Archaeology Exam 2 (ANTH 1300)

Libby Half-Life

5,568 years

Pollen Diagram

A chart showing the changing frequencies of different identified pollens through time from samples taken from archaeological or other sites.

Morphological Type

A descriptive and abstract grouping of individual artifacts whose focus is on overall similarity rather than function or chronological significance.

Dosimeter

A device used to measure the amount of gamma radiation emitted by sediments (trapped charge dating).

Systemic Context

A living behavioral system in which artifacts are part of an ongoing system of manufacture, use, reuse, and discard.

Accelerate Mass Spectrometry Dating (AMS)

A method of radiocarbon dating that counts the proportion of of carbon isotopes directly (rather than using the indirect Geiger counter method), thereby dramatically reducing the quantity of datable material required.

Temporal Type

A morphological type that has temporal (time) significance; also known as a time-marker of index fossil.

Graviturbation

A natural formation process in which artifacts are moved downslope by gravity, sometimes assisted by precipitation runoff.

Cryoturbation

A natural formation process in which freeze/thaw activity in a soil selectively pushes larger artifacts to the surface of a site.

What is the "Old Wood Problem" and how can it affect archaeologists' interpretations of radiocarbon dates?

A potential problem with radiocarbon (or tree ring) dating in which old wood has been scavenged and reused in a later archaeological site; the resulting date is not a true age of the associated human activity.

Seriation

A relative dating method that orders artifacts based on the assumption that one cultural style slowly replaces an earlier style over time; with a master seriation diagram, sites can be dated based on their frequency of several artifact styles.

Optically Stimulated Luminescence

A trapped charge dating technique used to date sediments; the age is the time elapsed between the last time the soil was exposed to sunlight and the present. Can date back to about one million years.

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).

Appendicular Skeleton

All parts of an animal excluding the axial skeleton.

Relational Analogy

An analogy based on close cultural continuity between archaeological and ethnographic cases.

Formal Analogy

An analogy based on similarities in form between objects in the ethnographic record and archaeological objects.

Component

An archaeological construct consisting of a stratum or set of strata that are presumed to be culturally homogeneous. A set of components from various sites in a region will make up a phase.

Marker Bed

An easily identified geologic layer whose age has been independently confirmed at numerous locations and whose presence can therefore be used to date archaeological and geological sediments.

Seasonality

An estimate of what part of the year a particular archaeological site was occupied.

Attribute

An individual characteristic that distinguishes one artifact from from another on the basis of its size, surface texture, form, material, method of manufacture, or design pattern.

Analogy

An inference that if things agree in some respects, they probably agree in others.

Bonebed

Archaeological and paleontological sites consisting of the remains of a large number of animals, often of the same species, and often representing a single moment in time-a mass kill or mass death.

Archaeological Phase

Archaeology's basic unit of space-time systematics, combining both spatial and temporal patterns in the material culture we dig up.

How are Culture Areas determined?

By groups of people living in their environment in a similar fashion.

Dendrochronology

Dating method in which tree rings are counted

Coprolites

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

Experimental Archaeology

Experiments designed to determine the archaeological correlates of ancient behavior; may overlap with both ethnoarchaeology and taphonomy.

de Vries Effect

Fluctuations in the calibration curve produced by variations in the atmosphere's C14 content; these can cause radiocarbon dates to calibrate to more than one calendar age.

Functional Type

Groups of artifacts that may not look the same, but serve the same purpose. May or may not be temporal and/or morphological types.

Middle Range Theory

Hypotheses that link archaeological observations with the human behavior or natural processes that produced them.

Element

In faunal analysis, a specific skeletal part of the body.

Taxon

In faunal analysis, the classification of a skeletal element to a taxonomic category (species, genus, family, or order).

Potassium-Argon Dating

Measures the decay of Potassium 40. Limited to volcanic rock more than 100,000 years old.

Argon-Argon Dating

Measures the ratio of potassium to argon. More commonly used than potassium-argon, as it requires a tiny sample and is more accurate.

Archaeological Context

Once artifacts enter the ground, they become part of the archaeological context, where they can continue to be affected by human action but are also affected by natural processes.

Lipids

Organic substances, such as fats, oils, and waxes, that resist mixing with water; found in both plant and animal tissues.

Faunal

Relating to all the particular animal life in a specific location or point in time.

Floral

Relating to all the particular plant life in a specific location or point in time.

Reservoir Effect

Samples from organisms that took in carbon from a source that was depleted of or enriched in C14 relative to the atmosphere may return ages that are considerably older or younger than they actually are.

Time-Markers

Similar to index fossils in geology; artifact forms that research shows to be diagnostic of a particular period of time.

Axial Skeleton

The head, mandibles, vertebrae, ribs, sacrum, and tail of a skeleton.

Index Fossil Concept

The idea that strata containing similar fossil assemblages are of similar age. This concept enables archaeologists to characterize and date strata within sites using distinctive artifact forms that research shows to be diagnostic of a particular period of time.

What is the Principle of Uniformitarianism and why is it important to archaeology?

The principle asserting that the processes now operating to modify the earth's surface are the same processes that operated throughout geological time. Observing the contemporary world provides the information necessary to infer past human behavior and natural processes from observations on archaeological objects.

Number of Identified Specimens (NISP)

The raw number of identified bones (specimens) per species.

Context

The relationship of an artifact, ecofact, or feature to other artifacts, ecofacts, features, and geologic strata in a site.

Minimum Number of Individuals (MNI)

The smallest number of individuals necessary to account for all identified bones.

Zooarchaeology

The study of animal remains recovered from archaeological sites.

Ethnoarchaeology

The study of contemporary peoples to determine how human behavior is translated into the archaeological record.

Palynology

The study of fossil pollen grains and spores to reconstruct past climates and human behavior.

Taphonomy

The study of how organisms become part of the fossil record; in archaeology, it primarily refers to the study of how natural processes produce patterning in archaeological data.

Paleoethnobotany

The study of plant and human relationships in the past using the archaeological record.

Typology

The systematic arrangement of material culture into types.

Radiocarbon Dating

The use of the decay of the radioactive isotope Carbon 14 to date organic materials that are up to 45,000 years old.

Formation Processes

The ways in which human behaviors and natural actions operate to produce the archaeological record.

Phytoliths

Tiny silica particles contained in plants. Sometimes these fragments can be recovered from archaeological sites even after the plants themselves have decayed.

Thermoluminescence

Used on quartz and feldspar minerals that have been heated to more than 500 degrees. Limited to about 300,000 years. Works for things like heat-treated stone tools, pottery temper, and fire cracked rock.