Archeology Midterm #2

Pollen diagram

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

Ardipithicus group

Earliest humans and closest link to other primates. Evolved in Africa and took the first steps toward walking upright.

Piedras Negras - Maya (Mexico)

Examined by Tatiana Koreakoff who proved that glyphs had repeated icons that depicted Queens and Kings, as well as included their bios and war strategies and showed that their was a lineage between them. The glyphs have continuity across sites, which was important for us in defining the Maya site as a state

Harris lines

Horizontal lines near the ends of long bones indicating episodes of physiological stress.

Savannah Pumé (people) - Venezuela

The Pumé, a foraging-gardening group residing in south-central Venezuela. Occupying some 31,060 square kilometers in the areas adjacent to and between the Capanaparo and Cinaruco rivers, approximately 5,400 Pumé follow lifestyles that mix foraging with horticulture. Their subsistence activities include hunting, gathering, fishing, and manioc cultivation. The most traditional communities, located in the savannas away from large rivers, consist of 60 to 100 people. The Pumé are a mobile people, and seasonal variation in rainfall and changing wild resource distribution encourage people to relocate their base camps seasonally. Individual families periodically establish separate, smaller camps.

Bulb of percussion

The area very close to the edge or margin of the biface where the flake originates due to pressure or percussion work. It can sometimes be deep and cause significant concavities along the edge. The bulb should be kept at a minimum.

Holocene

The post-Pleistocene geological epoch that began about 10,000 radiocarbon years ago and continues today.

Social organization

The rules and structures that govern relations within a group of interacting people.

Human osteology

The study of human bone(s).

Ethnoarchaeology

This kind of archaeology studies living societies to see how behavior can literally translate into the archaeological record.

Moundville

We can examine the ranking of social status at Moundville, one of the best-known and most intensively investigated ceremonial centers in the United States. Sprawling across 300 acres, Moundville overlooks Alabama's Black Warrior River. Th ree thousand people once lived here, and for centuries Moundville was the largest center in the American Southeast (Figure 11-9). This complex of about 30 earthen mounds was a bustling ritual center between about 950 and 550 bp. Like most Mississippian political units, this maizebased society engaged in extensive trade, and its skilled artists worked in stone, ceramics, bone, and copper. Moundville contains 20 major ceremonial mounds— large flat-topped earthen structures designed to function both as artificial mountains (elevating elite residences and possibly temples above the landscape) and as mortuary areas. A stout bastioned palisade protected Moundville's large central plaza. This suggests that warfare was probably a recurring feature of life at Moundville. Each burial mound at Moundville contained a few high-status adults, as indicated by their grave goods.

Direct historical approach

We're choosing the people we study because we're looking at specific evidence in the archeological record. This methodology involves taking an archaeological site that has historical accounts relating to recent periods of occupation and then excavating it to establish continuity back into prehistoric times. Shared ancestory = direct historical approach Ex.: Hunter-Gatherer Ethnoarcheology Among the Pumé - recording things about the Pumé to see...

Uruk/Ur (Mesopotamia)

35000 BC - Mesopotamia: States, Urbanism & Specialization - Politics & Religion: Temples - Economics: Specialization & Exchange - Urbanism: Internal & external differentiation Uruk had huge growth in a very short period of time because lots of people moved to the city - 20,000 to 80,000 people (the size of Center City right now) There had to be a different social arrangement in the city than in small groups. Fortunately, there was a lot early written records to help archeologists understand what was going on politically and helped the people at the time as well. People were specializing in trading, farming, etc. that created professions You can see some artifacts excavated from the royal cemetery of Ur (ca. 25000 BECAUSE) - elites and royalty buried there Uruk Mesopotamia (State) Numbers: 20,000+ Social org: class hierarchy, kings/priests, armies Economics: bureaucracy, tribute, craft specialization, long distance trades Settlement pattern: Focus on urbanism - cities, towns, frontier defenses, roads Architecture: City planning, palaces, public buildings (to house the bureaucracy) Religious org: priestly class

African Burial Ground

A burial site discovered in a parking lot development in downtown NYC of African slaves that had lived and worked in NY and were not allowed to be buried within what were the city limits of the time. ~400+ bodies discovered; anthropologists tried to work quickly so the developers could finish their project, but African American members in the community were upset with the way the bodies were handled. It instead became an educational center

Platform (with respect to stone tools)

A carefully prepared area on the edge of a preform to be struck to create the desired flake. Or A naturally occurring area on a rough spall or nodule that would produce a desired flake or spall. Platforms are the key to good knapping.

