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1.
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survey
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Babylonia
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Southern Mesopotamia
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Organic
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Was once living
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artifact
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a human made object
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Cholula
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2200 ya to today
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Levallois
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tool technique/tradition, prepared core, taking off 4-5 consistently shaped flakes
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Homo heidelbergensis
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Homo erectus in Europe
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Clovis
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The earliest well-established Native American culture, distributed throughout much of North America and dating 11,200 to 10,900 BC.
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Matrix
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the sediment enclosing the archaeological record
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reciprocity
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obligations between individuals or groups involving the expectation that the other party will respond when called on to do so
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prehistory
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history before development of writing
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Iconography?
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art forms/writing systems that symbolically represent ideas about religion or cosmology
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arbitrary levels
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measured strata by estimation. normally done by distance
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Teotichuacan
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Largest city 125,000 people. irrigated fields, avenue of the dead
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totem
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particular object that serves to identify a specific group such as a clan
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cultural anthropology
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nonbiological aspects; learned social, linguistic, tecnological & familial behaviors of humans
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alta mira
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Spain, 100 bison,
• conkey-information communication system
• Certain ground gather at certain time of the year
• To exchange gods, mates, for ritual
• Way to increase group identity and group solidarity
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Excavation
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how archaeologists gather data about the past
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feature
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the non portable evidence of technology, such as fire hearths, architectural elements, artifact clusters, garbage pits, and soil stains
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Chavin Culture
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SA characterized by feline deity
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knapping
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intentionally removing a series of flakes, working stone (a.k.a. flaking)
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intensive agriculture
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cultivation using draft animals, machinery or hand tools in which plots are used annually, often entails fertilizer, irrigation, and land reclimation
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quantitative attributes
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length, width, thickness, weight, numeric dimensions
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Crop marks
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Usually mark antiquities buried. Affects color, density, and height of crops!
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faunal analysis
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examine bones of animal killed. examine how they were cut, broken. used experimentally
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acheulean
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stone tool africa and western europe and asia. homo erectus found here..
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Dendrochronology
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the science or technique of dating events, environmental change, and archaeological artifacts by using the characteristic patterns of annual growth rings in timber and tree trunks
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gravity model
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a concept from geography whereby interaction among settlements is based on size, similar to interaction among planets based on gravity. Bigger communities have more interaction and influence on smaller communities
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Stelae
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Stone monuments erected by Maya rulers to record their history in rich images and hieroglyphic symbols. These symbols can be read and dated.
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paleopathology
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The branch of osteology that studies the evidence of disease and injury in human skeletal remains
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Berdaches
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Among Plains Indian societies, men who elected to live life as women; they were recognized by their group as a third gender.
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Archaeofauna
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The animal bones found at an archaeological site. Can tell us: Prehistoric diet: What types of animals? General or specialized diet? Hunting strategies, Seasonality of site occupation, Type of site, Food sharing, Social status
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matrix-sorting
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the hand sorting of processed bulk sooil for minute artifacts or ecofacts
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ethnicity
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the study of different ethnic groups within a society
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Al Goodyear
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University of South Carolina
- Topper Site
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argon-argon dating
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A high-precision method for estimating the relative quantities of argon-39 and argon-40 gas; used to date volcanic ashes that are between 500,000 and several million years old
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Hemudu Culture
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a widespread rice farming culture south of Shanghai, dating to as early as 7000 BC
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Landscape Archaeology
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Study of individual features including settlements seen as single components within the broader perspective of the patterning of human activity over a wide area.
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Walter W. TAYLOR
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didn't like culture history shitcriticized them in A Study of Archaeologywanted "conjunctive approach" (more interpretation)
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Tall or Tells, are...?
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Mounds covering archaeological sites.
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Anthropologist
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A person who studies the physical characteristics of human remains (bones)
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A culturally homologous unit within a single site
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component
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predict future
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early writing in Shang Civilization on turtle shells/goat scapulas which told possible events. they'd throw them in the fire and observe cracks in order to...
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Folsom
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Ohio River Valley (10,900 BC - 10,200 BC); grave sites, bison
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secondary souce
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an account of a historical event written by someone who did not witness the event
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Half-life
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The time required for half of the carbon-14 available in an organic sample to decay; originally set in 55688 years, it was later changed to 5730 years.
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Nineveh Sculptures
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ancient city in Assyria. Today the site is two large mounds and evidence of the city walls.
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UP technology
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change from flask based (in middle Paleolithic) to focus on blade technology (elongated flake)
• Explosion of diversity of tools
• Wide variety over wide geographic region
• 100 different tool types
• microlithics
• new- punch- struck technology, core, indirect percussion with antler
• very picky about raw materials, obsidian, flint
• composite tools- use wood with microlith tip to strike off precise blade
bow and arrow
Wooden spears
using bone, antler, and ivory a lot
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Which of the following is no longer considered to be a major state level system in Mesoamerica?
