Anthro.

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Archaeology From Arkhaios Old. Study of past human behaviors and culture
through the systematic recovery and analysis of their remains.
4 types of Anthropology
1.
2.
3.
4.

Linguistic anthropology
Cultural anthropology
Physical anthropology
Archaeological anthropology

Types of archaeological materials

1.
2.
3.
4.

Artifacts Any movable object that has been used/modified by man.

Biological remains
Structures
Features

Artifact analysis
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Discover material patterns

Reconstruct past behavior/Reconstruct culture.

Antiquarian archaeology Ancient archaeology

- Mostly interested in discovering rare artifacts to sell.
a. Nabonidus Searched among the foundations of ruined temples for
inscriptions of earlier kings.
b. Fransesco Petrarch Saw the remote past as an ideal of perfection. Looked to
antiquity for moral philosophy.
c. Ciriaco de Pizzicolli Established modern discipline of archaeology. Bringing
the dead back to life
d. Giovanni Batista Belzoni Famous for collecting Egyptian antiquities.
Classical archaeology Branch of archaeology that studies the classical civilizations
of the Mediterranean.
Middens Refuse deposit resulting from human activities, generally containing
sediments of food remains.
Potsherd Fragments of pottery.
Early Archaeology
e. Boucher de Perthes found ancient axe heads and bones of long extinct
animals.
f. Christian Thomsen Introduced the three Prehistoric technological ages.
g. Jens J. A. Worsaae 1st professional archaeologist who excavated to answer
questions.
h. Albert Vincent Kidder Founder of anthropological Archaeology.
i. Gertrude Caton Thompson Pioneers of modern excavation in Egypt.

Culture History documenting how material culture changed over time and space.
j. H. Marie Wormington Pioneering Paleo-Indian Archaeology.
k. Lewis Binford Father of new Archaeology.
Anthropological Inquiry
4 types of Anthropology
1. Linguistic anthropology
a. Sociolinguistics
b. Historical Linguistics
2. Cultural anthropology
a. Participant Observation Gathering data by personally questioning and
observing people while actually living in their society.
b. Ethnology
3. Biological Anthropology
a. Human evolution and variation.
4. Archaeological anthropology
a. Prehistoric, classical, historical archaeology.
How do anthropologists study culture?
1. Ideational Perspective Focuses on ideas, symbols, and mental structures.
2. Adaptive Perspective Emphasizes technology, demography, and economics.
Scientific Approach
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

Define a relevant problem

Establish one or more hypothesis
Determine the empirical implications of the hypothesis
Collect appropriate data through observation and experimentation
Test Hypothesis
Reject, revise hypothesis if necessary

Inductive reasoning working from specific facts to general conclusions.

Deductive reasoning If then
1. Science is Self-Correcting
2. Science is reiterative
3. Science is not Infallible
Data relevant observations made on objects that then serve as the basis for study
and discussion.
Rock shelter - rock overhang that is deep enough to provide shelter, but not deep
enough to be a cave.

Theory driven observations

Low level theory Where Archaeologists give little thought to the theories that
stand behind their besic observations.
Middle level theory Links some set of archaeological data with the human behavior
or natural processes that produced them
High Level theory Goes beyond the archaeological specifics, applying to all
intellectual inquiry about eh human condition.
Paradigm Overarching framework, for understanding a research problem. It is a
researchers culture.
Processual paradigm Explains the social, economic, and cultural change as
primarily the result of adaptation to material conditions.
General systems theory Effort to describe the properties by which all systems,
including human societies, allegedly operate.
Postprocessual theory Paradigm that focuses on the humanistic approaches and
rejects scientific objectivity. It sees archaeology as inherently political and seeks to
interpret the past than with testing hypothesis.
Processual Plus Middle road between Processual and Postprocessual.
Deconstruction Efforts to expose the assumptions behind the alleged objective
and systematic search for knowledge.
Stelae Stone monuments Mayans used to record history.

Dating
Time Every moment there has ever been or ever existed.
Period Greater/longer than a specific time.
Chronology Linear sequencing of time.
Temporal focus to chronological markers, labels.
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Geological
Socio-cultural
Technological, material based.

Law of superposition Geological principle that any pile of sedimentary rocks that
have not been disturbed by overturning, each bed is older than the layers above the
previous layer.

William Strata Smith Developed the index fossil concept.

Index fossil concept Idea that strata containing similar fossil assemblages are of a
similar age.

