined what has survived the
ravages of time to be excavated
by archaeologists.