ANP 203 Exam #1

Can all methods date the same materials?

False

The only way archaeologists can gather information about buried sites is through excavation?

False

For the vast majority of human history, people have been hunter-gatherers

True

During excavation, archaeologists must

carefully document the provenience of all artifacts and features.

GPS

1) Map or load previously identified sites and boundaries 2) Record location of new sites

What is a typology?

A formal system of classification, based on specific types of objects, for assigning time and space meaning to archaeological materials

What needs to be done once artifacts are excavated?

Artifacts need to be washed, labeled, sorted/classified, and finally curated

Intersection: Relative AND Absolute Dating

•Provides the order of formation of remains •Provides the age of remains

Recon Survey Steps

*1.* Define region: natural, cultural, or synthesis boundary (river drainage; the extent of an artifact style; or both) *2.* Background research *3.* Select Sampling Strategy (Consider surface vegetation and landforms) A. Random Sample B. Stratified (ecological zones sampled by proportion of landscape) C. Systematic sampling D. Stratified unaligned *4.* Repeated Coverage: site visibility differs by vegetation, plowed *5.* Transects and Squares 1. Linear transect — easy to walk with compass bearing 2. Square: collect all artifacts in selected survey blocks

What is relative dating in archaeology?

*A. Ordering artifacts or sites relative to one another (site A is older than site B, site C is older than site A)* B. Dating one's cousin C. Giving a site a calendar date based on radiometric decay (3245 BC) D. Placing a site within a larger archaeological culture

GIS (Geographic Information Systems)

1) Compile varied datasets in layers 2) Statistically analyze site location 3) Predictive models — model likelihood of discovering a site being present based on analysis of variables

GIS (Geographic Information Systems) is a very powerful tool used by archaeologists for...?

A. Capturing satellite imagery B. Excavating shovel test pits *C. Storing, managing, manipulating, analyzing, and displaying* D. Proving that aliens do in fact exist

Using archaeological data, what kinds of questions do archaeologists study?

A. Human adaptations to climate change B. Past economic systems C. Changes in social organization D. Changing food systems E. Development of technology *F. All of the above*

Out of these different environments, which one would be least likely to preserve organic materials?

A. The Sahara Desert B. A dry cave in the southwestern US C. The bottom of the Carribean Sea *D. The forests of northern Michigan* E. Glacial zones in Glacier National Park

The Law of Superposition states that...?

A. Those in a more strategic position always win B. Stratigraphic layers of soil are mixed and have no chronological order *C. Stratigraphic layers on bottom are older than those on top* D. Stratigraphic layers on bottom are younger than those on top

Why is the screening method used in archaeological excavation?

A. To prevent paleontologists from stealing our finds B. To examine the properties of excavated soil C. To preserve features in situ *D. To recover small artifacts and ecofacts from excavated soil that may have been missed*

What are some of the ways archaeologists locate sites?

A. Using documentary sources B. Knowledge of locals C. Walking through fields and forests D. Aerial and satellite imaging *E. All of the above*

Site Discovery: Academic vs Cultural Resources Survey Project

Academic Study *1. Define research area* 1. Unsystematic sample = select prominent sites with above ground features, mounds (e.g., with earthworks) 2. Sampling strategy: no bias, stratified landscape (upland, floodplain) 3. Full coverage survey *2. Goals of Study* 1. Discover full settlement pattern, range of sites 2. Contribute to regional studies 3. Address spatial distribution of human activities; population societal interaction, land and resources Cultural Resource Management (Compliance Archaeology) *1. Pre-selected survey area or corridor* — project specific 1. Linear area — pipeline, roads, powerline 2. Footprint — area of disturbance to construct structure *2. Federal*: land, permits, agencies, $; *state and local laws* 3. Record any evidence of cultural resources in *area of potential effect (APE)* — project area

How does radioactive decay make dating archaeological sites possible?

Radioactive isotopes decay at a constant rate into daughter particles, so calculating the ratio of parent to daughter particles can indicate how long ago something died or was created

Seriation relies on battleship curves to

relatively date sites based on changes in the percentage of artifacts present through time

What is provenience?

the location, horizontally and vertically, of an artifact or feature within a site

Research Design: A Step Before You Grab Your Compass or Shovel

•*A systematic plan for an archaeological study**: ○Develop a research strategy -To answer question(s) -Test a hypotheses and expectations ○Collect and record evidence ○Process, analyze and interpret data ○Publish results •*Before you consider survey and excavation •FIELD WORK IS THE SOURCE OF OUR DATA, YET PARADOXICALLY DESTROYS SITES — IN THE PROCESS!

