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