Flake tool vs. core tool

A core is a piece of stone that is worked ("knapped"). Cores sometimes serve merely as sources for raw materials; they also can serve as functional tools. Core tools come from a core. Flake tools come from flakes, a sharp sliver of stone removed from a core during the knapping process.

Critical theory

A critique of the modern social order that emphasizes exploitative class interests; it aims to change and not simply to understand society.

Hopewell Interaction Sphere (Ohio)

A cultural tradition found primarily in the Ohio River Valley and its tributaries, dating from 2200 to 1600 BP. Hopewell societies engaged in hunting and gathering and in some horticulture of indigenous plants. They are known for their mortuary rituals, which included charnel houses and burial mounds; some central tombs contained exotics. They also constructed geometric earthworks as ceremonial enclosures and effigy mounds.

Hand axe

A hand axe is a prehistoric stone tool with two faces that is the longest-used tool in human history. It is usually composed of flint or chert. It is characteristic of the lower Acheulean and middle Palaeolithic (Mousterian) periods.

Mikea (people) - Madagascar

A little-known people in the forest of southwestern Madagascar who grow maize and manioc, raise cattle, and do some hunting and gathering. Mikea live in four major kinds of settlements, each occupied for different lengths of time (Figure 8-11). Many have houses in large, permanent villages of 1000 people or more located on the edge of the forest. Here they grow manioc and other crops and raise cattle, pigs, and chickens. These villages frequently host weekly markets that people attend from many miles around. Other Mikea live most of the year in forest hamlets, kin-related groups of about 40 people. Most people who live in these hamlets also have a house in the larger villages. Around the forest hamlets are slashand-burn maize fields. As the arable land around the settlement becomes exhausted, the hamlet is moved, about every 3 to 10 years. Some Mikea who live in the villages also occupy seasonal hamlets in the forest during the growing season so that they can tend to their maize fields. These are much like forest hamlets, but they differ in that they are occupied for a much shorter period of time—only during the growing season. ETHNOARCHEOLOGY: "Are the different lengths of stay reflected in the material remains left behind at these sites?" To answer this question, remember that ethnoarchaeology's objective is to relate behavior to archaeologically observable phenomena. Over time, all that might remain of Mikea camps and settlements are features such as postholes, hearths, and pits, as well as scattered trash, such as burnt maize, bone fragments, and broken tools. They mapped the settlements, showing the locations of houses and features, as well as the placement of trash deposits. Through interviews, Mikea told the history of each settlement, how it was used, why it was abandoned, and other information.

Social network analysis

A method to examine the functioning of active social networks (e.g. friendship networks, corporations, governments or scientific collaboration networks). It consists of nodes (sites, individuals, objects, etc.) connected by ties or edges (friendship ties, trade connections, etc.)

Flake

A thin, sharp sliver of stone removed from a core during the knapping process.

Agriculture

Agriculture came into being at several places over the past 10,000 years. Archaeologists often refer to agricultural crops as "domesticated" plants because the plants are genetically manipulated versions of wild species that came to require human intervention for their continued survival. Modern maize, for example, would have a hard time propagating itself if humans stopped planting it.