What Constitutes Archaeological Evidence?

•*Artifact*: (portable) objects used, modified, or made by people ○Stone and metal tools; ceramics sherds; waste created by food or resource processing (bone, plant, or stone) ○*Often can undergo multiple types of analysis* •*Ecofacts*: organic and environmental remains not modified by humans ○Study help us understand the ecology; presence of wild and domestic fauna and flora; climate and "biography" of the locale ○Examples: Pollen, preserved animal bones, human remains, soils, sediments, plants, charcoal, wood, dung, insects, soil chemistry, •In some instances, with modification an ecofact can become an artifact (e.g., a bone tool, a thatch basket) •*Features*: non-portable artifacts / byproducts of human cultural activities •*Archaeological site* = a location where artifacts, ecofacts and features all coccur (often in patterned deposits)

Classificatory-Historical Period (1914-1960): Chronology: How Old Is This

•*Culture History*: worldwide emphasis on building regional chronologies ○*Cultural change via innovation, population migration, diffusion (spread) of ideas* ○Stratigraphic excavation — became common practice ○*Seriation*: arranging diagnostic artifact traits by consistent principle of ordering (classification) into a temporal sequence (or series) -Data units (artifact attributes) are organized so that like is put with like -Prerequisites: ◘Understand *provenance*: record artifact's location (stratigraphy, spatial cluster of attribute) within a site and a region ◘Artifact type defining a series must be common and be present in a large sample (ceramics,) -Assumption: cultural change is gradual in attributes ◘Example: Pottery vessel forms, manufacture technique, clay source, and decoration •Regional chronologies ○Emphasis to trace presence and spread of a culture or space and time ○Know ethnographic and ethnohistoric accounts of small-scale pottery production: techniques passed bfrom mother to daughter (generational contiuity in styles w/ some variations)

Relative Dating: Stratigraphy

•*Law of Strata units by contents*: Multiple strata and features, based on associated artifacts, can equate to the same occupation period •Four scenarios where law of superposition is disrupted: 1. *Soil strata mixing*: soil removed when pit is excavated; could be deposited in modern midden 2. *Soil fill*: refill feature or created a flat ground surface 3. *Collection*: heirloom antique vessels (deposited later) 4. *Unconformity* - lose strata - period of erosion between deposition periods or when no deposition occurs •*Terminus post quem (date after which)*: Artifacts in sealed deposit with date inscription; date indicate deposit can be no earlier than a coin date (possibly much later) •*Terminus ante quem (date before which)*: Foreign exports in well-dated contexts; cross-date between regional sequences - object can not be more recent than the now dated context

Excavations: Horizontal Overview

•*Open-are excavations* are feasible if applied to sites: ○Near to the surface ○Single occupation •Illustrate site organization and structure at contemporaneous time (synchronic view) •Time slice of everyday activities spread over area ○Perceive public and private spaces ○Observe posthole pattern for structures ○Feature and artifacts shown in association

Artifact and Feature Recovery

•*Sampling strategy for artifact / ecofact recovery* ○1/4" steel mesh sieving ○Smaller remains can be recovered by finer mesh or flotation of soil samples •Features: record with photographs, cross-section sample, profile, plan view) •Association can be established between features and artifacts ○Plan view maps of in-situ objects ○Artifact piece plots: X, Y, Z coordinates (based on unit datum) •Recovered artifact are bagged and labeled via their provenience ○Provenience: natural strata seen in excavation ○Arbitrary levels: -No stratigraphy changes are noted -Measure artifact density by a consistent soil volume excavated

Typology and Seriation

•*Style*: Distinct vessel shapes, manufacture, and decoration (by age, location) •*Stone projectile points*: very gradual change in form style (hundreds or thousands of years) •*Ceramics*: rapid changes -> decoration (decadal scale)

Anthropology and Ethnology

•1860s: Ethnology — comparative study of non-Western societies •What theories can explain transformation of human societies from hunter-gatherers to the Industrial Revolution? ○False idea of Progress: "simple", homogeneous culture -> complex, heterogeneous cultures ○Unilineal cultural evolution = Mistaken application of biological evolution to culture -Edward Taylor (1865) / Lewis Henry Morgan (1877): ◘Savagery (hunter-gatherers) -> Barbarism (subsistence farming) -> Civilization (Europe) -Ethnocentricism, racist premise: Europe as pinnacle; newly discovered contemporaneous Africa and Pacific cultures = backward ○*Tylor: "Culture... is that complex whole which includes knowledge, beliefs, arts, morals, law, customs, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by [a human] as a member of society."*

