Name: ______________________________ Date: ______________ Class Hour: ___________
Archeology Vocabulary
Vocabulary Word
1. Archeologist
2. Archeology
(also spelled archaeology in the U.S.)
3. Archeological “Context”
4. Artifact
5. Field Notes
6. Feature
7. Historical Archeology
8. Material Culture
9. Post Mold
10. Primary Source
11. Provenience
Definition
Someone who uses scientific methods to study the
material remains of past human life and activities. As
scholars and scientists, archeologists do not collect
artifacts for profit or personal use.
The scientific study of how people lived in the past through
analysis of material remains uncovered during scientific
excavations or digs.
Archeologists use the term “context” to describe the
observable stratigraphic units, which include specific layers
or deposits of soil, or features such as post molds.
Archeologists dig according to the different contexts that
they find within the site, starting with the excavation of
the most recently deposited context and moving back in
time or deeper in the ground. Artifacts are bagged,
analyzed and eventually stored according to context.
Artifacts within each context can be used to date the
context and help to determine the date or timeline of the
history of the entire site.
Anything made and /or used by humans, including tools,
containers, and food remains. Buildings are also artifacts,
but archeologists usually apply the term “artifact” only to
portable items.
Archaeologists keep a notebook with them when they are
digging so they can note when they change levels and
what kinds of things they find. They need to keep another
record in case the profile or floor plan they drew wasn't
very clear. Later, in the lab, archaeologists might question
the context of an object. If they have notes to go back and
look at, it makes it easier to figure out what was going on.
The goal of every archaeological excavation is to document
the work so well that anyone could accurately reproduce
the site using only the field notes and site maps.
A non-portable artifact that cannot be moved without
destroying it. Examples of features include wells, privy pits,
walls, and fence posts.
The study of archeological sites from the modern period in
conjunction with historical records and other kinds of
information.
A term given to objects that people use on a daily basis
that reveal facts about their lives.
A type of feature; a circular stain left in the ground after a
wooden post has decayed. It usually indicates the former
existence of a house or fence.
Made by people who actually saw and wrote about a
historical place or activity at the time when that activity
happened.
A specific location where an artifact or feature is found in
12. Secondary Source
13. Stratigraphy
14. Urban Archeology
15. Absolute Dating
also known as chronometric dating
16. A.D.
17. Archaeoastronomer
18. Attribute
19. B.C.
20. Chronology
21. Conservation
22. Dendochronology
23. digs
24. Ecofact
the ground.
Made by people who learned about the place of events
from someone else or by looking at primary sources.
Refers to the interpretation of the layers in archaeological
deposits. By examining and analyzing the layers (strata)
and the artifacts in them, archaeologists can learn how
past people lived and what kinds of things they did.
Usually, the artifacts found on top are the youngest (most
recent), while those on the bottom are the oldest. If the
stratigraphy gets mixed up (for example, if someone digs a
hole down into it) then interpretation becomes much
more difficult, and sometimes impossible. If this happens,
artifacts are no longer in context.
Urban archeology usually occurs when land is being
cleared for new buildings or older buildings are being torn
down. Archeologists are called to excavate the sites in
order to collect and preserve the artifacts. This type of
archeology is many times considered a rescue excavation
because of the time pressure of the builders and
construction crews.
A dating method that attempts to determine an object's
exact age (as opposed to its relative age) in calendar years
(AD or BC/BCE) or in years before present (BP). This
includes scientific methodologies such as
dendrochronology, radiocarbon dating and potassiumargon dating. The dates provided by these methods are
not 100% accurate, and each date has a margin of
uncertainty.
Abbreviation for the Latin phrase "Anno Domini," which
means "in the year of our Lord." Used to refer to dates
starting with the year 1 (i.e., this is the year A.D. 2003).
Archaeologists who study how ancient peoples saw and
thought about the planets, stars, and calendar.
A characteristic or recognizable quality of an object, such
as size, color, material, shape, age, etc., which is used to
describe, analyze, or characterize an artifact.
