Archeology Midterm 2 Word Bank

Fission

(or division) of radioactive uranium atoms (238U), Bahn, Paul. Archaeology Essentials: Theories, Methods, and Practice (Fourth Edition) (p. 130). Thames & Hudson. Kindle Edition.

Contamination

1. Poor handling - wrap in aluminum foil. 2. Inadequate labeling- known contaminants. 3. Context of deposition- Inadequate Knowledge at sample location. 4. Date of context- reused materials like beams, Potassium-Argon dating. Problems of contamination of the sample within the ground can be serious. For instance, groundwater on waterlogged sites can dissolve organic materials and also deposit them, thus changing the amount of 14C in a sample. These matters can usually be tackled in the laboratory. Contamination before sampling: groundwater, mineral formations on sample.

12^C, 13^C and 14^C

1.All three isotopes of carbon 12C, 13C and 14C are absorbed by living organisms 2.After death organisms no longer absorb carbon 3.14C decays to 14N through the process of Beta decay The age of the sample is then determined by the ratio of 14C to 12C

Charles Lyell

A contemporary of Darwin he established the age of the earth at +300my. Effectively discredited the long-standing view that the earth's surface had been formed by short-lived cataclysms, such as biblical floods and earthquakes-his principle: uniformitarianism: same geological processes that are at work today slowly formed the earth's surface over an immensely long time. Geologist- observes changes to earth's surfaceFossil = time makersStone tools & extinct faunaConvinced of antiquity of humans. Uniformitarianism, grandfather of geology.

Primary cultural deposit

A cultural deposit that accumulates on the surface from human activity, e.g. ash layers or living floors. Primary cultural deposits are those which accumulate on the surface from human activity,

Fission track dating

A dating method based on the operation of a radioactive clock, the spontaneous fission of an isotope of uranium present in a wide range of rocks and minerals. As with potassium-argon dating, with which its time range overlaps, the method gives useful dates from rocks adjacent to archaeological material. •As 238U decays by shedding a α particles (a helium nucleus) • α particles damage the surrounding material, leaving "tracks" • Fission tracks can be seen in various volcanic minerals, obsidian, zircon and apatite

Topography

A description of surface features of land. The arrangement of the natural and artificial physical features of an area. Art or practice of graphic depiction on maps or charts of the natural and man-made features of a place or region, especially to show their relative positions and elevations in relief and contour.

Potassium-argon dating

A method used to date rocks up to thousands of millions of years old, though it is restricted to volcanic material no more recent than c. 100,000 years old. One of the most widely used methods in the dating of early hominid sites in Africa. With which its time range overlaps, the method gives useful dates from rocks adjacent to archaeological material.

Resource redistribution

A mode of exchange that 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.

Polity

A politically independent or autonomous social unit, whether simple or complex. In the case of a complex society, such as a state, it may comprise many dependent components. The largest social unit of an organized society, such as a nation, state, church, or other organization, having a specific form of government.

Lateral Continuity

A principle which states that sedimentary beds originate as continuous layers that extend in all directions until they grade into a different type of sediment or thin out at the edge of a sedimentary basin. Principle that states that an original sedimentary layer extends laterally until it tapers or thins at its edges.

Seriation

A relative dating technique based on the chronological ordering of a group of artifacts or assemblages, where the most similar are placed adjacent to each other in the series. Assemblages of artifacts to be arranged in succession.

Sediment

A residue that settles in the bottom of something. A layer of soil, organic material, or rock particles which are no longer in the place where they were formed geologically but which have been redeposited away from their source. The agents of redeposition can be weathering, erosion, decay, soil-forming processes, and man himself.

State

A social formation defined by distinct territorial boundedness, and characterized by strong central government in which the operation of political power is sanctioned by legitimate force. In cultural evolutionist models, it ranks second only to the empire as the most complex societal development stage.