Potlatch

Among nineteenth-century Northwest Coast Native Americans, a ceremony involving the giving away or destruction of property in order to acquire prestige. It was an elaborate economic system between 1845-1925 held for all events given by whole kinship groups - the idea was to give away everything to challenge the host of the next potlatch to outdo you (establishing power relations and emphasizing community level and reciprocity)

Trace element analysis (pXRF)

An analytical technique that uses obsidian's trace elements to "fingerprint" an artifact and trace it to its geologic source. XRF accomplishes this goal. The analyst shoots an x-ray beam onto a piece of obsidian, causing the electrons to become excited and emit fluorescent x-ray energies. Because different trace elements emit different levels of energy, the analyst can measure the spectra of energy emitted from the piece of obsidian and determine the proportion of each trace element present—defining the sample's distinctive trace element fingerprint. Comparing the sample's trace element composition statistically with all known sources allows the analyst to find the best match and, presumably, the geologic source of an artifact. XRF is a very useful technique because it is nondestructive, works well on very small samples (down to 1 millimeter in diameter), takes only minutes to complete, and is relatively inexpensive.

Archaeozoology

An archaeologist who specializes in the study of the animal/faunal remains recovered from archaeological sites. Faunal remains are the items left behind when an animal dies. It includes: bones, shells, hair, chitin, scales, hides, proteins and DNA.

Formal analogy

Analogies justified by similarities in the formal attributes of archaeological and ethnographic objects and features.

Relational analogy

Analogies justified on the basis of close cultural continuity between the archaeological and ethnographic cases or similarity in general cultural form.

Archaeobotany/Paleoethnobotany

Archaeobotany is the study of plant remains from archaeological sites to better understand the environmental context of past societies and how the environment was exploited and modified.

Cahokia

Cahokia Mounds in Illinois (AD 1050) A densely populated city (bigger than the contemporary city of England)

Chavin de Huantar

Chavín de Huántar is an archaeological site containing ruins and artifacts constructed beginning at least by 1200 BC and occupied by later cultures until around 400-500 BC by the Chavín, a major pre-Inca culture. The site is located in the Ancash Region of Peru, 250 kilometers (160 mi) north of Lima, at an elevation of 3,180 meters (10,430 ft), east of the Cordillera Blanca at the start of the Conchucos Valley. This site holds a large amount of geographical and religious significance which may be one of the reasons why the location was used as a large ceremonial center and a center of power for the Chavín culture. Circular Plaza appears to have been a sacred and ritually important open-air space within a ceremonial center. Prior to 800-700 BC, this location had a number of functions, including serving as an atrium for entering Temple A through the temple's north staircase. The plaza in the classic period, after 700 BC, is bounded on three sides by major Temples A, B, and C. The New Temple, constructed between 500 and 200 BC, is also based on a gallery and plaza design and contained many relief sculptures. The Lanzon deity is also present, holding a strombus shell in the right hand while the left hand holds a Spondylus shell.

Indus Valley/Harappa/Mojeno Daro

Complex Society Without the State: The Indus Valley (2600-1700 BC) They had public buildings There's a craft quarter at Harappa - No palaces, no temples, no royal iconography - No centralized administration - No artistic celebration of warfare - Caste as an alternative to the state? - If you belong to a certain caste, you have a role in life - The castes work together somehow to make society work Indus Valley (>>) Numbers: 20,000+ Social org: caste-like systems, no kings, no armies Economics: long distance trade, craft-specialization, professions Settlement pattern: Focus on urbanism - cities, towns, roads Architecture: City planning, public buildings

Coprolite

Desiccated feces, often containing macrobotanical remains, pollen, and the remains of small animals. Coprolites are not common in the archaeological record, but they are, for obvious reasons, an excellent source of information on human diet. Archaeologists find coprolites of many diff erent kinds of animals, including humans, in dry archaeological sites. Th e archaeologist's first task is to identify which are human, and which belong to other species such as deer or mountain sheep. Believe it or not, some archaeologists have devoted time to identifying the criteria that distinguish human feces from, say, that of a bear.

Sexual dimorphism

Distinct difference in size or appearance between the sexes of an animal in addition to difference between the sexual organs themselves.

Dolni Vestonice

Dolní Věstonice refers to an Upper Paleolithic archaeological site near the village of Dolní Věstonice, Moravia in the Czech Republic,on the base of Děvín Mountain 549 metres (1,801 ft), dating to approximately 26,000 BP, as supported by radiocarbon dating. The site is unique in that it has been a particularly abundant source of prehistoric artifacts (especially art) dating from the Gravettian period, which spanned roughly 27,000 to 20,000 B.C. In addition to the abundance of art, this site also includes carved representations of men, women, and animals, along with personal ornaments, human burials and enigmatic engravings.

