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62 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
- 3rd side (hint)
Archaeologist use M******* R****** and P********* to explain the world
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Material Remains and Patterning
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Material remains are
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By products of cultural activities (ie learned, shared, cognitively structured behavior)
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Patterning
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In material remains, reflects the routine nature of cultural behaviors
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Task of Archaeology
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Identify patterns (and deviations)
Explain their significance |
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Artifact
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portable human handiwork
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Ecofact
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natural resources used for subsistence, etc.
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Feautres
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non-portable human made structures
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Sites:
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loci of past human activities; 3D association of artifacts, features, and regions
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Law of Superposition
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➣ Nicolas Steno (1669), William Smith (1815).
➣ Sedimentary layers are deposited in a time sequence, with the oldest on the bottom and the youngest on the top = stratigraph |
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Law of Uniformitarianism
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➣ Charles Lyell, Principles of Geology (1830)
➣ deposits can be understood in terms of processes observable today ➣ Earth was VERY old |
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Archaeologist use M******* R****** and P********* to explain the world
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Material Remains and Patterning
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Material remains are
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Byproducts of cultural activities (ie learned, shared, cognitively structured behavior)
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Patterning
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In material remains, reflects the routine nature of cultural behaviors
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Task of Archaeology
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Identify patterns (and deviations)
Explain their significance |
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Artifact
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portable human handiwork
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Ecofact
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natural resources used for subsistence, etc.
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Feautres
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non-portable human made structures
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Sites:
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loci of past human activities; 3D association of artifacts, features, and regions
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Law of Superposition
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➣ Nicolas Steno (1669), William Smith (1815).
➣ Sedimentary layers are deposited in a time sequence, with the oldest on the bottom and the youngest on the top = stratigraph |
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Law of Uniformitarianism
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➣ Charles Lyell, Principles of Geology (1830)
➣ deposits can be understood in terms of processes observable today ➣ Earth was VERY old |
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Gradualism
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➣ deposits built up over a long time by
processes observable today (Uniformitarianism) ➣ species did not change (no concept of evolution yet), only went extinct |
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Catastrophism
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➣ Cuvier, French comparative anatomist
➣ global-scale disasters unknown today wiped life out earlier “worlds” and lif |
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What is the Three Age System?
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Stone Age, Bronze Age, Iron Age
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Who invented the Three Age system?
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Christian Jurgensen Thomsen
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Why was Brixham cave in England important?
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Human artifacts found with Ice Age animal bones. Challenged view of Catastrophism.
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What is Antiquarianism?
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Study of antiquities, tour of Europe, done by rich white gentleman.
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Systematic Archaeology (1880s-1920s)
<3 Evolution to explain cultural differences |
- Less emphasis on treasures/spectacular finds
- Careful, systematic recordings of mundane finds and spatial locations - comparison with past people to living assemblage |
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Franz Boas
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➣ Cultural Relativism: No
universal standard by which to judge human progress. ➣ Historical Particularism: Each culture is the product of uni |
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Culture History vs. Evolution
</3 evolution (1920s- 1960) |
Culture changed through migration and diffusion
➤ For Archaeology, This Meant Trait Lists and Culture Histories ➤ Assumptions: ➣ similar artifacts in different sites = one culture ➤ Time / Space Systematics: ➣ Primary Goals: Space, Time, Form ➣ Organize cultural units within a temporal and spatial framework ➣ Interpreted as migration of people or diffusion of ideas. ➤ Methodology: ➣ Excavate units within sites ➣ Compare artifacts between sites ➤ Oscar Montelius (1843-1957 |
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Processual Archaeology
(1960-1980) |
Saw Cultural Archaeology as not enough about hard evidence and science
➤ Methodology: ➣ Broad sample of materials needed to capture cultural processes ➣ Ethnoarchaeology - use the modern world to understand the past |
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Post-Processual Archaeology
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Science is one truth, there are multiple truths.
