Archaeology Final Part 1

Archaeologists figure out how these tools were made through experimental archaeology

-By replicating the manufacturing process using the same tools as people could have used in the past --the process of lithic reduction --how different methods result in different tools --what is left behind in the archaeological record -One way archaeologist sleam about how prehistoric stone tools were made is through refittings

Stone is often the most abundant artifact category at an archaeological site

1. Stone preserves extremely well in the archaeological record 2. Stone tools are found in the earliest human context and all societies used stone in one way or another 3. Manufactured -stone is considered unaltered because although it undergoes modification by humans, we cannot significanlty change its properties

Stone Tool Traditions

Basalt - volcanic rock core > flake - hammerstone pressure flaking debitage (bark beating)

When stone tools are used, *microwear* on the artifact surface is visible on the edges

Different jobs result in different wear patterns

In order to fully understand the role that technology played int eh past we must understand the full range of cultural formation processes

Keep in mind that choices made in the acquisition, manufacture, exchange, use and disposal of artifacts impacts and reflects others aspects of society (social organization, religious organization, economic organization, settlement patterns)

Microfauna

are the remains if small animals -often represents animals that naturally lived in and around archaeological sites

Additive technologies

are those in which a raw material is added to in various ways between intial acquisiton (quarrying) and use

Archaeologist can also examine tool marks through

bone to identify the relationship between animals and human diet

Use wear analysis

combined with bones and other objects with cut marks, can reconstruct how stone tools were used in the past

Single meal food habits can be determined by examining

human fecal matter

Diet

implies a pattern of consumption over a long period of time

Archaeologist like to see the broad patterns pf diet because

it explains culture change and the impact of the environment on major cultural adaptations

Plant remains, animal remains are divided into

microfauna and macrofauna

The complete record of a single meal, helps archaeologist to identify

minority foods, seasonal foods, and other lesser known plant and animal resources

Direct evidence

presence of seeds, fruits, pollen, phytoliths

Subsistence

refers to the ways in which humans provide themselves with food : hunting, gathering, agriculture, fishing, and pastorialism

Macrofaunal

remains are the bones of larger animals -these are likely to represent what was hunted or domesticated in past societies

Human tooth enamel and bone collage is partly made up of

stable carbon isotopes

Indirect evidence

storage bins threshing floors, agriculture tools (grinding, stones, plows)

A heavy reliance on *corn* helps explain

the Classic Maya society collapse following drought in the 9th and 10th centuries AD

When archaeologist find human remains, they can examine

the isotopes in teeth and bones and learn about diet over a person's life span

Zooarchaeologist

those who study faunal remains from the past

Paleoethnobotanist

those who study past plant remains

Synthetic Materials

undergo a physical or chemical transformation (or both) as the result of human modification

The majority of wood artifacts come from

waterlogged sites, such as shipwrecks, or from really dry context, like cave sites -Despite the lack of wood artifacts in the archaeological record, other evidence lets us know what wood tools were extremely common in the past