A Whirlwind view of World Chronology

•4.5 million years ago (East Africa): first hominins (bipedal ancestors) - many bipedal hominids •2.3 million years ago (Africa): first Homo genus taxa ○Homo erectus - sites known from locations world wide ○Hominids have expanded to occupy much of the globe •100,000 - 90,000 years ago ○First evidence of tools, sites of anatomically modern Homo sapiens sapiens (us) ○Coexistence for a time with H. neanderthalensis in Europe/Middle East - interbreeding, genetic markers between two species (up to ~39,000 years ago) •10,000 - Neolithic Revolution ○Use domesticated animals and plants (farming and herding) ○Villages (transition to sedentary lifestyle) •10,000 to today ○Villages -> Cities -> State (rapid social change)

Other Radiometric methods

•40K - 40Ar (40Ar/39Ar) Dating (Potassium-Argon) ○Sites buried by, laying on volcanic deposits ○Reliable: 80,000 to 5 million years old (or more); error =/- 10% of percent of date ○Boon for tracking human (homonim) evolution in Africa: Australopithecus, Homo habilis, Homo erectus •Uranium Series ○235U -> 231Pa and 238U -> 230Th ○Sites with rocks rich in CaCO3, limestone caves; teeth ○Reliable: 50,000 - 500,000 years ○Europe: early human sites (that lack volcanic rock) •Fission-Track ○238U decay in volcanic and minerals cause damage (tracks) that can be counted ○Start: At rock formation, decay begins to cause damage •Thermoluminescence (TL) ○Crystalline minerals were fired - pottery, baked clay, fire-cracked rock (burnt rock), and burnt earth ○Accumulate trapped potential energy ○Reheat artifact to measure the amount of light given off = age when fired

Harris Matrix of Stratigraphy

•A simplified graphical way to depict stratigraphy •Interface: cut into strata - pit, postmold

Processual Archaeology, "New Archaeology" (1960-?)

•America as super power Post WWII; GI Bill; huge investments in industry and science •Explain Changes in Past •Culture Process: hypotheses, expectations, deduction; multiples lines of evidence to test theory •Quantitative data; statistical analysis •Project designed to collect necessary data •Systems Theory ○Culture = sum of subsystems that interact ○Social change as consequence (e.g., social organization, economy, politics, ritual, environment) •Reliance on analytical techniques and concepts derived in other disciplines (chemistry, biology, ecology)

Dendrochronology

•Annual ring of new growth ○Fluctuations in width (sunlight, temp, or rainfall) ○Old tree = narrower rings •*Regional chronology*: overlap ring pattern between living and archaeological timbers •Limitations: 1. Seasonal (non-tropical) tree growth 2. Tree species = valuable, long sequence 3. Fell date = match sapwood (recycle old wood)

Cultural Resources Management (1960s-today)

•Archaeological record of the past as a public resource that should be preserved and managed (legislation: National Historic Preservation Act, etc.) •If the record must be damaged (e.g., for construction of public infrastructure): Mitigation is necessary (via pre-construction archaeological survey, excavation, and research) •The developer pays the organization or company that initiates the impact pays for the mitigation process

Modelling Expectations

•Archaeologists extrapolate expectations about what patterns and the range of cultural practice exist •Draw upon *ethnographic analogy* — examine ethnographic record of region to infer a similarity between ethnographic descriptions and prehistoric artifacts, features •*Ethnoarchaeology* — study contemporary peoples to determine how human behavior is translated into the archaeological record (pottery production, sites created by herders) •*Experimental Archaeology* — 'hands-on' attempts to replicate the production of ancient technology

Remote / Satellite Survey

•Belize jungle, Mayan site •LIDAR ○Laser creates digital elevation model (topography) ○Woodlands: removal of tree canopy ○Create optimal lighting; 3D imaging

Relative Dating

•Broad scale dating •Determines the order of formation of remains using stratigraphic methods •Qualitative method of dating

Anthropology: The Study of the Human Species — Culture and Biology

•Broad subject; holistic, comparative approach ○Biological perspective ○Considers humanity in social context ○Defined by the concept of culture; shared belief/behaviors that are taught •Four subdisciplines overlap ○Sociocultural: study of culture and society ○Physical: study of human biological characteristics and their evolution ○Linguistics: study of language and how it influences social life ○*Archaeology: scientific study of human societies and social change via material remains (and written documents)*

