Archeology

Multi-Dimensional Scaling (MDSCAL)

A computer technique which aims to develop spatial structure from numerical data by estimating the differences and similarities between analytical units.

Archaeological Sites

A distinct spatial clustering of artifacts , features , structures, and organic and environmental remains - the residue of human activity.

Thiessen Polygons

A formal method of describing settlement patterns based on territorial divisions centered on a single site. These are geometrical shapes that divide an area into a number of separate territories, each focused on a single site

Number of Identified Specimens (NISP)

A gross counting technique used in the quantification of animal bones. The method may produce misleading results in assessing the relative abundance of different species, since skeletal differences and differential rates of bone preservation mean that some species will be represented more than others.

Lineage

A group claiming descent from a common ancestor.

Site Hierarchy

A list of archaeological sites ranked by size and then displayed on a histogram. This is a basic approach to understanding settlement patterns.

Atomic Absorption Spectrometry (AAS)

A method of analyzing artifact composition similar to optical emission spectrometry (OES) in that it measures energy in the form of visible light waves.

Minimum Number of Individuals (MNI)

A method of assessing species abundance in faunal assemblages based on a calculation of the smallest number of animals necessary to account for all the identified bones. Usually calculated from the most abundant type of bone or tooth from either the left or right side of the animal.

XTENT Modeling

A method of generating settlement hierarchy, that overcomes the limitations of both Central Place Theory and Thiessen polygons; it assigns territories to centers based on their scale, assuming that the size of each center is directly proportional to its area of influence. Hypothetical political maps may thus be constructed from survey data.

Neutron Activation Analysis (NAA)

A method used in the analysis of artifact composition which depends on the excitation of the nuclei of the atoms of a sample's various elements, when these are bombarded with slow neutrons. The method is accurate to about plus or minus 5 percent.

X-ray Fluorescence Analysis (XRF)

A method used in the analysis of artifact composition, in which the sample is irradiated with a beam of X-rays which excite electrons associated with atoms on the surface.

Reciprocity

A mode of exchange in which transactions take place between individuals who are symmetrically placed, i.e. they are exchanging as equals, neither being in a dominant position.

Market Exchange

A mode of exchange which implies both a specific location for transactions and the sort of social relations where bargaining can occur. It usually involves a system of price-making through negotiation.

Redistribution

A mode of exchange which implies the operation of some central organizing authority. Goods are received or appropriated by the central authority, and subsequently some of them are sent by that authority to other locations.

Catastrophic Age Profile

A mortality pattern based on bone or tooth wear analysis, and corresponding to a ''natural'' age distribution in which the older the age group, the fewer the individuals it has. This pattern is often found in contexts such as flash floods, epidemics, or volcanic eruptions.

Attritional Age Profile

A mortality pattern deduced from the study of wear on animal teeth which suggests scavenging or hunting by humans of the most vulnerable animals.

Cluster Analysis

A multivariate statistical technique which groups assemblages together in terms of the similarities between them.

Factor Analysis

A multivariate statistical technique which involves the evaluation of the correlation among variables between assemblages.

Polity

A politically independent or autonomous social unit, whether simple or complex, which may in the case of a complex society (such as a state) comprise many lesser dependent components.

Interaction Sphere

A regional or interregional exchange system, e.g. the Hopewell interaction sphere.

Haplotype

A specific combination of alleles within a gene cluster.

Electrolysis

A standard cleaning process in archaeological conservation. Metal artifacts are placed in a chemical solution, and by passing a weak current between them and a surrounding metal grill, the corrosive salts move from the cathode (object) to the anode (grill), removing any accumulated deposit and leaving the artifact clean.

Kula Network

A system of ceremonial, noncompetitive, exchange practiced in Melanesia to establish and reinforce alliances. Malinowski's study of this system was influential in shaping the anthropological concept of reciprocity.

Mössbauer Spectroscopy

A technique used in analysis of artifact composition, particularly iron compounds in pottery. It involves measurement of gamma radiation absorbed by the iron nuclei, which provides information on the particular iron compounds in the sample, and hence on the conditions of firing when the pottery was being made.

Optical Emission Spectrometry (OES)

A technique used in the analysis of artifact composition, based on the principle that electrons, when excited (i.e. heated to a high temperature), release light of a particular wavelength. The presence or absence of various elements is established by examining the appropriate spectral line of their characteristic wavelengths.

Infrared Absorption Spectroscopy

A technique used in the characterization of raw materials, it has been particularly useful in distinguishing ambers from different sources: the organic compounds in the amber absorb different wavelengths of infrared radiation passed through them.