Ethnohistory

A study of cultures of the recent past through oral histories, accounts of explorers, missionaries, and traders, and through analysis of records such as land titles, birth and death records, and other archival materials. The study of cultures and indigenous peoples customs by examining historical records as well as other sources of information on their lives and history. ... The term is most commonly used in writing about the history of the Americas. Ethnohistory uses both historical and ethnographic data as its foundation.

Ethnography

A subset of cultural anthropology concerned with the study of contemporary cultures through firsthand observation. The method by which researchers attempt to understand a group or culture by observing it from the inside, without imposing any preconceived notions they might have.

Pangea

A supercontinent containing all of Earth's land that existed about 225 million years ago. The name given to the supercontinent that existed during the Paleozoic and Mesozoic eras, before the process of plate tectonics separated each of the component continents into their current configuration. The name was coined by Alfred Wegener, chief proponent of Continental Drift in 1915.

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. The chiefdom generally has a permanent ritual and ceremonial center, as well as being characterized by local specialization in crafts.

radiocarbon dating method

An absolute dating method that measures the decay of the radioactive isotope of carbon (14C) in organic material (see also half-life).

Ice Core

Borings taken from the Arctic and Antarctic polar ice caps, containing layers of compacted ice useful for reconstructing paleoenvironments and as a method of absolute dating. A long cylinder of ice obtained from drilling through ice caps or ice sheets; used to study past climates.

Clovis

Clovis point is defined by length to width, very thin, manufactured in the same way, but can look and be used for many different purposes. Found associated with tools of the Clovis industry, it is the only human burial directly linked with the Clovis culture. a prehistoric Paleoamerican culture, named for distinct stone tools found in close association with Pleistocene fauna at Blackwater Locality No. 1 near Clovis, New Mexico in the 1920s and 1930s. ... Clovis people are considered to be the ancestors of most of the indigenous peoples of the Americas.

Coprolite

Desiccated feces, often containing macrobotanical remains, pollen, and the remains of small animals.

Diatoms

Diatoms are unicellular algae, whose silica cell walls survive after the algae die, and they accumulate in large numbers at the bottom of rivers and lakes. Assemblages directly reflect the composition of the water's extinct floral communities, as well as the water's salinity, alkalinity, and nutrient status.

Archaeomagnetism

Sometimes referred to as paleomagnetic dating, this technique is based on the fact that changes in the earth's magnetic field over time can be recorded in such materials as baked clay structures (ovens, kilns, and hearths). •The magnetic poles of the earth wander over time • When materials reach the Curie Temperature they lose their magnetic properties • Dropping below the Curie Temperature re-establishes their magnetic dipoles • The dipoles align with the earth's magnetic field • Through careful excavation the "frozen" direction can be measured

Horizontal relations

Spatial relationships that link different elements in separate locations; inter-place interrelationships -> flows of people and human creations across earth's surface=how people move "stuff" between places w/ difficulty or ease

Settlement pattern

State societies, on the other hand, will have both hamlets and farmsteads, and large towns and cities. The degree to which a single site is dominant within a settlement system will also be evident from this type of analysis, and the organization of the settlement system will often be a direct reflection of the organization of the society that created it. In a general way, the more hierarchical the settlement pattern, the more hierarchical the society. Distribution of homes, farms, villages, towns, and cities in an area

Agglomerated Structure

Such villages may be made up of a collection of free-standing houses, for example those of the first farmers of the Danube Valley in Europe, c. 4500 bce. Or they may be clusters of buildings grouped together—so-called agglomerate structures—for example, the pueblos of the American Southwest. Structures which consist of a series of smaller structures, such as the city center at Neolithic Catal Huyuk, or even a modern-day shopping mall.

Tertiary cultural deposit

Sultural deposit that has been completely removed from its original context and may have been reused. ... DEFINITION: French mineralogist, geologist, and naturalist, who first arranged the geologic formations of the Tertiary Period (from 66.4-1.6 million years ago) in chronological order and described them. Completely removed from original context and reused.

