Intro to Archaeology

Intro to Archaeology

1. GOALS OF MODERN ARCHAEOLOGY

   • Cultural History
     • Reconstructing Past Lifeways
       • Documenting Cultural Change
         • Explaining Cultural Change
           • Stewardship
             • What gives VALUE or MEANING to an archaeological site
               • What gives VALUE or MEANING to an archaeoligical site
                 • How BEST do you CONSERVE that MEANING or VALUE in the FUTURE? WHO GETS TO DECIDE?
           • WHATS DRIVING THOSE CHANGES U DOCUMENTED BRUV
             • MECHANISMS OF CULTURE CHANGE
               • INNOVATION
                 • DIFFUSION
                   • ACCULTERATION
                     • Migration may lead to an exchange of traits with the host society
                   • spread of religious beliefs or an artifact or spread of a culture trait through borrowing
                 • Invention, which give s birth to...
         • DISPLAYING how a culture CHANGES using ARTIFACTS
           • SERIATION - method for plotting the popularity of an artifact over time
             • Uses battleship curve
       • FUNCTION OF SITES AND ARTIFACTS
         • When reconstructing a site, think about...
           • SPATIAL ASSOCIATION: proximity and context
     • "When was this site occupied? For how long?"
       • RELATIVE DATING
         • ABSOLUTE DATING
           • CHRONOMETRIC DATING
             • STATEMENTS OF PROBABLITY about date
               • Radiocarbon Dating
                 • Potassium Argon Dating
           • PRECISE CALENDER REFERENCE POINT
             • Dendochronology - Tree ring dating
               • Historical Records
                 • Ice cores
               • Skinny ring = dry year, wide ring = wet year
         • Putting events in a SEQUENCE without reference to PRECISE DATES
           • Stratigraphy - study of strata (rock layers) and their relationship to the geological time scale

2. COMPONENTS OF THE ARCHAEOLOGICAL RECORD

   • ARTIFACTS
     • FEATURES
       • ECOFACTS
         • SOIL PROPERTIES
           • HUMAN REMAINS
             • Straight up.
           • the chemical signatures can tell you alot about what was happening on that soil
             • Phosphurous for livestock and dung
               • PH - acidic, or nah? Ash changes PH to be more basic
                 • TEXTURE. How rocky?
         • Plant and animal remains that are related to human activity
           • Not a tool - more like a pile of bones from a kill site
             • charred seeds tell us flora used for diet
               • pollen preserves in waterlogged environments
                 • Phytoliths - microscopic silica particles left behind when plants decompose
       • Pieces of archaeological record that cannot be moved w/o damage
         • for example: an arrangement of stones, fashioned together as a foundation
           • SPECIFIC EXAMPLE: Great Serpent Mound in Ohio - straight up just the ground
             • Aquaducts, Huacas, Temples
     • Any MOVEABLE OBJECT, easily transportable
       • MADE or MODIFIED or USED by humans in some way

3. TRANSFORMATIONAL PROCESSES

   • Natural
     • Catastrophic events
       • Volcanoes, earthquakes, floods
       • Events that occur over time
         • Wind and water erosion, thawing and freezing
   • Cultural
     • Abandonment
       • Burial
         • War
           • Burial
             • Re-occuption
               • Modern tourism and construction
                 • looting