Thin Section Analysis

A technique whereby microscopic thin sections are cut from a stone object or potsherd and examined with a petrological microscope to determine the source of the material.

Primitive Valuables

A term coined by George Dalton to describe the tokens of wealth and prestige, often of specially valued items, that were used in the ceremonial exchange systems of non-state societies; examples include the shell necklaces and bracelets of the kula systems.

Neolithic Revolution

A term coined by V.G. Childe in 1941 to describe the origin and consequences of farming (i.e. the development of stock raising and agriculture), allowing the widespread development of settled village life.

World system

A term coined by the historian Immanuel Wallerstein to designate an economic unit, articulated by trade networks extending far beyond the boundaries of individual political units (nation states), and linking them together in a larger functioning unit.

Chiefdom

A term used to describe a society that operates on the principle of ranking, i.e. differential social status. Different lineages are graded on a scale of prestige, calculated by how closely related one is to the chief.

Prestige Goods

A term used to designate a limited range of exchange goods to which a society ascribes high status or value.

Secondary Products Revolution

A theory put forward by British archaeologist Andrew Sherratt that asked whether there was a second and later stage in the domestication of animals. This second stage, he argued, arose with the need of a human population that was growing and expanding its territory to exploit livestock more intensively.

Isotopic analysis

An important source of information on the reconstruction of prehistoric diets, this technique analyzes the ratios of the principal isotopes preserved in human bone; in effect the method reads the chemical signatures left in the body by different foods.

aerial reconnaissance

An important survey technique in the discovery and recording of archaeological sites

Habitus

An informing ideology that is communicated and reproduced through a process of socialization or enculturation in which material culture plays an active role.

Bone Collagen Studies

An isotope analysis method that is particularly useful for detecting changes in diet. Typically carbon isotopes are used in this method but nitrogen isotopes can be analyzed as well.

Hoards

Deliberately buried groups of valuables or prized possessions, often in times of conflict or war, and which, for one reason or another, have not been reclaimed. Metal hoards are a primary source of evidence for the European Bronze Age.

alleles

Different sequences of genetic material occupying the same locus on the DNA molecule

Artifacts

Humanly made or modified portable objects, such as stone tools, pottery, and metal weapons.

Sphere of Exchange

In non-market societies , valuables were exchanged against valuables in prestige transactions, while commodities were exchanged against commodities. These separate systems of transaction are termed spheres of exchange.

Peer-polities

Independent societies of equal rank

Androcentrism

Male-bias. Archaeological practice and archaeological interpretation has been accused of being biased towards males leading to the development of such fields as feminist archaeology.

Organic Material

Materials that artifacts can be formed out of that have been alive, such as animal bone, wood, and leather.

Inorganic Materials

Materials that artifacts can be formed out of that have never been alive, such as stone, clay, and metals,.

MtDNA

Mitochondrial DNA , present in the mitochondria - organelles in the cell engaged in energy production. MtDNA has a circular structure involving some 16,000 base pairs and is distinct from nuclear DNA ; mtDNA is not formed by recombination, but is passed on exclusively in the female line.

Ecofacts

Non-artifactual organic and environmental remains which have cultural relevance, e.g. faunal and floral material as well as soils and sediments.

Features

Non-portable artifacts; e.g. hearths, architectural elements, or soil stains.

Emulation

One of the most frequent features accompanying competition, where customs, buildings, and artifacts in one society may be adopted by neighboring ones through a process of imitation which is often competitive in nature.

Oral Traditions

Poems or hymns or sayings handed on from generation to generation by word of mouth which can be of great antiquitiy. In non-literate societies, valuable information about the past, even the remote past, is often enshrined in oral tradition.

Segmentary Societies

Relatively small and autonomous groups, usually of agriculturalists, who regulate their own affairs; in some cases, they may join together with other comparable segmentary societies to form a larger ethnic unit. Sometimes called tribes.

Craft Specializations

Seen centralized societies, craft specialization refers to the development of full-time crafts producers in a society who are organized at a higher and more centralized level than the household.

Y-Chromosome

Sex chromosome present in males; unlike other nuclear DNA, the DNA in the Y-chromosome is not formed by recombination but is passed on exclusively in the male line.

achieved status

Social standing and prestige reflecting the ability of an individual to acquire an established position in society as a result of individual accomplishments

Achieved Status

Social standing and prestige reflecting the ability of an individual to acquire an established position in society as a result of individual accomplishments.