Exploitation

Taking advantage of a weaker group

Time zero

The beginning of a transaction or the start of something; often the current point in time.

Pollen Sequence

The best-known pollen sequences are those developed for the Holocene of northern Europe, where an elaborate succession of so-called pollen zones covers the last 10,000 years. By studying pollen samples from a particular site, that site can often be fitted into a broader pollen zone sequence and thus assigned a relative date.

Absolute Dating

The determination of age with reference to a specific timescale, such as a fixed calendrical system; also referred to as chronometric dating (cf. relative dating). •Histories and Calendars • Tree Rings • Radiocarbon • Potassium-argon • Uranium Series • Geomagnetic Genetics

Relative Dating

The determination of chronological sequence without recourse to a fixed time scale, e.g. the arrangement of artifacts in a typological sequence, or seriation (cf. absolute dating). •Stratigraphy • Typology • Seriation • Linguistic • Ecological

Tectonics

The disruption of a planet's surface by internal stresses. This is a rise in the level of the land relative to the sea caused by the relaxation of Ice Age conditions.

Carrying capacity

When the limit or "carrying capacity" is reached, further population increase leads to food shortage, and this in turn leads to an increased death rate and lower fertility (and in some cases to armed conflict). The size and density of ancient populations that a given site or region could have supported under a specified subsistence technology.

Neutron

a subatomic particle of about the same mass as a proton but without an electric charge, present in all atomic nuclei except those of ordinary hydrogen.

Isotope

isotopic analysis An important source of information for the reconstruction of prehistoric diets, this technique analyzes the ratios of the principal isotopes preserved in human bone; the method "reads" the chemical signatures left in the body by different foods. Isotopic analysis is also used in characterization studies. Often used in radiocarbon dating.

Mega FaunaMac

large bodied mammals/animals, weighing more than 100 pounds. Most of the creatures in this group died off in the end of the Pleistocene Era either due to climate change or depletion from hunting.

Amino-acid racemization

•Amino acids can exist in two mirror image forms called enantiomers • Amino acids are the building blocks of proteins • Living organisms contain only L-amino acids • After death these proteins racemize, turning from L-amino acids to D-amino acids • The rate is constant in-situ but varies with temperature • Used in conjunction with radiocarbon

Nicholas Steno

•Nicholas Steno in 1699 postulated the theories of modern stratigraphy. •Principle of Superposition - In un-deformed stratigraphic sequences, the oldest stratum will be at the bottom of the sequence. •Principle of Original Horizontality - Layers of sediment are originally deposited horizontally under the action of gravity. •Principle of Lateral Continuity - Layers of sediment initially extend laterally in all directions; in other words, they are laterally continuous. •Law of Cross-cutting Relations - If a body or discontinuity cuts across a stratum, it must have formed after that stratum. Father of geology and stratigraphy, recognized the layering of rock as a record of historical change-created the three laws 1. Law of superposition 2. Principle of original horizontality 3. Principle of lateral continuitymic

Segmented society's (Tribes)

•Number a few hundred to 1-2 thousand • Usually settled farmers • Also include nomadic pastoralists with livestock • Dwellings •Isolated units - dispersed settlement pattern • Nucleated settlement pattern - villages • Agglomerated structures - i.e. Chaco Canyon 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 ethic unit.

Obsidian Hydration

•Obsidian, volcanic glass is mildly hygroscopic • Once a fresh "face" is exposed the absorption of water begins, setting the "clock" to zero • Caution: hydration rates are dependent on local conditions, humidity, temperature, etc. • The hydration layer can be viewed with an optical microscope and measured.

Radioactive Dating

•Radioactivity or radioactive decay occurs in unstable atomic nuclei because they don't have enough binding energy to hold the nucleus together due to an excess of either protons or neutrons. •Discovered by Henri Becquerel, a French scientist in 1896 while trying to understand phosphorescent materials. •The term "radioactivity" was coined by Pierre and Marie Curie after their discovery and isolation of radium. •The constant rate of decay of radioactive elements is key to their use in dating materials.