Domestication

Domesticated (unless you can see a genetic change IN the plant, you can't call it domestication) humans have created an artificial environment through an active management - this is a gradual process through time because we're talking about evolutionary forces (natural selection, mutation, etc.)

Reciprocity

Exchange of information and goods is necessary to make politically and economically complex societies. Relationships being negotiated important in trade and exchange. The good and the act of gift giving govern relationships. Generosity through gifts are profit driven - no gift is free - being generous comes with obligations, giving gifts, expect something in return. Gift giving was more of a group thing rather than individual.

Retouching

Flaking done for no other reason than to remove a flaw caused by a previous flake. Also, the flake scar may or may not show evidence that the flake was removed for the purpose of eliminating a flaw.

Enamel hypoplasia

Horizontal linear defects in tooth enamel indicating episodes of physiological stress.

Sex vs. Gender

In general terms, "sex" refers to the biological differences between males and females, such as the genitalia and genetic differences. "Gender" is more difficult to define but can refer to the role of a male or female in society (gender role), or an individual's concept of themselves (gender identity).

Uluburn Shipwreck (Turkey)

KAŠ, TURKEY. Underwater arch tells us about Bronze-age economy. Used dendrochronology to date the hull to 13000 BC and dug over the course of 12 different seasons. Deep divers could only go down for 20 minutes at a time, and the ship landed on a slope so materials fell down the slope. They found personal belongings of the crew that helped them tell where the crew was from (Syria and mainland Greece).

Kiva

Kivas are religious structures where native peoples of the American Southwest hold various rituals. Th ey are usually round and semi-subterranean, with massive log roofs that are covered by dirt. People enter via a ladder placed in a central opening in the roof that also serves as a smokehole. Many archaeological kivas share certain features: an exterior, stone-lined vertical shaft that opens near the kiva floor, a central fireplace, and an upright stone slab (or a small masonry wall) between the fireplace and the shaft's opening. These features (shown in Figure 8-1) are probably functional. Th e fireplace provided light and warmth. The shaft provided ventilation, and the upright stone deflected wind blowing down the shaft and prevented smoke and embers from disturbing the ritual. EXAMPLE OF ANALOGY: The kiva's sipapu is a reminder of these stories, and a portal through which the natural and supernatural worlds communicate. Archaeologists commonly infer that sipapus in archaeological kivas had the same function as they do in modern kivas.

Lower vs. Middle vs. Upper Paleolithic

LOWER PALEOLITHIC: • Stone Tools • Control of Fire • Clothing • Shelter Evidence of the earliest stone tools in Western Europe has appeared from the deposits of first Inter-glacial phase in the Lower Pleistocene. Excellent stratigraphic sequences of entire Pleistocene epoch containing Lower Palaeolithic artifacts have been discovered from the Somme Valley in the north of France and the Thames Valley in the south of England. MIDDLE PALEOLITHIC: Behavioral Modernity? • Burial and religion • Art and jewelry • Bone tools and trade • Rafts and boats "Anatomically modern humans" The Middle Palaeolithic period is differentiated mainly from the typological point of view where the presence or absence of hand-axes or biface is critically important. The core-tool cultures have totally been transferred to the flake-tool cultures in this level. Therefore, Chellean-Acheulean hand- axes are no more found. Instead, implements have been made on flakes that are knocked off from the nodule. UPPER PALEOLITHIC: "Behaviorally modern humans" The last part of the Old Stone Age gave rise to the Upper Palaeolithic culture, which covers approximately 1/10th of the time span of entire Palaeolithic period. During this short span of time, the prehistoric man made his greatest cultural progress.

Paranthropus group

Large teeth and powerful jaws enabled them to feed on lots of foods.