Ascribed Status

Social standing or prestige which is the result of inheritance or hereditary factors.

Early States

Societies characterized by: the prominent role played by cities, a ruler with explicit authority to establish and enforce laws, a class hierarchy, a bureaucratic administration of officials.

Ranked societies

Societies in which there is unequal access to prestige and status e.g. chiefdoms and states.

alloying

Technique involving the mixing of two or more metals to create a new material

Midden

The accumulation of debris and domestic waste, such as mollusk shells, resulting from human use. The long-term disposal of refuse can result in stratified deposits, which are useful for relative dating.

Trend Surface Analysis

The aim of trend surface analysis is to highlight the main features of a geographic distribution by smoothing over some of the local irregularities. In this way, important trends can be isolated from the background 'noise' more clearly.

Characterization

The application of techniques of examination by which characteristic properties of the constituent material of traded goods can be identified, and thus their source of origin; e.g. petrographic thin-section analysis.

Plant Residues

The chemical remains of plants, such as proteins or fatty lipids, that are found in and on artifacts. There are numerous ways of examining residues in food and drink vessels: through a microscope, using a mass spectrometer, by extracting fats using ''ultrasonic cleaning'', through chemical analysis and, by an extension of this technique, with gas liquid chromatography.

Association

The co-occurrence of an artifact with other archaeological remains, usually in the same matrix.

absolute dating

The determination of age with reference to a specific time scale, such as a fixed calendrical system; also referred to as chronometric dating.

Ethnos

The ethnic group, defined as a firm aggregate of people, historically established on a given territory, possessing in common relatively stable peculiarities of language and culture, and also recognizing their unity and difference as expressed in a self-appointed name (ethnonym) (see ethnicity).

Ethnicity

The existence of ethnic groups, including tribal groups. Though these are difficult to recognize from the archaeological record, the study of language and linguistic boundaries shows that ethnic groups are often correlated with language areas.

Provenience

The horizontal and vertical position of an artifact within the matrix, it is a component of an artifact's context.

Matrix

The physical material within which artifacts are embedded or supported, usually some sort of sediment.

Domestication

The purposeful cultivation of plants or taming of animals by humans.

Paleoethnobotany

The recovery and identification of plant remains from archaeological contexts, used in reconstructing past environments and economies.

Ethnoarchaeology

The study of contemporary cultures with a view to understanding the behavioral relationships which underlie the production of material culture.

Experimental Archaeology

The study of past behavioral processes through experimental reconstruction under carefully controlled scientific conditions.

Taphonomy

The study of processes which have affected organic materials such as bone between the time they are deposited and the time they are dug up; it also involves the microscopic analysis of tooth-marks or cut marks to assess the effects of butchery or scavenging activities.

Fall-off Analysis

The study of regularities in the way in which quantities of traded items found in the archaeological record decline as the distance from the source increases. This may be plotted as a falloff curve, with the quantities of material (Y-axis) plotted against distance from source (X-axis).

Seasonality

The time of year that a plant displays particular characteristics, such as ripe fruit. Archaeologists use evidence derived from plants' seasonality to uncover details of a society's way of life. Many plants are only available at certain times of the year, and can therefore provide clues about when a site was occupied. Plant remains can also help indicate what was eaten in particular seasons.

Central Place Theory

Theory that seeks to explain the spacing and function of the settlement landscape. The theory argues that under idealized conditions, central places of the same size and nature would be equidistant from each other, surrounded by secondary centers with their own smaller satellites.

Formation Processes

Those processes affecting the way in which archaeological materials came to be buried, and their subsequent history afterwards. Cultural formation processes include deliberate or accidental activities of humans; natural formation processes refer to natural / environmental events which govern the burial and survival of archaeological record.

Electron Probe Microanalysis

Used in the analysis of artifact composition, this technique is similar to XRF (X-ray fluorescence spectrometry), and is useful for studying small changes in composition within the body of an artifact.

The Rosetta Stone

What artifact enabled the Frenchman Jean-Francois Champollion (1790-1832) to decipher Egyptian hieroglyphic writing in 1822 after 14 years of work?

Radiocarbon (C14) dating

What was the invention of American chemist Willard Libby (1908-1980) in 1949 which transformed archaeology?

New Archeology

What was the name given to the approach adopted by a group of young archaeologists in the 1960s who sought to explain the archaeological discoveries they made through valid generalizations and to analyze cultures as systems which could be broken down into subsystems?