Archaeology and Physical
Anthropology – Studying the Past
UNIT 2
Outline
 Ethics
 Methods
 Multidisciplinary approach
 Bone Biology
 Molecular Anthropology
 Paleoanthropology
 Survey and Excavation
 Systematic Survey
 Excavation
 Kinds of Archaeology
 Dating the Past
 Relative Dating
 Absolute Dating: Radiometric Techniques
 Absolute Dating: Dendrochronology
Studying the Past
 Ethics


You can’t study something
because it is interesting or
of value to science
Contrasting systems of
ethics and values,
especially when working
outside of your country of
origin
Ethics
 Physical and
archaeological
anthropologists work in
international teams
 In Paeloanthropology
(study of hominid,
hominin, and human life
through the fossil
record), physical and
archaeologists work
together
Ethics
 Anthropologists must inform and
collaborate with officials in the
host country



What materials will be used
Where will artifacts be stored?
Who do different samples belong to?
 International movement now
advocating on behalf on
indigenous and formerly colonized
people

Some early anthropologists robbed
early peoples of history and bodies
 Lawsuits against museums by
groups seeking reparations of
remains and artifacts are common


Peru suing Yale to recover objects
taken in 1912
Images of native Australian fauna like
emu and kangaroo belong to
Aboriginal people
Ethics Discussion
 Who should own and
distribute what?
 How can the truth be
known?
 Should these cultures be
allowed to sue for their
artifacts back, even when
taken so long ago? Why
or why not?
STOP – Activity Time
 Read the article The Kennewick Conundrum in your




groups
Discuss with your groups (and be ready to discuss as
a whole)
Who do artifacts belong to?
How can you prove it?
Where do you draw the line between scientific study
and respect for the long dead?
Ethics
 Bad behavior of past
anthropologists can put
them against local
communities

Anthropologists rely on the
goodwill of those
communities to study
 Anthropologists must get
informed consent to study

Informed consent:
agreement to take part in
research after being fully
informed about it

Must be told how samples
will be collected, used,
identified, and potential
costs and benefits
Ethics
 American
Anthropological
Association (AAA) says
anthropologists should
not exploit individuals,
groups, animals, or
cultural or biological
materials
 Recognize debt to people
whom they work and give
back
STOP! – Review Time
 What kinds of things must archaeologists consider
before studying a place?
 Why is it important to have a good relationship with
the host country?
 Who does the AAA say anthropologists should not
harm?
Methods
 Physical anthropologists
focus on fossil remains
and what they tell us
about human biology
 Archaeologists focus on
artifacts and what they
tell us about past
cultures
Multidisciplinary Approach
 Different types of scientists work
with anthropologists


Physicists and chemists help with
dating
Work with the different scientific
fields to reconstruct ancient
biology and ways of life
 Low tech and high tech tools at
sites



Small hand held tools
Photos, maps, drawings, and
measurements all entered into
notebooks and computers
Aerial photos and satellite photos

Work with geologists and
geographers to use images to find
footpaths, roads, canals,
flooding, deforestation
Bone Biology
 Bone biology is the study of bones
as biological tissue, including its
genetics, cell structure, growth,
development and decay, and
patterns of movement


Osteology is study of skeletal variation
and its biological and social causes
Paleopathology is the study of disease
and injury in skeletons from
archaeological sites
 Physical anthropologists work in
legal context, assisting coroners,
medical examiners, and law
enforcement agencies

Unknown skeleton found, call
anthropologists to help indentify the
body

Can tell height, age, and sex of person
Molecular Anthropology
 Uses genetic analysis to
assess evolutionary links
 Evolutionary distance
among living species and
dates of most recent
common ancestry can be
estimated
 Use genetic clocks to
estimate divergence time
among species
Paleoanthropology
 Study early hominids
and hominins through
fossil remains
 Teams usually consist of
scientists, students, and
local workers
 Paleontologists and
geologists are called in
early surveying to predict
hominin sites
Survey and Excavation
 Excavate – dig through
layers of a site
 Sites are usually part of
larger social systems
 Systematic survey


Study of settlement
patterns over a large area
Reconstruct settlement
patterns
Survey and Excavation
 Through excavation,
archaeologists recover
remains by digging through
layers of deposits that
make up a site
 Layers used to establish
relative time order of
materials encountered in
the dig
 Excavation is very resource
heavy and expensive

Digs not allowed without
good reason
 Sites must be mapped
before being excavated
STOP! Review Time
 What methods did archaeologists use?
 What is bone biology?
 What is molecular anthropology?
 What is the difference between surveying and
excavation?
Dating the Past
 Different methods and
ways to date fossils with
different degrees of
precision
 Relative dating

Establishing a time frame in
relation to other strata or
materials
 Dating methods based on
stratigraphy, the science
that examines the ways in
which earth sediments
cumulate in layers called
strata
Absolute Dating: Radiometric Techniques
 Fossils also have absolute
dating – establishing dates
in numbers or ranges of
numbers
 Several methods

Carbon dating
Radiometric technique
 Measure the amount of 14C
in organic material to tell
fossil’s date of death
 Half life is short so less
dependable for
specimens older than
40,000 years

Absolute Dating: Radiometric Techniques
 Another is
Potassium/Argon


Half life of 1.3 billion years
Older the specimen, more
reliable the date
 Uranium series dating
 Measures fission tracks
produced during the decay of
radioactive uranium
 Thermoluminescence (TL)
and electron spin
resonance (ESR)

Measure electrons constantly
being trapped in rocks and
minerals
Absolute Dating: Dendrochronology
 Dendrochronoly is tree-ring
dating


Wide rings during wet years
and narrow during dry
Climatic variations produce
distinctive year-by-year
patterns
 Crossdating – process of
matching ring patterns among
trees and assigning rings to
specific calendar years
 Limited to certain tree species


Those growing in climates
marked with seasons
Trees must come from same
region
Absolute dating techniques
Techniquers
Abbreviation
Materials Dated
Effective Time
Range
Carbon-14
14C
Organic material
Up to 40,000 years
Potassium-argon
K/A and 40K
Volcanic rock
Older than
500,000 years
Uranium series
238U
Minerals
Between 1,000 and
1,000,000 years
Thermoluminescence
TL
Rocks and
minerals
Between 5,000 and
1,000,000 years
Electron spin
resonance
ESR
Rocks and
minerals
Between 1,000 and
1,000,000 years
Dendrochronology
Dendro
Wood and charcoal Up to 11,000 years
STOP! Review Time
 What are the two types of dating methods?
 What are the different types of absolute dating
methods?