Homo group (habilis, erectus)

Like modern humans, other species in this group had large brains and used tools. Members of this group were the first to expand beyond Africa

Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania

Mary Leakey (1913-1996) was one of the world's most famous fossil finders. With her esteemed husband, Louis Leakey (1903-1972), she scoured East Africa, seeking archaeological evidence of the earliest human ancestors who once lived there. In 1959, the Leakeys electrified the world with finds that included the celebrated Zinjanthropus skull (now known as Australopithecus boisei or Paranthropus boisei) from Olduvai Gorge in northwestern Tanzania. To many, Mary Leakey's discovery of the "Zinj" cranium heralded a new age, the beginning of modern paleoanthropological research in East Africa.

Meadowcroft Rockshelter

Meadowcroft Rockshelter, PA (14,500-13,4000 years old) is possibly a part of the land bridge that people used to get to North America. The remarkably complete archaeological site shows the earliest known evidence of human presence and the longest sequence of continuous human occupation in the New World. The arid environment provided the necessary and rare conditions that permitted excellent botanical preservation. In total, animal remains representing 149 species were excavated. Evidence shows that people gathered smaller game animals as well as plants, such as corn, squash, fruits, nuts and seeds.

Monte Verde (Chile)

Monte Verde is an archaeological site in southern Chile, located near Puerto Montt, Southern Chile, which has been dated to as early as 18,500 BP (16,500 B.C.). Until recently, the widely published date has been 14,800 years BP. This dating added to the evidence showing that the human settlement of the Americas pre-dates the Clovis culture by roughly 1000 years. This contradicts the previously accepted "Clovis first" model which holds that settlement of the Americas began after 13,500 BP. The Monte Verde findings were initially dismissed by most of the scientific community, but in recent years the evidence has become more accepted in some archaeological circles, There is as yet no consensus, and vocal "Clovis First" advocates remain. Paleoecological evidence of the coastal landscape's ability to sustain human life further supports a "Coastal migration" model. However, as of 2009 no archaeological evidence has been found of pre-Clovis humans using a coastal migration route.

State

Numbers: 20,000+ Social org: class hierarchy, kings/emperors, armies Economics: bureaucracy, tribute, taxation, laws Settlement pattern: Cities, towns, frontier defenses, roads (borders to defend vs. the next neighboring states) Architecture: City planning, palaces, public buildings (to house the bureaucracy) Religious org: priestly class

Chiefdom

Numbers: 5,000-20,000+ Social org: kinship-based ranking, hereditary leader Economics: redistribution, craft specialization Settlement pattern: Permanent ritual centers, site hierarchy Architecture: permanent structures, large-scale monuments Religious org: hereditary religious leaders

Tribe/segmentary society

Numbers: generally under 1000, but up to a few thousands Social org: Tribal associations, ephemeral leaders (they don't have the economic structure to support more) Economics: Early farmers, pastoralist herders, horticulture Settlement pattern: Permanent or semi-permanent villages (to protect the land they farm) Architecture: Religious elders, calendrical rituals (tied to harvest festivals and horticulture) Religious org: Permanent huts, burial mounds, shrines

Band/mobile hunter-gatherer group

Numbers: less than 100 Social org: kin-based, egalitarian, informal Economics: hunting & gathering wild foods Settlement pattern: temporary camps & activity areas (quarries or butchering sites) Architecture: temporary shelters (b/c they're pretty nomadic) Religious org: shamanic (an individual with powers or has esoteric knowledge who others come to for guidance - shamans)

Ease of access

Of pottery: how easy is it to get things out of it quickly?

Containment security

Of pottery: how well is the inside protected? (bottle neck vs open basin)

Mousterian

Of, relating to, or denoting the main culture of the Middle Paleolithic period in Europe, between the Acheulian and Aurignacian periods (chiefly 80,000-35,000 years ago), and associated with Neanderthal peoples.

Pastoralism

People manipulate plants by burning off underbrush or weeding around plants you want (like gardening)

Horticulture

People manipulate plants by burning off underbrush or weeding around plants you want (like gardening). Slash and burn is a horticultural method used frequently in the tropics wherein a section of forest is cut, dried, and then burned, thus returning nutrients to the ground. This permits a plot of land to be farmed for a limited number of years.