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Toltec
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mechanical solidarity
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feature of society in which component subsystems are similar to each other and potentially independent in social, economic, and political terms
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UNESCO Convention of 1970
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Requires that signers create legislation and the administration to:
1) regulate the import and export of cultural objects
2) Forbid their nations' museums from acquiring illegally exported cultural objects
3) Establish ways to inform other nations when illegally exported objects are found within a country's borders
4) Return or otherwise provide restitution of cultural objects stolen from public institutions
5) Establish a register of art dealers and require them to register.
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Hammerstone
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An elongated stone that is used to knock flakes off a core in stone tool manufacture. It will be battered and worn on the ends.
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Sample fraction
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the percentage of the sample universe that is chosen. high variability areas require higher fractions.
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Processual
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how the component parts of a culture function as a system at one point in time and how cultures change over time; also called Cultural Process or "The New Archaeology"
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Early state modules
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Colin Renfrew's term to describe autonomous political units
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#biological archaeology (bioarchaeology):
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developed as a formal interface between biological anthropology (including human osteology) and archaeology.
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30. Ethnographic analogy/ Ethnographic archaeology
Review articles on “Last Stone Ax Makers” and the pottery comparison in the Philippines
• Earliest examples
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Technological studies in archaeology have been aided since the development of the processual approach by two particular methodologies: ethnoarchaeology and experimental archaeology
One of the earliest examples of this method was the use of traveler’s tales during the Age of Discovery, comparing stone tools from the Americas to those that had been found in Europe and previously explained as ‘elfshot’. This analogy, though unsystematic, nevertheless was instrumental in establishing the antiquity of mankind.
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Black and white or color photos of excavation units that are meant to supplement plan views and profiles
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photographs
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bronze age
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when people made tools out of the metal bronze
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Plow Zone
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The first layer of dirt usually around 1 ft. deep in a site.
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Qualitative Attributes
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Describe the presence or absence of a descriptive characteristic or trait
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ground-penetrating radar (GPR)
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a remote sensing technique in which radar pulses directed into the ground reflect back to the surface when they strike features or interfaces within the ground, showing the presence and depth of possible buried features
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House of Vettii
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Owned by ex-slave brothers. Known for beautiful gardens and wall paintings
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appendicualr skeleton
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all parts of an animal excluding the axial skeleton
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Skeletal Remains & Stature
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Homo erectus/ergaster: Turkana Boy 1.6 mya (million years ago)
Dramatic change from earlier hominins
- Human like post cranial skeleton
- Expanded brain
- Born to run
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Tayacian (Recitation movie)
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- Human bones found earlier than Neanderthals- So primitive that thwy could be broken rocks
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relational analogy is justified by...
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...close cultural continuity or cultural form
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The Richard Beene site is ____________
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a deeply buried, well-stratified site
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carrying capacity
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the number of people that a unit of land can support under a particular technology
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Lord of Sipan Tomb
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750 AD, Peru
Concurrent with the Maya, but in S America. Time overlaps with the Nasca Lines.
-In the 1980s and 90s a few unlooted tombs were found and the materials rivaled King Tut's (unexpected for New World)
-Golden peanuts among tons of other artifacts.. definite importance but significance unknown.
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Huaca del Sol
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A massive mound made of over 140 million mud bricks located at the site of Moche
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Hard Hammer
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stone on stone was used to make more irregular tools
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Reduction of snout
Increased emphasis on vision
Brain expansion and complexity
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What are the characteristics of a primates senses and brain?
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Archaeology of SYZ
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-Houses dating to ca 14 AD that were buried by massive flood
-Everything was frozen in place; leaves, footprints, etc.
-architecture associated with Han period
-beneath is another 8000 years of history; entire communities preserved by flood
-Plleistocene=12000 BP
-mulberry lead impression=used for silk production
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Uruk & Urbanism [Sumerian Style]:
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-Uruk was founded before 4600 B.C. (roughly contemporary with or just after Eridu)
-It is a major hallmark site for Summerian civilization.
-Between 4600-3800B.C., Uruk was a nascent city eventually surpassing Eridu in size.
-By ca. 3000B.C., 80% of the Sumerian population lived in 10 ha (25 acre) settlements, declining to 50% by 2000B.C.
-By 2800B.C. (much later), the city core was 250 ha (618 acres), with satellite villages extending 10 km into the countryside.
-The temple, or Ziggurat, was a place of worship & storehouse for redistribution of foodstuffs (theocracy = a religios based government)
-Craftsmen & artisans worked in specialized tasks forming distinct strata in a well-stratified society.
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Native American Grave protection and repatriation act of 1900
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had to inventory all artifacts, send them to original owners if they wanted them.