Absolute Dating

•Calendrical inscription •Dendrochronology •Radiocarbon Dating •Accelerated Mass Spectrometry

Rare Soil Matrices

•Certain soil matrices may preserve organics •Saturation with salt or metal ores

Salt Mines

•Chehrãbãd salt mine, Iran ○Prehistoric mining dating to 500 BC ○Around 400 BC, mine collapse killed 3 individuals, preserving part of their bodies, clothing, and tools •High salt concentration and cool, low humidity conditions mummified bodies •Burial 4: In-situ and post-excavation

Salt Mines

•Chehrãbãd salt mine, Iran ○Prehistoric mining dating to 500 BC ○Around 400 BC, mine collapse killed 3 individuals, preserving part of their bodies, clothing, and tools ○High salt concentration and cool, low humidity conditions mummified bodies

Classificatory-Historical Period (1840-1960)

•Chronology building as the goal of archaeology •Descriptive focus •Archaeology establishes a formal set of standards as a profession

Inorganic Materials

•Clay, stone, and metal surfaces ○Acidic soils can cause surface decoration on fired clay to break down •*Oxidaztion*: can result in the breakdown of softer alloys (e.g., copper and bronze) and iron can disentegrate and leave soil stain outlines of the former artifact •Oceans: metallic salts can build up on artifacts. Electrolysis — submerging an item in a chemical bath and bombarding it with a weak current can clean of the deposit from the artifact

Organic Materials

•Climate (both local and regional) and the nature of the soil / sediment matrix impact organic preservation •Matrix ○Alkaline pH (base): bone and wood is preserved ○Acidic pH soil: bone and wood decay fast, leaving only ghostly brown or black scars are indicative of past location postmolds and lwo

Climates and Organic Preservation

•Climate -> shapes soils, erosion, flora and fauna •Tropical (poor preservation): ○Heavy rains, acidic soils, warm temperatures, high humidity, erosion, dense vegetation and insects ○Promote rapid organic decay •Tropical > Temperate (better preservation, yet poor) ○Fluctuating temperatures and rainfall •*Extremes of Moisture favor best preservation& •*Microclimate: Caves* ○Consistent temperature and humidity ○Exempt from seasonal climate of earth's surface ○Preservation of organics can include bone, plants, coprolites, fibers, pigments, and tissue

What Questions Do We Ask?

•Culture: learned adaptation that overcomes environmental conditions vs biological evolution ○Cold: clothing vs body hair ○Food processing: cooking / grinding stones vs specialized dentition / musculature to process meat and seeds •Environment and Culture •Economy •Social organization •Ideology

Pre-excavation Tasks

•Establish site datum ○A fixed control point from which elevation above sea level and coordinate (e.g., latitude, longitude, Universal Transverse Mercator [UTM]) are referenced. It also serves as a benchmark for the site grid. ○From this point, the site grid extends out it cardinal or magnetic bearings ○Each excavation unit has its own datum that references the site datum's horizontal and elevation position. As a result, the precise position of artifacts, features, or sampling is known •A surveying instrument (e.g., a total station unit) can be used to: ○Develop an accurate map of the site's features ○Document the landscape's topography by creating a contour map •Coordinate data from the survey instrument or a GPS can be uploaded later into a GIS

Research and Consultation

•Explore Prior Research: *1.* Cultural history of region, known sites *2.* Are the past environment, landscape, and soils known? *3.* US: Consult university, State Historic Preservation Offices archives 1. Aerial and site photographs, site notes, historic plat, and topographic maps 2. Maps of reported archaeological sites 3. Curated archaeological collections •Consult with landowners and amateur archaeologist •Conduct field survey and/or excavations

Organization

•Field sorting ○Artifact and ecofacts by category ○Animal bone, plant remains, stone (lithics), ceramics

New Archaeology: A Reaction To Cultural History (1960s-1990s)

•Focus on *explaining cultural change*, not just reconstructing past •Optimism: archaeology can *reconstruct social organization and cognitive systems* •*Deductive reasoning*: build hypotheses, construct models, predict consequences of model, test models using excavated data •Culture as system composed of interrelated subsystems (e.g., trade, technology, ideology). Change in one subsystem creates change in the rest •*Quantitative analysis*: enables statistical significance testing and sampling •Design research projects to target specific questions •*Middle-Range Theory*: use analogies (ethnoarchaeology and experimental archaeology) to interpret the past (Lewis Binford)

