Flashcards: Archaeology 1000 Midterm 1

Phase 1

14th-17th century

collecting items of interest to grow collections of the wealthy elite

Phase 2

18th century

no method to digging and no way to connect discoveries

original discovery of Pompeii

Part of the first excavations

Burial mounds that were observed with very Eurocentric mindset, this person excavated one of them and discovered otherwise

Phase 3

18th-20th century

Creation of theories that show a deeper meaning in times

Theory of the Earth

Part of the creating the Discipline

stratification of racks. All layers of the earth tell a different story about the era it lived through

Uniformitarianism

Principals of Geology

Part of creating the Discipline

the processes that take place on earth have been taking place since the beginning of earth

sedimentation, water cycles, cycles of sand and oceans

Part of creating the discipline

Artifacts and extinct animal bones. Was a French customs agent, who discovered human-made artifacts and extinct animal bones

Three Age System

part of creating the discipline

constructed a timeline that expresses the stage of tool and artifact evolution

typology

part of creating the discipline

using material culture to classify what the material culture is used for and where

ethnography: theory of evolving societies

Savagery, Barbarism, Civilization (Eurocentric)

Rosetta Stone - Napoleon

Cuneiform - Henry Layard

Troy - Heinrich Schliemann

Creating the discipline

Proposed exact locations and archaeology remains

creating the discipline

Made the Grid square method

allows us to follow layers of stratigraphy while also covering a small portion of space per person

creating the discipline

Sequence dating using Egyptian pottery

certain types of potter are cycled in and out of fashion and the period of certain popular pottery can help date items of that time

Part of creating the discipline

Investigated the Natufian culture site along the coast and near the easter zone and unearthed proof that people were working with wild crops to overwork and not domesticated crops

part of creating the discipline

located King Tut's tomb in the 1920s

Phase 4

1900-1960

data-focused

classificatory-historical period and the establishment of regional chronological systems and cultural development

Direct historical approach and connecting that past though the present

Assemblages linked to cultural groups

A look at all the things that are tied together that reflect a certain cultural state. A group of artifacts

Part of Classification and Consolidation

Human/environment interaction

cultural-ecological activities and change due to environment and environmental changes

Major disasters forcing people to change locations, like drought, gold shortages killing boom towns

Phase 5

mid-1900s

development of scientific aids to study the past

creation of specialists

part of phase 5

radiocarbon dating, and absolution dating

started in the 1950sbecause that was the first time we had access to carbon dating

phase 6

1960s

interpretation focus - why? question

explanatory vs descriptive and theories that should be testable

Phase 7

specialists and multidisciplinary

public interpretation and publication

phase 7

objectivity in unattainable because you will always be bias basing discoveries from present-day knowledge

each archaeological project must be handled separately

Phase 8

changes in method and theory, no longer a wealthy elite funded hobby

governmental regulation

academic research

objects that are made, modified or used

transportable

Biological remains associated with substances and/or the natural environment human remains

modified aspect of the site is not transportable and has no "added" material

constructed element of the site that is not transportable, "added" material

any spot humans have been (even the moon)

area with several occupation sites, often linked by cultural association

the relationship between the cultural remains and the matric surrounding those cultural remains and the remains themselves

remains left the way they are and are discovered

original human activity

1. acquisition of raw materials

2. manufacture

3. use

4 discard

different context causes the remain to be found outside of its primary context

1. Alteration

2. destruction

the 3rd location of the archaeological remains (horizontal and vertical)

relationships between the cultural and natural aspects of the site

1. hypothesis and formation of a research strategy

2. collect the evidence

3. processing and analysis

publication

consultation of documentary source and local people

accidental finds due to changes in the terrain

locate sites

relate sites to the landscapes

locate neighboring sites

locate areas where there are no sites

variation between sites (cultural vs Natural)

relationship between sites

natural features in the landscape that helps define the boundary

cultural structure defines the boundary

unsystematic survey

systematic survey

extensive survey

intensive survey

transects/transverse

grid system

random sample

systematic sample

(stratified) unaligned systematic sample

combines results from other surveys of neighboring sites or regions

aims for the comprehensive coverage of a site of area also called a micro-regional survey

oblique Aerial photographs

- pictorial effect and perspective

vertical Aerial photographs

- plans and maps

satellite images

maps

shadow marks

soil marks

crop marks

surface and shallow detection

- site detection

- site prediction

site activities identified through the relationships between contemporary archaeological remains

cultural changes through time -stratigraphy

law of superposition

context

excavate every other square in the pattern

used for prehistoric sites dominated by natural formation processes

Use baulks between square

often used for site with structures (historical)

used to see the layers of solid while digging down to see the stratigraphic window

creation of vertical sections where needed, often relating to features and structures

must be used in combination with Checkerboard or wheeler-box

required for deep sites for safety reasons

must be used in combination with checkerboard or wheeler box

- field notebook

- section (baulk) drawings

- artifact and ecofacts bag information

- cleaning artifacts

- classifying based on

surface attributes

shape attributes

technological attributes

- assemblages

grouping the archaeological remains belonging to the same occupation phase and/or activity

- cultures

linking the assemblages from the same period at regional level

publishing the evidence