WHAT IS ARCHAEOLOGY Archaeology The systematic study of our human past based on the investigation of material culture and context together forming the archaeological record Goals of Archaeology 1 describe culture history 2 reconstruct past lifeways 3 explain cultural process 4 conserve and interpret the past answers questions of what happened how did they live what crops what food etc explains the change in the past how do changes evolve conserve how to interpret it for the public archaeology in the present for the present Culture The invented taught and learned patterns of human behavior The extra somatic means of adaptation of a human group Culture terms Archaeological culture description of people living in a particular set of time Culture area Cultural resources not one culture but a geographical location with multiple cultures artifacts sites buildings monuments etc can be hurt or damaged Cultural heritage refers to transmitting an inheritance from generation to generation Material culture Physical stuff Popular culture Most popular stuff Types of Archaeology Prehistoric archaeology before 4000 5000 years ago Historical archaeology cultures that have writing system attached eg romans Paleoanthropology Classical archaeology Egyptology Biblical archaeology Industrial archaeology Manufacturing processes ceramic pottery porcelain Underwater archaeology study of human origins fossils etc more greeks and roman one of the oldest forms or archaeology hieroglyphics etc ancient Egyptian religion biblical lands eg mecca people who are religious believers maritime archaeology ships ship building Archaeological Record 1 Material Culture 2 Context BASIC CONCEPTS 1 Material Culture Artifacts Features Anything handmade tools bottles etc collection of artifacts in a place eg Fireplace ditch storage path circular pits etc bigger than artifacts where you cant carry them Structures Sites buildings of some sort any manifestation of material culture form the past Typical site types Habitation where people live Ceremonial public Burial Special activity Underwater Industrial 2 Archaeological Context The position of an archaeological find in time and space established by measuring its matrix provenience and association Matrix Provenience stuff you dig such as soil and sediment surrounding deposits the three dimensional findspot of an artifact exactly which layer does your artifact come from provenance don t confuse it art provenance is the history of ownership of an artpiece Association relationship between an artifact and other archaeological finds in a layer deposit or feature eg Sword was found on the right side near head etc Principle of Association an object is contemporary with the other objects found in the same archaeological deposit or level Principle of Superposition in any undisturbed sequence of layers the bottom layer is the oldest Context the position of an archaeological find in time and space established by measuring its association matrix and provenience Era a major division of geological time tens or hundreds of millions of years long usually distinguished by significant changes in plant and animal kingdoms Epoch A subdivision of geological time millions of years long representing unites of eras Associated Terms stratum level layer stratigraphy stratified stratigraphic stratigraphic profile section disturbance instrusion intrusive primary secondary context the description of the layer way of drawing the site in two dimensional something that intrudes into a different level the object is from layer 12 but intrusive to layer 13 if artifact is in original place or has it been shifted Excavation Is the technique that archaeologists use to uncover buried remains from the past Ground Penetrating Radar An instrument for remote sensing or prospecting for buried structures using radar maps of subsoil features Bioturbation Total Station The activities of plants and animals in the earth causing disturbance of archaeological materials A compiuterized surveying and mapping instrument that uses a laser beam to determine the exact position of the object in the ground Artifacts Ecofacts Features portable objects altered by human activity the remains of plants animals and other organisms immovable structures layers pits etc Ethnographies Anthropological descriptions of living or historically known groups of people in different parts of the world Egalitarian Rank Class Sodality refers to societies lacking clearly defined status differences between individuals except for obvious reasons such as sex age skill relationship of inequality between members of society in which status is determined by kinship relations of birth order and lineage a relationship of inequality between members of society in which status is determined by membership in level or class An alliance or assiocation among some members of a society often based on age and sex with a specific function Ideology means by which people structure their ideas about the universe their own place in that universe and their relationships with one another and things around them Cosmology Explanations of the origins of the universe of life and of society How the world came to be Pictograph Petroglyph a written or painted symbol that portrays the represented object A drawing that has been carved into a rock PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICE How Old is It The Idea of Prehistory Linear and cyclical view of the past the idea of progress Biblical origins Archbishop James Ussher and the Bible creation in 4004 B C The Antiquity of Humans Jacques Boucher de Perthes Charles Lyell and the geological theory of uniformitarianism Charles Darwin and the Theory of Evolution On the Origin of Species replacing catastrophism 1859 Archaeological Dating Methods Relative Dating stating one thing is older than the other but no exact date Thomsen s Three Age System Stone Bronze Iron Christian Jurgensen Thomsen Chronological order of age of tools Stone bronze iron Stone age bronze age iron age Stratigraphy and Superposition Determing age by determining the layer But no exact date Understanding discrete phases of deposition in different layers First Geoarchaeological Second Field observation Third Cultural stress matching with eras Seriation Typology Chronological ordering based on changes of style Comparing artifacts style with the era it is most fitted with Classifying artifacts into types based on its attributes form style chronology distribution etc Absolute Chronometric Dating