Cold, arid environments

•Frozen mammoths (Siberian permafrost) •Pazyryk steppes, S Siberia (400 BC) ○Log coffins (water infilitrated, froze year round) ○Linen clothing, felt and leather headresses, wood objects •High altitude Mummies ○Ötzi (Austrian Alps. 3300 BC) ○Juanita (Inca, 15-16th century, Ampato volcano [20,708 ft])

Giovanni Battista Belzoni (1779-1823)

•Gave rise to opportunists to extract antiquities •Former circus strongman became "archaeologist" ○Patron was British Consul General to Egypt, Henry Salt ○Commisioned to transport collosal stone head of Ramses II (7 tons) to British Museum ○Recovered papyri scrolls, mummies, statues ○Explored Pyramid of Khafre at Giza (1818) •Used gunpowder to dynamite open the entrance to the Second Great Pyramid at Giza

Post-Processual; Interpretive Archaeologies: A Critique of New Archaeology (1990s-2000s)

•Goal of objectivity in interpretation is unattainable •No single, "correct" way to make archaeological inferences •neo-Marxism: archaeology's duty is use insights from the past to change the modern world •Post-positivist: science as hostile to the individual •Phenomenology: personal experience of the individual. *Our encounter with the physical world and objects shape our interpretation of reality* •Praxis: Importance of human action as create social structure. Individuals as agents of change •Hermeneutic: A rejection of generalization. There is no single correct interpretation of the past, but instead a wide range of perspectives

Geophysical Survey

•Ground-penetrating radar: note changes in soil and sediment conditions; radar pulse differentially reflect against features •Electrical resistivity: changes in electrical conductivity through soil, caused by moisture content. Features are detected by anomalies in groundwater retention •Magnetism ○Magnetometer — distortions in magnetic fields (thermal features, metal objects) ○Metal detector

Myth of the Moundbuilders — US

•Growth and definition of new US nation •Mounds and earthworks discovered in 19th century as Northwest Territory was settled (Ohio, Illinois, Wisconsin) •Denial that past Native American cultures constructed them •Creation of a historic past for America (e.g., Israelites, Toltecs, Danes, vanished race) •Cyrus Thomas (1894): debunked arguments; ancestors of Native American groups built various mounds

Waterlogged Environments

•High moisture content and better preservation of organics ○Lakes ○Swamps (forested wetland) ○Marsh (wet season or high tide wetland), ○Fens (alkaline / neutral pH wetland) ○Peat bogs (accumulated of partially decayed vegetation; acidic pH) •Moist, airless waterlogged conditions = if relatively permanent until deposit is excavated •*Wetlands prehistorically were locations of rich plant, animal, and other resources*

Pedestrian (Walkover) Survey

•High visibility, vegetation restricts view; plowed fields ○Interval between transects ○Flag ceramics, stone tools, foundation •Document ○Map, photograph overview dimensions ○GPS map, geolocate ○Document diagnostics

Environment

•How does climate impact the type subsistence and settlement pattern practiced? Did changes cause practices to change? •Did human's impact local ecology (plants and animal populations)? •Did cultural practices modify the local environment? ○Periodic burns of vegetation ○Irrigation and terracing

Ideology

•Iconography communicates messages about religious belief, ritual •Does a subset of society use images to advertise its grandeur, control communal ritual, or access to monumental architecture? •Are settlements built on a grid? Do standardized weights or calendars exist?

Stratigraphy, Seriation, and Mapping: Combined

•If know from stratigraphy that site 1 is oldest and site 5 is most recent. We also know that Type C is younger than both B and A •Battleship Curves — frequency of artifact types has a temporal peak, then declines and disappears •Occupation history: Compare frequencies of A, B, C by site ○What is significant about site 1? ○How about site 4? •Artifact assemblage: material culture of a site(s) is composed a set of artifacts that recur together in a specific time and space. It represents the sum of human activities at a site (V. G. Childe) •*Main research questions: How old is this site? How do it and other sites interrelate within the regional cultural sequence*

Isotopic Techniques: Accelerator Mass Spectometry

•In dating, a sample is cleaned then burned to produce gas •Proportion of C14 to C12 is then counted using Geiger counter •Several grams are required for the count •*Accelerated Mass Spectrometer*: counts individual molecules