Stillwater Marsh

Phytolith analysis was extremely useful in the Stillwater Marsh. We sent soil samples to Linda Scott Cummings (Paleo Research Labs, Colorado) and, as expected, she found that phytoliths were well preserved. Phragmites, a common marsh grass, accounted for most of the phytoliths, along with several other marsh grasses. The seasonality of the Agate Basin site was determined using faunal remains, but at 26CH1062 we used the macrobotanical remains. Recall that we found bulrush seeds, along with cattail, seepweed, dock, chenopods, pickleweed, heliotrope, silverscale, saltbush, and goosefoot seeds. We know from ethnographic and experimental data that most of these seeds ripen in mid- to late summer and into the early winter. Dock and heliotrope are gathered throughout the summer only. Late summer is therefore the only time when all of these are available, and that is probably the best estimate of when the site was occupied (although an occupation through the fall cannot be ruled out).

Bioarchaeology

Refers to the scientific study of human remains from archaeological sites, a discipline known in other countries as osteoarchaeology or palaeo-osteology.

Foraging

Searching for wild food resources. Plants are spread by natural means (not humans) and then are collected by humans. Ex.: hunting, gathering, fishing. > 50% plants + wild small and medium game

Seasonality

Seasonality is a characteristic of a time series in which the data experiences regular and predictable changes that recur every calendar year. Any predictable change or pattern in a time series that recurs or repeats over a one-year period can be said to be seasonal. You might see seasonality appear in data sets affected by the seasonal round, which is hunter-gatherers' pattern of movement between different places on the landscape, timed to the seasonal availability of food and other resources.

Shanidar Cave

Shanidar Cave (Iraq) has been occupied sporadically over the past 100,000 years. In the 1950s, Ralph Solecki (retired) discovered several Neanderthal skeletons (one of which was the inspiration for the shaman, Creb, in Jean Auel's novel The Clan of the Cave Bear) at Shanidar. Whether Neanderthals buried their dead with ritual is a hotly contested issue, and one of Shanidar's burials, Shanidar IV, an adult male, plays a key role in this debate. Jirds store large numbers of entire flower heads, neatly clipped from their stems, in the side tunnels of their burrows. Sommers points out that the number of flower heads that this rodent stores is more than enough to account for the pollen that Leroi-Gourhan found. Thus, an alternative explanation for the Shanidar burial "bouquets" is that they were placed there by the humble jird. And the search for convincing evidence of burial ritual among Neanderthals must continue.

Petrography

Shooting light through rock which shows the minerals present (ex.: opal, etc.) - petrography showed that material in Stonehenge had minerals not found in England but Wales applied to stone and clay objects.

Australopithicus group (afarensis)

Species in this group of early humans walked upright on a regular basis but climbed trees too. Laetoli footprints and Lucy remains

Garbage Project

The Garbage Project Garbology - studying what people throw out Bill Rathje - director of the project who started by studying ancient trash from the Mayans 32 year old study of household garbage - also with related interview-survey in several North American cities They trained hundreds of students who were trained archeologists or archeologists in training and looked at/studied 2 million items from 15,000 homes Why study garbage? If archeologists can learn a lot from ancient societies by looking at their garbage, then we should be able to do the same with modern societies - the written record is sometimes biased and not always reliable It's an applied archeology that using the scientific method to study the trash - the basis of the garbage project is what they say and do (people would under-report smoking and drinking versus what was discovered in their garbage) The composition of the trash was different than what people thought Careful sampling to make sure they did different socio-economyc levels The archeology of landfills - a 20th century invention (the waste isn't biodegradable like lots of people think it is)