Hunter- gather

•Small scale, fewer than 100 individuals • Seasonal movement to exploit resources • Usually no formal leadership • No differential status, except perhaps male/female, age • Archaeological sites are temporary encampments, work sites, butcher sites • Few remaining modern analogues •Questions • Cave site or open site? • Length of occupation? • Seasonal return? • Evidence • Define Activity areas - Binford, Nunamiut Eskimo • Provenience and deposition - Isaac, Koobi Fora, early Paleolithic • Reconstruction • Cultural reconstruction •Territory - Foley, Amboseli, Kenya •Distribution of artifacts These are small-scale societies of hunters and gatherers (sometimes called "bands"), generally of fewer than 100 people, who move seasonally to exploit wild food resources. Most surviving hunter-gatherer groups today are of this kind, such as the San of southern Africa. Band members are generally kinsfolk, related by descent or marriage, and bands do not have formal leaders, so there are no marked economic differences or disparities in status among their members. Because bands are mobile groups, their sites consist mainly of seasonally occupied camps, and other smaller and more specialized sites. These include kill or butchery sites—locations where large mammals are killed and sometimes butchered—and work sites, where tools are made or other specific activities carried out. Camps may show evidence of insubstantial dwellings or temporary shelters, along with the debris of residential occupation.

Craft specialization

In a hierarchically organized society, it always makes sense to study closely the functions of the center, considering such possible factors as kinship, bureaucratic organization, redistribution and storage of goods, organization of ritual, craft specialization, and external trade. Craft specialization is what archaeologists call the assignment of specific tasks to specific people or subsets of people in a community. An agricultural community might have had specialists who made pots or knapped flints or tended crops or stayed in touch with the gods or conducted burial ceremonies. The assignment of specific tasks to specific people or subsets of people in a community.

Upstream resources

Irrigation systems are inherently problematic because people living upstream could take all the water and fish upstream.

Methane gas analysis

It is also possible to analyze bubbles of ancient methane gas trapped in the ice (resulting from plant decomposition, which is sensitive to temperature and moisture variations). In oxygen isotopes, contain methane bubbles, reveal temp. changes and ice sheet melting/freezing), isotope analysis, tree rings (climate info).

Strata

Layers of sedimentary rock. By comparing natural strata and man-made strata, archaeologists are often able to determine a depositional history, or stratigraphic sequence—a chronological order of various layers, interfaces, and stratigraphic disturbances. -(stratification) The laying down or deposition of strata or layers (also called deposits) one above the other. A succession of layers should provide a relative chronological sequence, with the earliest at the bottom and the latest at the top.

Half-life

Length of time required for half of the radioactive atoms in a sample to decay. Process used in radioactive decay

Radioactive clock

Many of the most important developments in absolute dating have come from the use of what might be called radioactive clocks, based on a widespread and regular feature in the natural world, radioactive decay. The best known of these methods is radiocarbon, today the main dating tool for the last 50,000 years or so. Isotope such as potassium-40 which spontaneously decays to a stable end product at a constant rate, allowing absolute geologic age to be determined.

Pollen dating

Pollen Dating: pollen produced by past vegetation in a given area can reveal the climate of particular pollen zones and help to produce a relative chronology.

Downstream enablement

Refers to the use of an object and implications for the archaeological record.

Macrofauna

Remains of large animals found on archaeological sites mainly help us build up a picture of past human diet (see below, pp. 190-91). As environmental indicators they have proved less reliable than was once assumed, primarily because they are not so sensitive to environmental changes as small animals, but also because their remains will very likely have been deposited in an archaeological context through human or animal action. Bones from animals killed by carnivores, including humans, have been selected, and so cannot accurately reflect the full range of fauna present in the environment. The ideal is therefore to find accumulations of animal remains brought about by natural accident or catastrophe—animals caught in a flash flood perhaps, or buried by volcanic eruption, or that became frozen in permafrost. But such discoveries are rare—very different from the usual accumulations of animal bones encountered by archaeologists.