Carbon cycle: 12C/14C ratio

•Isotope half life: 5370 years •BP (Before Present): relative to 1950 •Utility - 8 half-lives (~ 45,840 years) •Calibration of C14 curve via dendrochronology •*Radiometric Clocks: 14C dating* - Date Organic Items within Strata

Laboratory Analysis

•Laboratory analysis ○Clean finds (exceptions: food residue on ceramics) ○Classify artifacts -Attributes: surface treatment, material, color, decoration, shape and technological attributes, style -Function: how was an artifact used in the past, cooking -Typology: Like grouped with similar; based on physical traits ○Analytical techniques ○Curation of collections

System of arranging series of objects from oldest to most recent

•Maintain context, understand relative frequency of artifacts by strata •Charting time-sensitive artifact forms via "Battleship Curves": show change in relative frequency of styles of an artifact through time

Historical (industrial) archaeology - varied measures for narrower relative dates

•Maker's marks - bottles, ceramics = range of manufacturing •Kaolin pipe stems diameters - as mark of historic sites age •Historic glass: production technique - frequency of different techniques / presence or absence of techniques

What Types of Features Exist?

•Middens: mixed jumbles of artifacts, ecofacts •Hearth: thermally modified soil resulting from a fire •A structure with post molds •Food roasting pit •Burial •Food storage pit

The Mayan Calendar

•Must associate artifact, feature, or structure with an inscription of a date or ruler (calendar) •Calendar Round ○Sacred Round = 260 days (13 days x 18 named days) ○Solar year = 18 months (20 days/month + 5 terminal days) ○52 year cycle •Long Count ○Historic dates (zero = 13 August 3114 BC) ○5 numbers -Baktun = # 144,000 day units -Katun = # 7200 day units -Tun = # 360 day units -Uinal = 20 days units -Kin = single day

Natural Formation Processes

•Natural processes: natural events the govern the burial and survival of the archaeological record 1) Volcanic eruption 2) Erosion 3) Flooding 4) Acidity 5) Fluvial action 6) Carnivore ravaging 7) Trampling 8) Bioturbation (animal burrowing)

Arid environment (deserts, etc.)

•Not enough water for microrganism to flourish ○Egypt ○Paracas culture, Peru (burials, textiles) ○Nazca culture (Cauchi site, Peru [plants; burials]) -Corn; peanut; squash; beans; lima beans; manioc; sweet potato; potato; ají (hot pepper); fruits (lúcuma, guayaba); jicama ○Chinchorros culture, Chile (5000 BC, 282 mummies) ○Aleutian islands, Alaska (volcanically-heated, dry caves; mummies) ○Danger Cave

Cultural Formation Processes

•Original human behavior 1) Acquire raw material 2) Manufacture 3) Use (and dispose artifacts) 4) Discard items (or lose) •Post-deposition Processes 1) Looting 2) Disturbance 3) Excavation •How items move back from an archaeological deposit to the Systematic context (aka present day) ○Reclamation: scavenge old timbers for use in a modern structure ○Excavation: build canals and dig pits, houses, that transpose artifacts and site ○Reuse: reuse and recycling artifacts before they enter the archaeological record

Field Methodology and Discipline Develops

•Pitt-Rivers (late 19th century) / Flinders Petrie (19) ○Both argued for description of an entire artifacts assemblage ○Pitt-Rivers: use of site maps, plan / profile views of excavations, association of all artifacts •Wheeler: division of site excavation into grid-squares to record position of artifacts and features •Alfred Kidder ○Incorporate analysis of varied specialists (stone tools, ceramics, human remains) ○Regional Strategy to understand cultural sequence — "Introduction to Southwestern Archaeology" (1924): 1. Reconnaissance — field pedestrian survey (on surface) 2. Chronology — select criteria to determine cultural chronology 3. Organize cultural assemblages into probable temporal sequence — model / hypothesis 4. Excavate by stratigraphy to test / recognize specific problems in model 5. Conduct more extensive regional survey to improve the temporal cultural sequence