Lindenmeier, Colorado

The Lindenmeier Site is a stratified multi-component archaeological site most famous for its Folsom component. It is located on the former Lindenmeier Ranch, now the Soapstone Prairie Natural Area, in northeastern Larimer County, Colorado, United States. The site contains the most extensive Folsom culture campsite yet found with a radiocarbon date of 10,600 to 10,720 B.P. Artifacts were also found from subsequent Archaic and Late pre-historic periods. The Lindenmeier site, the largest known Paleo-Indian Folsom site, contained artifacts of the Paleo-Indians who lived and hunted in the present Fort Collins area approximately 11,000 years ago. Some of the artifacts are identified from people of the Folsom tradition, named for the Folsom Site in New Mexico, and identified as such by the Folsom points used for hunting the large, now extinct Bison antiquus. They likely also gathered food in the area, such as seeds, nuts and seasonal fruits. They were nomadic people, following the bison herds, and camping many places each year. They created many types and shapes of tools, including spearheads and wedge shaped scrapers, which were essentially identical to the tools of the north Paleo-Indians of central Alaska. The tools were used for chopping, slicing and skinning the hides of the bison. Broken pieces of completed tools indicate that they had been used with great pressure.

NISP v. MNI

The Number of Identified Specimens or Number of Individual Specimens (NISP), is used in archaeology and paleontology when counting bones from a site. NISP counts each bone and fragment as one unit. NISP can often be an overestimate of the actual number of individuals at the site, especially when preservation is good but bones are highly fragmented. Multiple fragments of the same bone lead to it being counted multiple times. However, too much fragmentation can lead to an inability to identify a bone as a particular type in the first place. An alternative estimate to NISP, often done in concert, is minimum number of individuals (MNI). Both are influenced by fragmentation and limited preservation, but in different ways. NISP tends to overestimate the number of individuals under moderate fragmentation, but the overestimate lessens as fragmentation increases due to the inability to classify the bones. MNI tends to underestimate the actual number under medium fragmentation, and even more severely when bones are highly fragmented. Under hypothetically perfect preservation and no fragmentation, these estimates should be the same. NISP should not be used when calculating a sample size for inferential statistics, because it will inflate the statistical significance. Thus in these situations MNI should be used instead.

Paleoanthropology

The combination and a sub-discipline of paleontology and biological anthropology is the study of the formation and the development of the specific characteristics of humans (hominization) and the reconstruction of evolutionary kinship lines in the family Hominidae, by means of the study of fossils, such as petrified skeletal remains, bone fragments, footprints and associated evidence, stone tools, artifacts, and settlement localities.

Settlement patterns

The distribution of archaeological sites across a region - the remains of how people organize their movements around and activities in a region

Down-the-line v. direct contact trade

The idea of Buddhism is an example of down the line trade, meaning that it originated in one place, but through cultural exchange spread to another place, then to another, and so forth so that when it reached Japan, for example, it was a different version of Buddhism, then that conceived in India. She said this is evident in the iconography, style, and materials used to create Buddha imagery in different countries. Direct contact would be if India directly traded a Buddha statue made in India with the Japanese, we would therefore see Indian Buddha statues in Japan, but we don't see that. Buddha statues in Japan look very different, and that's because neither the statue nor the idea of Buddhism was through direct contact between those countries, but through down the line exchange

Agate Basin (Wyoming)

The points intrigued Roberts, and he excavated at Agate Basin that summer and in the following years. Later, in the 1970s, Robert Frison's nephew, archaeologist George Frison (see Chapter 7), and Dennis Stanford (Smithsonian Institution) worked there together (Figure 9-1). Frison and Stanford published a thorough report on their research, but there is always more that we can do with archaeological collections. Th is is why Matt Hill (Iowa State University) decided to take another look at Agate Basin's Folsom component faunal assemblage. Let's begin with Hill's conclusions. About 10,780 radiocarbon years ago, a small group of Folsom hunters camped by the Agate Basin site in late March or early April. They killed at least 11 bison (Bison antiquus) and five pronghorn antelope (Antilocapra americana), probably not too far away from their camp. Th ey partially butchered the bison at the kill site and, for the most part, brought entire limbs back to camp. Th e antelope were field-dressed at the kill site, and the nearly intact carcasses were carried back to the camp. Despite their success, the hunters may have had a hard time making ends meet. Unlike later hunter-gatherers on the Plains, these Folsom hunters seem not to have relied heavily on meat storage.