Secondary cultural deposit

Secondary cultural deposits are best described as Primary deposits which have undergone modification, either through physical displacement or a change in the use of an activity area. A body of natural or cultural sediments which have been disturbed and re-transported since their original deposition. Primary deposits that have undergone modification, either by physical displacement or because of a change of use in te activity area.

Micro Fauna

Microfauna are better indicators of climatic and environmental change than macrofauna because they are much more sensitive to small variations in climate and adapt to them relatively quickly. Small animals (microfauna) tend to be better indicators of climatic and environmental change than are large species, because they are much more sensitive to small variations in climate and adapt to them relatively quickly. In addition, since microfauna tend to accumulate naturally on a site, they reflect the immediate environment more accurately than larger animals, whose remains are often accumulated through human or animal predation. As with pollen, small animals, and especially insects, are also usually found in far greater numbers than larger ones, which improves the statistical significance of their analysis. Microfauna tend to accumulate naturally on a site and reflect the immediate environment more accurately than larger animals, whose remains are often accumulated through human or animal predation Are the remains if small animals-often represents animals that naturally lived in and around archaeological sites.

Superposition

The law of superposition states that where one layer overlies another, the lower was deposited first. This forms the basis of the way archaeologists investigate changes through time. This law states that where one layer overlies another, the lower was deposited first. Hence, an excavated vertical profile showing a series of layers constitutes a sequence that has accumulated through time.

Original horizontally

The principle that sedimentary rocks are deposited in horizontal or nearly horizontal layers. States that layers of sediment are originally deposited horizontally under the action of gravity. It is a relative dating technique. ... As one of Steno's Laws, the Principle of Original Horizontality served well in the nascent days of geological science.

Dendrochronology

The process of counting tree rings to determine the age of a tree. The study of tree-ring patterns; annual variations in climatic conditions that produce differential growth can be used both as a measure of environmental change, and as the basis for a chronology. •Developed by astronomer A.E. Douglas in the early 20th century • Tree rings are added annually •Rings become narrower with increasing tree age •Fluctuations in climate (rain, temperature, sunlight) affect ring growth •Single species exhibit similar growth characteristics •Caution: Geography can play an important part in tree ring growth even within a single species • Technique now includes European species • Commonly used to calibrate radiocarbon dates

Social Organization

The structural hierarchy of a society, first divided into smaller social units, called groups, within which are recognized social positions, or statuses. The term also refers to appropriate behavior patterns for these positions, or roles.

Palynology

The study and analysis of fossil pollen as an aid to the reconstruction of past vegetation and climates.

Stratigraphy

The study and validation of stratification: the analysis in the vertical, time dimension, of a series of layers in the horizontal, space dimension. It is often used as a relative dating technique to assess the temporal sequence of artifact deposition.

Experimental archaeology

The study of past behavioral processes through experimental reconstruction under carefully controlled scientific conditions. Study formation processes: ◦How do objects degrade over time? ◦What happens to structures? 2. Understand technology: ◦How were artifacts created? ◦How were artifacts used? What advantage did this artifact impart? Experiments designed to determine the archaeological correlates of ancient behavior; may overlap with both ethnoarchaeology and taphonomy.

Typology

The systematic organization of artifacts into types on the basis of shared attributes. The study of how the New Testament is foreshadowed in the Old Testament. Typology is the result of the classification of things according to their physical characteristics. The products of the classification, i.e. the classes, are also called types.

Isostatic uplift

This is a rise in the level of the land relative to the sea caused by the relaxation of Ice Age conditions. The rising of the land when the weight of a glacier has been removed as a result of deglaciation.