Archaeology and Science

•Post WWII, archaeologists blossomed as it began interdisciplinary collaborations and began applying techniques developed by the physical and chemical sciences ○*Radiocarbon Revolution* C-14 radiocarbon dating (Willard Libby) -"rapid" method to directly date undated strata and sites worldwide to enable cross-cultural comparison; examine radioactive isotope decay -Opened way to refocus energy on more research questions ○Collaboration with botanists; zoologists; ecologists; chemists (to study organic residues); and expanded artifact analyses •Recognition that cultures changed via their interaction with and adaptation to the environment (Cultural ecology; Grahame Clark) •*Limitations: Need for organic materials, 50-60k years maximum (datable), Atmospheric fluctuations (over time) require calibration* •C-14: Scientific, precise method to estimate age of organic samples (charcoal). A means to assess age of mutliple strata at a site, precise regional chronologies

Tell Halulla: Optimistic Results

•Question: Do artifacts recovered by pedestrian survey reflect subsurface remains? ○Yes. Surface collection of 46 squares (4% of the total site area) via stratified random sample revealed 10 occupation phases ○*Tell*: A Near Eastern mound site created by the accumulation of successive human occupations over a long timespans •Survey — pedestrian or otherwise — is an accurate estimate of what could be discovered by excavation •How can you prepare strategy for what is revealed by large-scale excavation?

Archaeology: Context Is Everything

•Reconstructing past human activity starts with understanding context: *1)* The soil / sediment *matrix* surrounds a feature, artifact, or ecofact *2) Provenience*: the horizontal and vertical location of a find within the matrix (x,y,z coordinates) 1) Primary context — in-situ (original) location activity transpired 2) Secondary context — midden; looting, soil disturbance *3) Association*: a find's relationship with other finds (proximity)

Absolute Dating

•Refining chronologies •Track human behavior more as fine grain events at sites, within regions and worldwide •Better measure of social change rate •Determines the age of remains using radiometric methods •Quantitative method of dating

Aerial Photographs

•Relief: soil cut and addition features (ditches, pits, canals, roads; earthwork banks, mounds, walls •Cultivated land (crop marks): color, height differences due to subsurface archaeological or natural features •Vertical views: require interpretation of archaeological, modern, natural features

Survey Results

•Site surface survey — site size, layout — map surviving features and collect surface artifacts (Teotihuacan) •Surface Collection: 1. Systematic survey 2. Typology: collect ceramics and stone tools, cultural chronology 3. Location / size of sequence of occupation phases •Ground-Truthing ○Coring and Shovel test pits (STPs): small disturbance

How do archaeologists determine the age of something?

•Some classes of artifacts exhibit swift successive stylistic changes; e.g. pottery •The timing of these changes can be established by recognizing the patterns of succession in contexts with chronological depth — these relationships allow archaeologist to *seriate* the artifacts — to arrange in a chronological sequence •Another seriation technique — frequency seriation

Speculative Period (Renaissance - 1840)

•Speculation = Non-scientific conjecture to understand human past •Accounts: descriptions of ruins or cultures by early explorers ○Great Britain -William Camden, "Brittania" (1586): Compiled description of British ruins and artifacts -Wiliam Stukely (1723): surveyed Avebury and Stonehenge ○Bishop Diego de Landa "Relación de las Casas de Yucatán" (1579): accounts of Spanish Central and South American colonies -Landa describes ruins like Chichen Itza. He discusses the nature of Mayan society, daily life, material artifacts, religious practices, and a description of its hieroglyphic and calendrical systems. •Rise of economic power, centralized states, and national identity •Early Antiquarians and wealthy; artifacts were curiosities and links to the past European civilizations — Greek/Roman artifacts •European nations colonized Near East, the Americas, and Asia, collecting the cultural heritage: spoils, bribery, looting ○British Museum: Parthenon, Greece (Elgin Mables), ○Louvre: Napoléon's pillaging of Vatican and Egyptian antiquities

Prior to 1950 invention of radiocarbon dating, a definitive age could not be associated with a stratum or archaeological culture

•Stone and ceramic seriation chronologies provided a sense of regional time •More discrete dates relied on associating an occupation stratum with such chronologies or written royal lineages

Economy

•Subsistence Economy: Mobile hunter-gatherers (wild food focus) or herders vs sedentary, agro-pastoralists (domesticated animals, plants) •How was exchange of subsistence and wealth goods managed? •What technologies did a culture use? •How are foods, resources, and wealth items exchanged? •Subsistence or surplus production?

