230 Midterm

Why does context matter? How is it recorded?

-Context matters because information comes from what artifacts are associated with each other, with features, and with particular strata. It's not enough to know that an artifact came from a particular site; we need to know how it relates to everything else found at the site -context is recorded by recording the provenience of artifacts, features, and ecofacts. Provenience is recorded with a variety of technologies: total stations, photography, etc

What three levels of theory does a scientific approach in archaeology entail? How do these relate to paradigms?

-Low-level theory involves the observations that emerge from fieldwork; how they get their "data", their "facts." -Middle-level theory links data with human behavior or natural processes; it is produced through experimental archaeology, taphonomy (study of natural processes on a site) and ethnoarchaeology (study of living peoples to see links between behavior and material remains) -high-level theory provides answers to larger "why" questions -paradigms are frameworks for thinking that relate concepts and provide research strategies. They apply to intellectual inquiry in general and are not specific to archaeology

Why is the study of the past controversial?

-People typically use their vision of the past to justify their actions in the present. The assumption that the Great Zimbabwe wall was built by Europeans justified Europeans' taking southern Africa. Archaeologists can (and should) question any beliefs about the past. -New World prehistory is largely studied by people of European descent, setting up inevitable and important disagreements about the past and its use in the present.

What determines preservation?

-Preservation is enhanced in continuously dry, continuously wet, and/or very cold environments-- anyplace where conditions subdue the microorganisms that promote decay -diverse excavation strategies respond in part to different preservation conditions, constraints, and objectives in order to record provenience. From test pit to full-scale excavation, archaeologists maintain records of the 3D provenience of objects being recovered. Archaeologists record an excavation in such a way that another archaeologist can "see" what the original excavator saw.

What trends have characterized archaeology over the last century?

-The evolution from antiquarianism to professional archaeology has involved the movement from thinking about things to thinking from things. -Archaeologists have sought to build cultural chronologies, reconstruct ancient societies, and explain why cultures change over time. We also borrow information and techniques from other fields like geology, zoology, math stats, astronomy, ect. -Archaeology today covers both prehistoric and historical eras and uses a wide diversity of approaches. Archaeology is concerned with bringing knowledge to a broader public, with making research relevant to contemporary society, and with understanding the opinions and needs of indigenous and descendant communities.

What two paradigms do anthropologists use to study culture, and how are these different ways of thinking reflected in archaeology?

-There are major approaches to the study of human culture. The ideational perspective deals with ideas and symbols; it sees culture as an instrument to create meaning and order is one's world. The adaptive perspective emphasizes those aspects of culture that articulate with the environment, technology, and economics; it sees culture as the way in which humans adapt to their natural natural and social environment. -These approaches are reflected in two major paradigms of modern archaeology: processual and postprocessual archaeology. The former takes a scientific approach and focuses on the material factors of life; the latter takes a more historical approach, and emphasizes symbolic meanings, power relationships, individual actions, and gender.

What is the difference between arbitrary and natural levels? Why do these matter?

-natural levels follow the site's geologic stratigraphy; arbitrary levels are normally 5 to 10 cm thick and are based on depth below the datum point. Arbitrary levels are normally used on in test pits when the natural stratigraphy is unknown or when natural levels are more than 10 cm thick. -Arbitrary levels could mix artifacts from different natural levels, of different geologic or temporal contexts

How was the rise of archaeology connected to the discovery of humanity's "deep" antiquity?

-studying the past depends on recognizing a past. -although many early scholars were aware of the classical civilizations, the discovery in France of human artifacts with extinct animals made evident the need to study the past in great detail, without ancient documents as a guide

What limits surface survey? What are the basic remote sensing techniques and their benefits?

-survey can only find what lies on the ground; remote sensing helps us understand what lies below the ground -the proton magnetometer detects magnetic anomalies in the ground, such as pieces of metal and burned sediments (ie: hearths) -soil resistivity measures how readily an electric current passes through sediment, detecting areas of looser or more compact materials based on differences in water content -ground-penetrating radar detects features, especially architecture, using radar waves -LiDAR offers a new way to map terrain at scales fine enough to locate even subtle archaeological manifestations of past landscape modifications -remote sensing can help preserve sites by targeting excavations

What is the main principle of survey? Why does this matter?

-the main principle of survey is to generate a representative sample of a landscape; sometimes a survey is randomized to ensure that every site has an equal chance of being in the sample. -This matters because if we only look in the "logical" places, we will almost certainly bias the sample and our reconstruction of the past

rockshelter

A common type of archaeological site, consisting of a rock overhang that is deep enough to provide shelter but not deep enough to be called a cave (technically speaking, a cave must have an area of perpetual darkness).

GIS

A computer system that stores, organizes, analyzes, and displays geographic data.

total station

A device that uses a beam of light bounced off a prism to determine an artifact's provenience; it is accurate to millimeters.