Knapping

The shaping of flint, chert, obsidian or other conchoidal fracturing stone through the process of lithic reduction to manufacture stone tools, strikers for flintlock firearms, or to produce flat-faced stones for building or facing walls, and flushwork decoration.

Paleopathology

The study of ancient patterns of disease, disorders, and trauma. trauma. Th is specialization includes the identification of specific diseases, but few specific diseases can be identified from bones (syphilis [venereal and nonvenereal], tuberculosis, and leprosy are the major ones that leave distinctive lesions and other characteristics on bone). Broken bones, even if healed, are also easy to identify; unhealed breaks are usually evidence of trauma that was the immediate cause of death.

Historical archaeology

The study of human behavior through material remains, in which written history in some way affects its interpretation. Post 1950s - Looking at the larger social context and historically disenfranchised groups (Monticello, African Burial Ground, Fort Mose) - historical archeologists were at the forefront of the post-processual waves - they wanted to pull the stories of this disenfranchised groups into the mainstream historical dialogue

Experimental archaeology

This kind of archaeology uses controlled experiments to replicate the past under different conditions, looking for significant links between human behavior and its archaeological consequences. Replicative experiments initially only demonstrate that a given technique could not or could have been used in the past, not if it was actually used. EXAMPLE: Von Däniken's hypothesis can be tested using experimental archaeology: Can stones weighing several tons be moved using only the tools and materials that the ancient Egyptians had available to them? If not, then perhaps his hypothesis has some merit. But if such stones can be moved with Egyptian technology, his hypothesis is undermined.

Phytolith

Tiny silica particles contained in plants. Sometimes these fragments can be recovered from archaeological sites even after the plants themselves have decayed. through their roots, they also take in silica, which is then deposited in mineral form between cells, within cell walls, or sometimes in the cells themselves (Figure 9-9). Phytoliths occur in members of the grass family, as well as in rushes, sedges, palms, conifers, and deciduous trees. When dead plant material decays, the almost indestructible opal phytoliths—they can last for millions of years—are deposited in the ground. Importantly, phytoliths take the shape of the cells in which they were deposited. Because diff erent grasses have diff erent cell shapes, their phytoliths also have diff erent shapes. Th is means that we can identify the presence of certain kinds of plants long after those plants have decayed and disappeared. Phytolith analysis is similar to pollen analysis, but with an important diff erence: Although a plant produces a single form of pollen, phytoliths can vary within a single species, and not all plants produce phytoliths. Phytoliths are most useful for identifying the abundance of diff erent kinds of grasses, although research continues to extend this ability to other plants.

Obsidian

To make a stone tool, you must first locate and collect the appropriate raw materials—rocks that break with a glassy fracture such as obsidian, quartzite, or chert. Obsidian is often used because obsidian blades are as sharp as the newest diamond scalpels, are 100 to 300 times sharper than steel scalpels. It occurs naturally in many geologic deposits of the western United States.

Monticello (Virginia)

Today, the field of African-American archaeology is a growth industry, helping to uncover information about aspects of slave life on which the documentary sources are often silent. We can demonstrate this by looking at the slave archaeology of Monticello, the home of Thomas Jefferson. Th e residents of Mulberry Row were probably the house servants and artisans, who may have enjoyed a better standard of living than the field hands, who lived in settlements farther down the mountain. Neiman points out that the archaeology of Mulberry Row helps to answer a question posed by the historical documents. About 1776, Jefferson mapped his plan for buildings along Mulberry Row and included a building, some 17 3 34 feet, which he labeled the "Negro Quarter." By 1790, this building had burned, and in 1792-1793, Jeff erson built several smaller homes on the site, labeled structures r, s, and t on his 1796 map. He intended these structures to be homes for the enslaved; they were only 12 3 14 feet and were made of split logs, with dirt floors and chimneys of wood and mud.

Food production

When humans actively manipulate their environment to produce food rather than foraging for it. Methods of food production include: horticutlure, pastoralism, agriculture, and industrialism