ANTH 024 1st EditionExam # 1 Study Guide Lectures: 1 - 12Lecture 1 (January 13)Introduction to Archeology What’s archeology all about? Archeology - Pieces together the past - Helps us understand and imagine past worlds- See how young civilization is Lecture 2 (January 15) How is archeology different from other ways of studying the past? Where did archeology come from/what have been the major trends in archeological thought over the past 150 years? What can material culture tell us about human behavior? Archeology is – “the study of ancient things” – the systematic description or study of antiquities – scientific study of the remains and monuments of the prehistorical period” History of Archeology: -Ancient archeologists: Nabonidus—neo-Babylonian ruler, Aztecs in Teotihuacan -Had purely political motives – understanding of ancient history & their past -Medieval archeologists: Believed the artifacts they found were made by supernatural creatures—their worldview didn’t allow for the belief in ancient homininsChanging concepts of time: Catastrophism, reconciled geology with religion – Uniformitarianism, the earth functions now the same way it did in the past, and will keep doing that John Frere: discovered ancient artifacts in Suffolk, England, in 1797—wonders if they werecreated in a different time period—first time a scientist had ever put forward the idea that therewere might be ancient people Changing methods of data analysis and collection: 18th century, increase in interest in classical past—classical sites excavated --- systematic excavations and classification, Three Age System “New” Archeology – Lewis Binford – Starts use of scientific method in archeology – current ideas may be proven wrong in the future – “facts do not speak for themselves” – searchfor covering laws Lecture 3 (January 20) What can we learn about human behavior from studying material culture? DeLeon’s work with migrant communities – Rathje’s study of Marin County homeownersLecture 4 (January 22) How are archeological sites formed and preserved? Sites are preserved through: -Deliberate burial -Accidental preservation through destruction -Deposition and sedimentation -Destruction and reoccupation Processes that lead to preservation: -Nature of materials – stone, bone -Natural factors – exposure to oxygen, soil chemistry, biota, wetting/drying, cold, underwater preservation Taphonomy: the study of the processes that affect organic remains after death – how things are preserved or destroyed – it’s necessary because only some sites survive, we only find some sites, and within the sites we find, only some artifacts survive Excavation – horizontal vs. vertical – box grid vs. open excavation Lecture 5 (January 27) How do we date archeological sites and artifacts? What different methods can we use, and how do they differ? Seriation: process of building a history of artifacts from the oldest to the youngest – when a style changes, the older styles don’t disappear right away – short amount of time where the twostyles exist together Absolute Dating Methods -Dendrochronology -Radiocarbon dating: there was a constant proportion of Carbon-12 to Carbon-14 atmosphere for most of history – Carbon-14 is an unstable isotope that loses neutrons over time and has a constant rate of decay (half life) – Can measure the rate of decay and date the sample – need a large carbon sample – Can date any kind of organic material – works back toabout 50,000 years ago -Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (AMS) : Radiometric dating methods, but with better technology – No longer need a large carbon sample, but can use a small piece of a textile, papyrus, etcLecture 6 (January 29) Absolute Dating Methods Cont’d, Archeological Survey and Remote Testing Absolute Dating Methods -Potassium-Argon – used for lava, ash – can date samples from 300 kya to 1.3 bya -Thermoluminescence—crystals found in quartz/obsidian/clay and materials materials with a crystalline structure capture electrons and release them if heated – measure electrons emitted when heated to see how long it’s been since the sample was last exposed to heat – large error range Survey Methods -“Enlightened Discovery” model – use ancient texts -“Serendipity Model” – chance -Tomb-robbery & looting -Cultural Resource Management Lecture 7 (February 3) How do we survey, and how much/how do we sample? Surveying – Map sites located within a region – Assess their age and function based on surface features Sampling -Stratified Random Sampling: Random sampling that covers all different types of areas – Makes sure to cover both highlands and lowlands Zooarchaeology: Can help reconstruct diets – Food is part of every aspect of human existence – Marks class, gender, ethnicity, etc. – Animal data is complex because there are so many differenttypes of animals and bones – Have to identify what animal you’ve found – Can tell an animal’s age, sex, seasonality, pathologies Minimum number of individuals (MNI) : The number of a specific kind of bone that you have ata site is the minimum number of animals that were at the site – 70 left femurs, 70 animals Lecture 8 (February 8)What is paleoethnobotany? What is paleoclimatogy? Paleoethnobotany: Study of plant remains – don’t preserve well, often biodegrade – Macrobotanical remains, often seeds, carbonize when burned Palynology: Study of pollen and spores Phytoliths: Silica bodies in plant tissue that help support it – can identify the type of plant its from, as well as what part of the plant Paleoclimatology: study of evidence of past climates and climate changes – Use deep sea cores, lake cores, ice cores, tree rings, pollen, dendroclimatologyOxygen Isotope Analysis: O16 and O18 are found in water in regular proportion – don’t decay over time, natural abundance doesn’t vary as much as carbon isotopes – In colder periods, there is more ice, so the ocean level is lower – O16 is lighter than O18 so it is more likely to evaporate – During colder periods, less ice melts, so O16 doesn’t go back to the ocean, but remains trapped in ice—Can look at ratio of oxygen isotopes to map climate change Lecture 9 (February 10) What is experimental archeology, and how does it help us understand lithic artifacts? Who wereour earliest ancestors?Lithics: rocks – broad variety of technologies humans made from stone