Abbreviation for "Before Christ.", used to refer to dates
before the year 1.
The arrangement of events in the order in which they took
place.
The scientific process of cleaning--and often repairing
and/or restoring--an artifact in order to preserve it for
further study and/or display.
A method of dating that counts the annual tree rings and
matches up the ring patterns to make a dating sequence,
usually on wooden objects. The oldest form of scientific
dating.
Archaeological sites with on-going excavations
A naturally produced object found on an archaeological
site, such as the remains of animals or plants, that gives us
information about past environments. For example, seeds,
animal bones and soil could all be ecofacts.
25. Excavate/Excavation
26. Grid
27. Level
28. Midden
29. Observation
30. Paleoanthropologist
31. palaeontology/Paleontologist
32. Prehistory
33. Preserve
34. Profile
The process of methodically uncovering and searching for
remains of the past. Because an excavation removes any
deposits, it destroys a site forever. Archaeological
evidence is almost always destroyed if it isn't buried, so
excavation plays a large part in recovering this evidence.
Some excavation methods are grid layout, open
excavation, and quadrant method.
The division of an archaeological site into small squares
that denote different areas of excavation, making it easier
to measure and document the site.
The layer in which archaeologists dig. When they dig down
through many layers in one site, it is also a unit of
measurement. All sites have different numbers of levels,
and even the different units within one site may have
different numbers of levels. How do archaeologists decide
when they are going into another level? Archaeologists try
to judge by cultural clues like floors, but sometimes they
will go by changes in soil color or soil type, or even by a
specific number of centimeters. For example, an
archaeologist might give a different level number every 10
centimeters in a site. Archaeologists want to keep track of
levels because this allows them to build a profile (or a
cross section) of the units, so that they can look at how the
site changed over time.
A rubbish or trash heap of remains. At [ancient]
settlements, a midden was the place where people
discarded broken pots and tools, ashes, food remains, and
other items that were thrown out or left behind. Because
of this, middens are great places for archeologists to find
out how people lived and what they cooked and made at a
site.
Looking at and critically noting the details of a site, an
artifact, or cultural behavior.
A type of anthropologist who studies early humans by
excavating and looking at fossilized human skeletal
remains.
The study of fossils [/] the scientists who study these
fossils. Human palaeontology is the study of human
origins.
The time before the development of written records; ends
about 3,000 years ago.
To keep safe and protect from injury, harm, or destruction;
to keep alive, intact, or free from decay; to save from
decomposition.
A profile is a picture of the layers of a unit. It's sort of like if
you were to make a five-layer cake with each cake layer a
different color. If you looked at it from the side you would
see all the different levels. This is very useful to
archaeologists because they can see changes in soil color
or composition (for example, sand and then black soil and
then rock). A profile of a unit helps archaeologists
understand the levels that were excavated, as well as
changes in human activity over time.
35. Projectile Point
36. Replica
37. Restoration
38. Stratification
39. Underwater Archaeology
40. Unit
Artifacts such as arrowheads and spearheads, used mostly
for hunting animals.
A copy or reproduction of the original
The process of cleaning and studying an artifact and
attempting to return it to its original form (before it was
buried).
Layers of deposits that provide archaeologists with one of
the major tools or clues for interpreting archaeological
sites (stratigraphy). Over time, debris and soil accumulate
in layers. Color, texture, and contents may change with
each layer. Archaeologists try to explain how each layer
was added--if it occurred naturally, deliberately (garbage),
or from the collapse of structures--and they record it in
detailed drawings so others can follow.
The process of excavating archaeological material covered
by fresh or seawater.
Archaeologists lay out a grid over a site to divide it into
units, and then they figure out which units will be dug.
Units vary in size. Archaeologists dig one unit at a time.
Keeping track of specific measurements between artifacts
and features gives archaeologists the ability to draw an
overall map looking down on the site (called a floor plan),
to get the bigger picture of the site.