Pleistocene

A geologic period from 1.8 million to 10,000 years ago, which was characterized by multiple periods of extensive glaciation.

trade language

A language that develops among speakers of different languages to permit economic exchanges.

postprocessual paradigm

A paradigm that focuses on humanistic approaches and rejects scientific objectivity. It sees archaeology as inherently political and is more concerned with interpreting the past than with testing hypotheses. It sees change as arising largely from interactions between individuals operating within a symbolic and/or competitive system.

proton precession magnetometer

A remote sensing technique that measures the strength of magnetism between the earth's magnetic core and a sensor controlled by the archaeologist. Magnetic anomalies can indicate the presence of buried walls or features.

soil resistivity survey

A remote sensing technique that monitors the electrical resistance of soils in a restricted volume near the surface of an archaeological site; changes in the amount of resistance registered by the resistivity meter can indicate buried walls or features.

adaptive perspective

A research perspective that emphasizes technology, ecology, demography, and economics as the key factors in defining human behavior.

ideational perspective

A research perspective that focuses on ideas, symbols, and mental structures as driving forces in shaping human behavior.

shovel testing

A sample survey method used in regions where rapid soil buildup obscures buried archaeological remains; it entails digging shallow, systematic pits across the survey unit.

systematic regional survey

A set of strategies for arriving at accurate descriptions of the range of archaeological material across a landscape.

Smithsonian number

A unique catalog number given to each site; it consists of a number (the state's position alphabetically), a letter abbreviation for the county, and the site's sequential number within the county.

natural level

A vertical subdivision of an excavation square that is based on natural breaks in the sediments (in terms of color, grain size, texture, hardness, or other characteristics).

potlatch

Among nineteenth-century Northwest Coast Native Americans, a ceremony involving the giving away or destruction of property in order to acquire prestige.

new archaeology

An approach to archaeology that arose in the 1960s emphasizing the understanding of underlying cultural processes and the use of the scientific method; today's version of the "new archaeology" is sometimes called processual archaeology.

provenience

An artifact's location relative to a system of spatial data collection.

general systems theory

An effort to describe the properties by which all systems, including human societies, allegedly operate. Popular in processual archaeology of the late 1960s and 1970s.

What is an anthropological approach?

Anthropologists believe that a true understanding of humankind can arise only from a perspective that is comparative, global, and holistic. The concept of culture unites the sub fields. Culture is learned, shared, and symbolically based system of knowledge that includes traditions, kinship, language, religion, customs, and beliefs.

What makes an archaeologist an archaeologist?

Archaeologists reconstruct and explain the past by "thinking from things," using their analyses of material remains as the basis for knowledge of the past.

georeferenced

Data that are input to a GIS database using a common mapping reference—for example, the UTM grid—so that all data can be spatially analyzed.

deconstruction

Efforts to expose the assumptions behind the alleged objective and systematic search for knowledge.

Who were the antiquarians, and why include them in a history of archaeology?

For better or worse, these looters helped spark an interest in the ancient world. They built museum collections that inspired later generations to create the profession of archaeology (which would reject the methods and attitudes of antiquarians).

seasonal round

Hunter-gatherers' pattern of movement between different places on the landscape, timed to the seasonal availability of food and other resources.

What is landscape archaeology?

Landscape archaeology is similar to settlement pattern archaeology because of its interest in the regional record of human behavior, but it focuses on human modification and interpretation of the environment.

strata

More or less homogeneous or gradational material, visually separable from other levels by a discrete change in the character of the material—texture, compactness, color, rock, organic content—and/or by a sharp break in the nature of deposition. (singular stratum)

What is science, and how does it explain things?

Science is a search for answers through a process that is objective, systematic, logical, predictive, self-critical, and public. It works through a cyclical process that entails constructing hypotheses, determining their empirical implications, and testing those hypotheses with empirical data. For more than a century, archaeology has been firmly grounded in a scientific perspective, which provides an elegant and powerful way of allowing people to understand the workings of the visible world.

stelae

Stone monuments erected by Maya rulers to record their history in rich images and hieroglyphic symbols. These symbols can be read and dated.

arbitrary level

The basic vertical subdivision of an excavation square; used only when easily recognizable "natural" strata are lacking or when natural strata are more than 10 centimeters thick.

processual paradigm

The paradigm that explains social, economic, and cultural change as primarily the result of adaptation to material conditions. External conditions (for example, the environment) are assumed to take causal priority over ideational factors in explaining change.

sample fraction

The percentage of the sample universe that is surveyed. Areas with a lot of variability in archaeological remains require larger sample fractions than do areas of low variability.

sample universe

The region that contains the statistical population and that will be sampled. Its size and shape are determined by the research question and practical considerations.

anthropology

The study of all aspects of humankind- biological, cultural, and linguistic; extant and extinct- employing a holistic, comparative approach and the concept of culture.

archaeology

The study of the past through the systematic recovery and analysis of material remains.

flotation

The use of fluid suspension to recover tiny burned plant remains and bone fragments from archaeological sites.

datum point

The zero point, a fixed reference used to keep control on a dig; usually controls both the vertical and horizontal dimensions of provenience.

TIMS

Thermal Infrared Multispectral Scanning; a remote sensing technique that uses equipment mounted on aircraft or satellites to measure infrared thermal radiation given off by the ground. Sensitive to differences as small as 0.1 centigrade, it can locate subsurface structures by tracking how they affect surface thermal radiation

UTM

Universal Transverse Mercator, a grid system in which north and east coordinates provide a location anywhere in the world, precise to 1 meter.