Birth of Modern Archaeology

•Thomas Jefferson: 1784 @ Monticello ○Excavation: trench across burial mound, recorded cultural strata ○Deduction — reused site of burial •Geology (Mid 19th Century) emerges as science ○James Hutton and Charles Lyell: ○Uniformitarianism — same physical geologic processes observed today produced past stratification ○Ancient Civilizations Discovered (Maya, Near East States) ○Scholarly attempts of organize and understand prehistory begin ○Classification / Typology -C.J. Thomsen (1836): Three Age System -European artifacts — Stone, Bronze, Iron Ages -Seriation: chronological ordering of artifact types (series) ○Antiquity of Man & World -Bible: James Usher (creation: Oct. 22, 4004 BC) -*Boucher de Perthes (1830s, Somme, France): stone hand axes in association with extinct fauna (hippos)* -*Darwin: Evolution (1859)*

Excavation: Vertical Overview — Stratigraphy

•Vertical profile: change in human activities and cultures occupying the site over time (diachronic view) ○Strata, or soil layers, can demonstrate continuity or breaks in humans living a location •Principles of Stratigraphy ○Superposition: in a series of layers or features in a soil profile, the lowest strata were deposited before, and are older than, those above them ○Association: items discovered in the same strata are contemporaneous in age ○Horizonality: strata are laid down originally in horizontal layers, but follow topographic contours ○Lateral Continuity: a layer in a soil profile that appears as a vertical "slice" demonstrates a cut into and removal of horizontal layers and the introduction of vertical fill layer. The original strata continue uninterrupted surrounding this cut-fill sequence

Natural Disasters (anaerobic conditions)

•Volcanic eruption (ash): ○Cerén, El Salvador (Mayan. 595 AD) -Casts and Carbonized Materials -Young / mature maize; herb and agave garden; fruit trees (guava and cacao) -Bean-filled pots, sleeping mats, crop furrows, baskets •Mud-slide (Ozette, NW USA; Makah whaling village)

Waterlogged Environments

•Wetlands are biologically rich (plants, animals and other resources) •Peat bogs (acidic, north latitude) ○European wetlands — dugout logboats, paddles, fish nets / weirs, wooden roads ○Tollmund Man -Final meal: cereal gruel -Sacrifice: carefully laid in fetal sleeping position post-mortem (hung) •Lake Dwellings (Neolithic Period): wooden structures, artifacts, textiles, plants (nuts, berries, and fruits) •Ozette site, Washington State (1700 AD) — mudslide ○55,000 artifacts recovered; whale bones, fiber objects, wood objects, Cedar plank structures •Materials in such environments deteriorate from exposure to bacteria and air. Deposit must remain waterlogged!

Social, Political Organization

•What political organization existed? ○Bands — 20-50 people. egalitarian relations, hunter-gatherers, consensual decision-making, status via achievement ○Tribes — more sedentary, greater populations (100s), self-sufficient agriculture ○Chiefdom / middle range society — territorial, hereditary social ranks, economic inequality; intensive agriculture; hamlets, towns, population / ceremony centers, 1000s ○State — cities, status inequality, economic classes, permanent bureaucracy; 1000s — millions •What status / prestige, wealth indicators exist? •Do full-time craft specialists exist?

Excavation: Vertical Plane Cont'd

•Wheeler box-grid method: retains intact baulk walls to correlate strata (occupation) layers across a site •Stepped trenches: open large excavation area at top that narrows as one moves down in vertical depth (reduces danger of wall collapse)

Shovel Test Survey?

•When is it necessary? ○Vegetation obscures ground surface ○Rapid soil development or sediment deposition •Systematic grid — maximize recovery of structures, features •*Observe snapshot of "average" soil strata* — topsoil, subsoil •Discover site with positive test(s) ○Site boundaries defined by bracketing ○Features observed through dense artifacts, distinct soil colors, textures

Copper

•When oxidized in acidic soils, copper can help preserve wood, leather, bone, cloth, and textiles •Copper jewelry and contact between with copper artifacts by organics is indicated by green staining •Copper salts, when oxidized, have a toxic effect that is antibacterial and antifungal

Dipping Your Toe into the Bath: Test Excavations

•When site and/or geographical survey document a promising site, then test excavation is a rational first step •Profile trenches or dispersed 1 m by 1 m square test units are excavated to sterile soil to: 1) Provide a cross-section (profile) view of the site's stratigraphy 2) Recover diagnostic artifacts (i.e., those associated with regional cultural chronologies) 3) Determine if a rich, intact set of features, occupation floors, and activity areas exist

Two Major Questions of Arhcaeology

•When? ○Build and improve site and regional chronologies ○Organize order and directions of culture change •Where? Geographic and ecological units •Understanding both is crucial to study of human behavior over time, comparing and modeling societies