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What are the major features of the mesolithic and archaic?
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increased evidence for plant resources
more technology
burials with grade goods
more permanent structures
larger habitation sites
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What is a symbol? How do archaeologists study and interpret the meanings of symbols?
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An object or act (verbal or nonverbal) that, by cultural convention, stands for something else with which it has no necessary connection.
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Mountain mummies
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...
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excavate
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to hollow out.
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Temple of Saturn
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Stonehenge
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Construction from 3000-1500 BC.
Ancient circles of large, upright stones that stand alone on a plain in British Isles- England. There is some controversy about who shaped, carried, and set up these huge stones, which perhaps had religious and astronomical uses.
-built in 3 phases
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theory of evolution
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natural selection
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osteology
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the study of bones
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Purgatoris
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earliest-known primate, which lived between ninety and sixty-five million years ago
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midden
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any substantial accumulation of garbage or waste at a place of human activity
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Dynasty 0
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3,100-2,890 BC, Narmar, Memphis
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sites
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location where significant human activity can be found; confirmed geographic space
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humanism
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rejected supernaturalism and stress the value of the individual
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Stratigraphic analysis/geochronology governed by...
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...law of superposition
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Survey
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Systematic recording of sites and archaeological features across a defined area
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Late Neolithic Europe
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Expansion of farming economy
Development of distinct regional traditions
Fast population growth
Development of field systems
Increased conflict over resources
Located in defensible positions
Great expansion in trade and exchange
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Eolian Sediments
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Materials transported and accumulated by wind.
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Seriation
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Percentage distribution of a typology at a site over time
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Agriculture
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cultivation of animals, plants and other life forms used to sustain life. It was the separation from the gatherers/hunters to the city
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tamkarum
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'merchant' of the second millennium who operated on both the external and internal circuits (A)
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inorganic
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material that has never been alive
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paleoethnobotanist
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an archaeologist who analyzes and interprets plant remains from archaeological sites in order to understand past interactions between human populations and plants
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petrographic analysis
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An analytical technique that identifies the mineral composition of a pot's temper and clay through microscopic observation of thin sections
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Oligocene
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34- 23 mya. Global cooling, anthropoids appears. Transition period between archaic ( Eocene) and more recognizable ( Miocene).
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Anasazi
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‘the ancient ones’ – ancestors of Pueblo Indians who lived throughout NW New Mexico and NE Arizona – lived in stone houses tucked in canyons or on mesa tops – expert farmers survived in marginal conditions – three major sites at Mesa Verde, Kayenta, Chaco Canyon
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typology
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the classification of materials based on morphology
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balk
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a strip of land left unplowed.
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Howard Carter
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King Tut's Tomb; drew, photographed, mapped out everything he found before he took it out
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Law of superposition
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in an undisturbed depositional sequence, each layer is younger than the layer beneath it
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behavioral processes
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Produce material remains in four consecutive stages
1)acquire the raw materials, 2) manufacture it , 3)use it, 4)discard it
doesn't have to go through ALL 4
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Nomad
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A person with no single, settled, home
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Archaeology
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study of objects, ruins, and other evidence of human life in the past
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Material Culture
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physical objects produced or modified by humans, including artifacts, ecofacts, and features
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Ecofacts
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organic, forned and created by the earth
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•
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Look at living tribe (pawnee Indians of plains)
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remote sensing
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reconnaissance and site survey methods using such devices as aerial photography satellite imagery to detect subsurface features and archaeological sites
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Theatre of Balbus
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Third permanent theatre in Rome
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Harris Lines
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Increased bone density from trauma, malnutrition or disease. Can tell at what age it occured.
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oral tradition
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legends, myths, beliefs passed from generation my mouth
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Aerial Survey
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1. remote sensing techniques
2. aeria photographs
3. Geographic Information System (GIS): Larger map tool
***really good for jungle locations****
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Unilineal Cultural Evolution
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anthropologicaly incorect idea that culture has evolved in a straight trajectory, depeicts western society as top
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Cahokia
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Cahokia: A large settlement dating to the Mississippian period and located just outside of St. Louis. Fairmount pit houses, Mound 72. Stirling Morehead plain wares. Monks Mound complete wit wall trench houses. palisade begun. Sand prairie- decline in mound construction. Vulcan- Oneota from the plains/northern midwest. pg. 309
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Swidden Agriculture
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slash and burn agriculture in Mesoamerica
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Vertical excavation
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Excavation undertaken to establish a chronological sequence, normally covering a limited area. Deep probe!
Step trenches, Kenyon-Wheeler Method, etc.
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Special-Purpose Sites
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- Places where people performed tasks not related to industrial production, military.
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fossils
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the remains or imprints of once living plants or animals.
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context
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the set of circumstances or facts that surround a particular event.