A wide variety of theoretical viewpoints have been embraced ➣ Material culture as symbolic ➣ Individuals and Agency ➣ Social categories embedded in power relationships Gender, Ethnicity, Clas |
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Primary goals of Archaeology
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- Time
- Space - Form |
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Secondary goals of Archaeology
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- Pattern
- Process - Meaning |
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NAGPRA
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Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act
-- Passed in 1990, signed by George H.W. Bush -- Requires that human remains, funerary objects, sacred objects, and objects of cultural patrimony be repatriated -- Provides protection and ownership of items unearthed on federal and tribal land --First and foremost human rights legislation |
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Time/Space Systematics = Chronology Building
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➣ Site Chronologies
➣ Regional Chronologies ➣ Cultural Chronologies – traditions & horizon |
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Formation Processes
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Site Formation Processes: what patterns created a site? what events occurred that affect remains from last use to when they were found
Behavior Processes: what behavior does the data reflect |
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Law of Association
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Materials in the same layer date to the same layer
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Index Fossil
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➣ concept taken from paleontology
➣ species typical of a span of time ➣ Presence in geological layers can be used to date the laye |
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Seriation
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- Placing artifacts in a series
- Artifacts that are closer to one another are more similar |
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Terminus Post Queum
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the date AFTER which an artifact must have been deposited
ex. a coin dating to 1824 |
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Terminus Ante Quem
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the date BEFORE which a layer must have been deposited
ex. a french tobacco pipe bowl dating from 1865-1898 |
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Stanley South
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- archaeologist working on historic colonial sites in South Carolina
- Sought a method for dating site of the historic period using such evidence - Using TPQ/TAQ reasoning, argued you could date a feature by the earliest date of the latest artifact (TAQ) and the latest date of the earliest artifact (TPQ) |
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South's Mean Ceramic Dating
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Statistical methohd ofr dating ceramic
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Louis Binford
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- Mean date analysis of tobacco bowl pipe
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Dendrochronology
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- Developed by AE Douglass working in SW in 1920s
- Trees lay down annual growth rings - Variable width related to rainfall/cimate - patterns can be used to date sites and reconstruct environmental history |
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Regional Survey
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Records distribution of artifacts and features across landscape
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Site Survey
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Suggests horizontal structure of individual sites
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Excavation
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Horizontal + vertical association of artifacts and features within a site
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Non-Site
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Extremely low density evidence (transient but important activities in landscape)
ie Lake Turkana footprints |
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6 Factors of Regional Survey
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1. Research question
2. Kind of features you have 3. Formation processes 4. Environment 5. Local Politics 6. Funding/Time constraints |
2.
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How do you define regions?
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- Geography
- Artifact common traditions - Materials: zone of exchange - Historically documented interactions |
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Magnetometry
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- uses small magnetic disturbances in Earth's magnetic field
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Soil Resistivity
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Electrical resistance in the soil varies, and is affected by the presence of features
- Electrical current passed through the ground at regular points on a grid. |
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Ground Penetrating Radar
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- radar signal sent into the ground
- subsurface objects and stratigraphy will cause reflections that are picked up by a receiver |
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Diachronic
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ideal for examining changes through time
(vertical test pits, flotation samples, component sites from different temporal periods) |
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Synchronic
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snapshot of activities and associations at one point in time
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Low Level Theory
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emerges from hands-on archaeological fieldwork
- the basic data collected in archaeology |
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Middle level theory
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links archaeological data to the behavioral or natural processes that produced them
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High level theory
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broader "how" and "why" questions of human history
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Experimental archaeology
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- controlled experiments with analagous materials, technology, methods, etc.
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Ethnographic & Ethnohistoric Analogy
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- Used as part of "direct historical approach"
- requires an uninterrupted historical and cultural link of present to earlier culture - meaning from historic times assigned to archaeological objects and contexts |
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Ethnoarchaeology
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- study living societies with some analogous aspects to archaeological cases
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