Archaeology
Quiz: Gridding and Dating
Study Guide
**Please make sure you review the following concepts for the Quiz.
1. Know the 8 rules of relative dating (from your notes) 1) Date artifacts with
caution; 2) There is always a relationship between an artifact and its context; 3)
Date levels according to the latest (newest) artifact found in them; 4) Contexts can
be dated by the artifacts found in them; 5) Objects can be dated by the contexts
they are found in; 6) The 1st appearance of an artifact is more important than its
continued appearance; 7) Residual artifacts are normal; 8) Correlations can be
made between two different sites which traded with one anotheror traded with
similar groups.
2. Know why grids are used at sites and how to create a grid on paper including all
the steps to complete it. Grids organize sites. They enable you to document the
location every artifact discovered at the site. Steps to gridding on paper: Square
off site; indicate 1 inch marks on every site of the square you created; connect all
1 inch marks so that you have grid squares; "name" each grid square with a
number and a letter (1A, etc).
3. Know what slit trenches and keyhole trenches are and why they are used. Slit
trenches are used to expose entire fortification walls and also expose levels.
Keyhole trenches or "test pits" are used to determine if you are digging in the
correct place.
4. Know the problems of digging at an urban site. Modern features cutting through
older levels can cause artifacts from upper levels to drop down to lower levels,
making it difficult to interpret the levels. Other issues include gas lines, electric
cables and sewer lines cutting through the levels and causing dangerous
situations.
5. Know C14 dating: when to use, limitations, how to use the decay graph to
measure amount of C14 in an object and how to derive a date knowing C14
levels. C14 decays at a known rate (5730 years=half life). As a result of this fixed
rate of decay, archaeologists can use it to date once living objects by determining
the amount of C14 left in the object. For the rest of this, you should be able to use
you C14 decay graph---have it with you for the quiz.
6. Know the differences between relative and absolute dating. relative dating
provides "on or about" dates but no specific dates. Absolute dating provides "near
specific" dates.
7. Know types of relative and absolute dating methods. Two types of relative dating
are: sequence dating and cross dating. Two types of Absolute dating are: C14 and
Dendrochronology.
8. Know what sequence dating and cross dating look like. Remember the drawings I
did on the board. Remember, sequence dating provides no dates just a sequence
for which artifacts are oldest to which artifacts are newest. Cross dating allows
one to use artifacts of known date from one site to date the levels of another site
that have the same artifacts. This is possible because ancient civilizations traded
with one another.
9. Know how to “read” the rings on a tree cross section. Not much I can do here but
you will be given a cross section of a tree and you will be asked some questions
about it.
10. Know the kinds of information we can obtain from tree rings. 1) Dates; 2)
climatic conditions.