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Secondary Context
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Found artifacts are not in original positions they were last used/left (due to deranging/disturbing factors).
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chinampas
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low mounds that Aztec built by piling up sediments from the bottoms of shallow lakes and marshes to form islands of arable land; a form of intensive agriculture
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microbotnicals
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plant life that you need a microscope to see (phytoliths, palynology)
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Palynology
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The study of fossil pollen grains and spores to recontruct past climates and human behavior.
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Formal Analogies
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based on similarities in form between objects in the ethnographic and archaeological objects
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chronometric dating
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dating in calendar years before the present; absolute dating
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Sedentism and Population Growth
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Possible explanations: farmers are less mobile than hunter-gatherers, causing decrease in birth spacing due to availability of carbohydrates which encourages early weaning and the advantages of large families to assist in farming
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Indian Ocean Trade
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500-1000 AD
Sailing, seafaring hug the coast
Monsoon system control so direct path
Arabic/persian become linguafranca
Spice trade
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Mesa, Alaska
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Forager campsite in the Brooks Range of northern Alaska, occupied about 9700 BC.
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Historical Archaeology
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Study of ancient societies through aid of written texts
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The mixture of gases that surrounds a planet.
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atmosphere
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Radiocarbon dating?
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uses radioactive decay of 14C to estimate the time since the death of the organism.
(When living things die, they stop taking in Carbon)
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Bluestones
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a ring of standing stones at the center of Stonehenge. The source of the stones is over 240 km from Stonehenge
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4 processing tools
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flesher, antler tine pressure flaker, bison scapula hoe, awls
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stratified random sample
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divide into small units and sample inside the stratum
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radiopotassium, potassium-argon dating
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technique for old samples that is based on half-life decay of K into argon in new rock
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fertile crescent
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a broad arc of mountains in middle east where wild wheat, barley, and other domesticated plants are found today
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Epiphyses
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The ends of bones that fuse to the main shaft or portion of bone at various ages; most bones are fused by age 25. This fact can be used to age skeletons of younger individuals.
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fossil
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is a part or inprint of something that was once alive
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Inter-tropical convergence zone
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Driving force for the climate in China; belt of weather generated at the equator
Monsoon zone--very wet and very dry oscillating phases.
SYZ is influenced by monsoon; general climate trend influences the pattern of behavior
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Site Significance
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significant if it is eligible for the National Register of Historic places (can be event, person, unique design/construction). It also must have information potential (yields data that provides significant info about the sites' history).
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Homo erectus (2)
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Meat eater: scavenger, may have also huntedControlled fire: probably used and controlled fire
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Post orbital constriction
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behind eyes where skull is pulled in
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What type of growth arrest evidence is permanent?
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enamel hypoplasias
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carbon 14 dating
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dating used with a kind of carbon, used to determine the age up to 60,000 years.
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energy dispersive X-ray fluorescence (XRF)
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-traces obsidian to its geological source
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long bone cross section
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cross sections of the body's long bones used to analyze bone shape and reconstruct the mechanical stresses placed on the bone
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In the 1960's. who was an influential person in American Archaeology?
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Lewis R. Binford.
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An estimate of what part of the year a particular archaeological site was occupied
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seasonality
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Lewis Binford explanation for change in Saint-Cesaire, France
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Changing tool forms reflect different activities in different places
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MP and UP: Inhabitants and Stone Tool Industries
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MP: Neanderthals: MousterianUP: Neandertahls: ChatelperronianUP: Moderns: Aurignacian
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NAGPRA (Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act)
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enacted in order to provide for the protection of Native American Graves. Native American cultural items found on federal or tribe property shall be given to the lineal descendants of the tribe to which they belong or to the people with cultural affiliation to the remains. Due to vague legislation, it's difficult to determine whose cultural affiliation should be valued: the Native Americans' or the archaeologists
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3. Bronze Age Mediterranean
Sphere of interaction
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core vs. periphery: in Bronze Age Mediterranean there were three major cores: the Egyptians, the Hittites and the Minoans. Their need for resources led them to take over various peripheries, like Ugarit, a Canaanite city that became a Hittite protectorate. Peripheries included tropical Africa, Baltic Europe, and Mesopotamia
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What is palynology, and what type of dating could it be a part of?
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Study of pollen & Relative Dating
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Four things to look at to get at ancient subsistence and diet
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1) Environmental Data (what can be grown, what animals can eat, when a site was abandoned by how much grain is in siloh and what kind, irrigation/natural water, et.c)
2) Animal Bones
3) Plant remains
4) Human bones (know about vitamins and minerals that are injested, can tell certain diseases like Malaria or TB, body size, good or bad nutrition, types of wear on teeth, ripping and tearing or grinding)
5) Feces (coprolites)
6) Artifacts used for processing food, killing animals, etc.
7) Rock art, if they're being accurate.
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