Why do archaeologist "survey"?

We do survey because no single site reveals everything about an ancient society.

How do archaeologists recover the smallest artifacts and ecofacts?

We use screening, flotation, and bulk matrix processing to recover extremely small artifacts and ecofacts.

wickiup

a conical structure made of poles or logs laid against one another that served as a fall or winter home among the prehistoric Shoshone and Paiute

living floor

a distinct buried surface on which people lived

mano

a fist-sized, round, flat, handheld stone used with a metate for grinding foods

deflation

a geological process whereby fine sediment is blown away by the wind and larger items- including artifacts- are lowered onto a common surface and thus become recognizable as a site

metate

a large, flat stone used as a stationary surface upon which seeds, tubers, and nuts are ground with a mano

hypothesis

a proposition proposed as an explanation of some phenonmenon

LiDAR

a remote sensing technology that measures distance by illuminating a target with a laser and analyzing the reflected light 5 to 10 centimeter accuracy

random sample

a sample that fairly represents a population because each member has an equal chance of inclusion

statistical population

a set of counts, measurements, or characteristics about which relevant inquiries are to be made

photogrammetry

a set of techniques used to obtain precise mathematical measurements and three-dimensional data from digital photographs

water screening

a sieving process in which deposit is placed on a screen and the matrix washed away with hoses; essential where artifacts are expected to be small and/or difficult to find without washing

stratigraphy

a site's physical structure produced by the deposition of geological and/or cultural sediments into layers, or stata

test excavation

a small initial excavation to determine a site's potential for answering a research question

stratified random sample

a survey universe divided into several sub-universes that are then sampled at potentially different sample fractions

theory

an explanation for observed, empirical phenomena. It seeks to explain the relationships between variables; it is an answer to a "why" question

culture

an integrated system of beliefs, traditions, and customs that govern or influence a person's behavior. Culture is learned, shared by members of a group, and based on the ability to think in terms of symbols.

non-site archaeology

analysis of archaeological patterns manifested on a scale of kilometers or hectares, rather than of patterns within a single site

Artifact

any moveable object that has been used, modified, or manufactured by humans; artifacts include stone, bone, and metal tools; beads and other ornaments; pottery; artwork; religious and sacred items

projectile points

arrowheads, dart points, or spear points

Classical Archaeology

branch that studies "classical" civilizations of the Mediterranean, like Greece and Rome, and the near East

potsherd

fragment of pottery

GPR

ground-penetrating radar; a geophysical method that uses radar pulses to image underground surface

GPS

handheld devices that use triangulation from radio waves received from satellites to determine your current position in terms of either the UTM grid or latitude and longitude

middle-level theory

hypothesis that links archaeological observations with human behavior or natural processes that produced them

in situ

in its original place; from Latin

feature

nonportable archaeological evidence such as fire hearths, architectural elements, artifact clusters, garbage pits, and soil stains.

Antiquarian

originally, someone that studied antiquities largely for the sake of objects themselves, not to understand the people or culture that produced them

ecofact

plant or animal remains found at an archaeological site

deductive reasoning

reasoning from theory to predict specific observational or experimental results

midden

refuse deposit resulting from human activities, generally consisting of sediment; food remains such as charred seeds, animal bone, and shell; and discarded artifacts

data

relevant observations made on objects that then serve as the basis for study and discussion

Noncollection Survey

surface survey in which artifacts' locations are recorded by sensitive GPS instruments and data gathered only in the field

sample units

survey units of a standard size and shape, determined by the research question and practical considerations, used to obtain the sample

testability

the degree to which one's observations and experiments can be reproduced

settlement pattern

the distribution of archaeological sites across a region

geoarchaeology

the field of study that applies the concepts and methods of the geosciences to archaeological research

matrix sorting

the hand sorting of processed bulk soil samples for minute artifacts and ecofacts

site formation

the human and natural actions that work together to create an archaeological site

culture history

the kind of archaeology practiced mainly in the early to mid-twentieth century; it "explains" differences or changes over time in artifact frequencies by positing the diffusion of ideas between neighboring cultures or the migration of a people who had different mental templates for artifacts styles

settlement system

the movements and activities reconstructed from a settlement pattern

low-level theory

the observations and interpretations that emerge from hands-on archaeological field and lab work

paradigm

the overarching framework, often unstated, for understanding a research problem. It is a researcher's "culture"

participant observation

the primary strategy of cultural anthropology, in which data are gathered by questioning and observing people while the observer lives in their society

context

the relationship of an artifact, ecofacts, features, and geologic strata in a site

science

the search for answers through a process that is objective, systematic, logical, predictive, self-critical, and public

landscape archaeology

the study of ancient human modification of the environment

plow zone

the upper portion of a soil profile that has been disturbed by repeated plowing or other agricultural activity

remote sensing

the use of some form of electromagnetic energy to detect and measure characteristics of an archaeological target

high-level theory

theory that seeks to answer large "why" questions

inductive reasoning

working from specific observations to more general hypotheses