3 Stone Age periods

1. Paleolithic Flaking tech. developed
2. Mesolithic More sophisticated tools, microliths were developed, pots and
baskets developed.
3. Neolithic Polished tools.
Dating techniques
Relative dating Dates expressed relative to one another (ex: today, tomorrow)
a. Seriation Giving objects chronology to see what may have gone first.
Absolute dating A date expressed in specific units of scientific measurement (ex:
Sept. 12 2016)
b. Radiometric dating Measures the date at which radioactive elements
disintegrate. Measures the approximate age of an object by examining halflife of carbon 14 - 5730 years.
c. Potassium Argon Dating Argon half-life is 1.3 billion years.
d. Accelerator mass Spectrometry Method of radiocarbon dating that counts
the proportion of carbon molecules directly.
e. Thermoluminescence dating Measures the accumulated radiation dose to
see the time elapsed from when it had first been heated or subject to
sunlight.
f. Optically simulated luminescence Measures the amount of time between
when it first was exposed to sunlight, which reset the clock to zero, and the
present.
g. Electron Spin resonance Used to date tooth enamel and burnt stone tools.
h. Argon argon dating Irradiates volcanic crystals.
i. Trapped charge dating Calculated by the total radiation received divided by
annual dose of radiation.
j. Dendrochronology Tree ring growth, developed by Andrew E. Douglas.
Dosimeter Device used to measure the amount of gamma radiation emitted by
sediments.
deVries effect Due to fluctuation in carbon in the atmosphere, radiocarbon
readings may calibrate more than one date.
Reservoir effect Some fossil animals could have taken in carbon from older carbon
sources, such as fish, taking in carbon from the water, may appear older than their
actual age.

Old wood problem People of the past may have scavenged older pieces of wood to
a structure, which gives an age older than the actual structure.
Time Markers Artifacts that, after research, shows to be diagnostic of a particular
period of time.

Part 4 Surveying
Archaeological materials.
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Biological remains
Artifacts
Fossils.

Preservation condition
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Material composition
Environmental condition
Cultural processes

Systemic context When they are still in the process of being used, before entering
arch. Context.
Archaeological context Physical setting from which the materials were discovered.
a. Depositional context Context of the place of the discovery of archaeological
materials.
b. Post-depositional context
Discovering archaeological materials and sites.
a.
b.
c.
d.
e.

f.

Chance discoveries
Historic Records
Oral accounts
Observable surface features
Systematic surveys
a. Ground penetrating radars Radal pulses on buried surfaces.
b. Proton Precession Magnetometer Detects magnetic anomalies of
burial walls
c. Soil resistivity Sediments resistant to electric current, such as damp
areas.
d. Thermal Imaging
Aerial Surveys

g. Ground Surveys Detecting characteristics of an archaeological target

through systematic inspection of area.
h. Augur testing Sample layers of soil to check for archaeological remains
a. Power augur
b. Trench excavation
Transects Predetermined pathways traversed to cover a specific area during a
survey.
GIS Geographic information system Computer program used to store
cartographic data.
Grid System used for mapping
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Datum point zero point, fixed reference point to keep control of a dig.

Natural levels natural breaks of sediments

Arbitrary levels used when natural strata are not evident.
Strata - Homogeneous or gradational material, visually separable by different
characteristics.
Water screening sieving process utilizing water from hoses.
Matrix sorting Hand sorting of soil sample for minute artifacts and ecofacts.
Backfilling putting back original soil
Flotation Use of fluid suspension to recover tiny buried plant remains and bone
fragments.
Depositional process
1.
2.
3.
4.

Intentional burial
Discard (trash)
Abandonment
Geological processes.

Post depositional processes

a.
b.
c.
d.
e.

Various environmental, climatic and other factors affect the Archaeo. Deposit.
Thru years, due to the above processes, the soil covers the site.
Floralturbation Tree fall mainly
Faunalturbation Animal made
Cryoturbation Freezing and thawing
Argilliturbation Water (Flooding)
Graviturbation Gravity, duh.

Post Depositional process (Cultural)

a. Various human activities
- Tilling of soil, disturbance of soil due to any human activities.
- Tourism

Formation processes ways human behaviors and natural actions bring forth
artifacts.
Cultural depositional processes occurring in 4 ways
1.
2.
3.
4.

Discard
Loss
Caching (intentional)
Ritual interment

Reclamation process
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By some factor, the artifact had been reclaimed/recovered.

Reuse process
3 process artifacts go through: Registration Conservation Controlled access.

Archaeological research process

Preparations
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Assemble research team, acquisition of tools and materials.

Mapping

Digging
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Principles of excavation
o Follow natural layering of the soil.
o Excavate smallest practical horizontal and vertical context.
o Goal is to minimize destructiveness
o Sieving and water screening.
o Recording
o Backfilling

Process and store

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Location of storage: Museums or private collectors

Ownership: Landowners, cultural descendants, natural government,
Institutions.
o Registration
o Conservation
o Controlled access Accession data description of collection,
accession number.
o Cataloging According to similar characteristics.