arch. lecture 2 Flashcards

1
Q

Artifact | Archaeological Data

A
  • any object made or modified by people
  • archaeologists specialize in particular types - especially: stone tools, ceramics (pottery)
  • Form (size and shape)
  • Technology (how it was made)
  • Style (colour, texture, decoration)
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2
Q

Ecofacts | Archaeological Data

A
  • natural object used or affected by people Zooarchaeology (=Archaeozoology)
  • the study of animal remains in the archaeological record - domestication, hunting patterns, etc.
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3
Q

Features | Archaeological Data

A
  • non-portable material remains
  • midden – a concentrated area of refuse
  • simple features – e.g., hearths, burials, storage pits, post holes
  • complex features = e.g., buildings (houses, temples, granaries, etc.)
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4
Q

Sites | Archaeological Data

A
  • A place where evidence of past human activity is preserved
  • spatial clusters of artifacts, features, and/or ecofacts
  • boundaries may be well or poorly defined
  • site may be complex (e.g., a city) or simple (e.g, a kill site)
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5
Q

Regions | Archaeological Data

A
  • largest and most flexible spatial cluster. Regions are defined in several ways:
  • geographically - river drainage, a valley, an island
  • ecologically - “boreal forest”, “arctic”
  • culturally – e.g., area occupied by the Huron-Wendat
  • allow investigation of entire cultural systems
  • particularly important for subsistence, social organization
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6
Q

Interpretation

A

how do we link the fragmentary archaeological record with specific human behaviours?

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7
Q

Experimental Archaeology | Interpretation

A
  • reproduce ancient processes in the modern world, apply this knowledge to the archaeological record
  • e.g. how to move Stonehenge stones with simple technology?
  • e.g. manufacturing techniques for ceramics, stone tools, use wear
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8
Q

Ethnoarchaeology | Interpretation

A
  • ethnoarchaeology: archaeologists observing modern peoples, with archaeological questions in mind (e.g. “where do they put their garbage?”)
  • e.g. modern Alaskan Inuit: how are artifacts distributed around a hearth?
    • the “drop zone” - small bone chips; stone chips
    • the “toss zone” - larger objects thrown farther away
  • This allowed interpretation of stone tool waste at the French Upper Palaeolithic site of Pincevent
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9
Q

Ethnographic Analogy | Interpretation

A
  • using patterns in the ethnographic record (where cultures around the world were directly observed by anthropologists) to interpret the archaeological record
  • e.g. Upper Palaeolithic bâton de commandement “rod of command”
    = shaft straightener
  • e.g. interpreting early cave art - look to San hunter-gatherers in South Africa whose rock art related mainly to shamans
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10
Q

The Ultimate Objective of Archaeology

A

to understand how societies functioned in the past, and why they changed over time.

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11
Q

Reconstructing Past Environments | Ultimate Objective

A
  • critical for understanding how people lived
  • sediments, local geology, plants, animals
  • ancient climate
  • e.g. caribou in southern Ontario at the end of the Pleistocene
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12
Q

Reconstructing Past Diets | Ultimate Objective

A
  • usually – study animal bones and botanical remains to interpret diet

Other methods include:

  • Stable isotopes: e.g. ratio of Carbon 12 to Carbon 13 (some tropical plants, including maize, have more Carbon 13; marine foods have more Carbon 13.
  • Coprolites: fossilized feces - direct evidence for diet
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13
Q

Reconstructing Technological Systems | Ultimate Objective

A
  • artifacts are the basis of much of archaeology, so archaeologists have spent a great deal of time reconstructing how they were made
  • technology occurs at many scales, from simple stone tools to elaborate buildings
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14
Q

Reconstructing Settlement Patterns | Ultimate Objective

A
  • features or households within a settlement or site
  • households are usually arranged into larger units, e.g. village
  • sometimes: sites also contain special purpose features and activity areas sites within a region
  • functional differences between sites.
  • site hierarchies – cities to smaller settlements
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15
Q

Reconstructing Social Organization | Ultimate Objective

A
  • social organization: the arrangements between individuals and groups in human society that structure relationships and activities.

some major aspects:

  1. Population size - particularly difficult to reconstruct
    • how many houses in a site occupied at the same time?
    • how many sites in a region occupied at the same time?
  2. Age – e.g. the roles of children and the elderly
  3. Gender
    • a major element structuring roles and responsibilities in all societies
    • e.g. activity areas within houses
  4. Power relationships / status hierarchies
    • closely linked to control of production and distribution of wealth and other resources
    • e.g. houses of variable size, containing variable amounts of status goods
    • e.g. mortuary (burial) patterning
    • assumption: people treated differently in life will be treated differently in death
    • Moundville:
      • ceremonial centre of Mississippian culture (1200 CE)
      • 20 major mounds
      • over 2,000 burials have been excavated
      • each mound - limited number of high-status adults. the highest status had specific artifacts
      • highest prestige items - both sexes, all ages - therefore it is inherited at birth.
      • supreme class - generally adult males
  5. Trade – interregional interaction
    • acquire goods and services not available locally
    • yields information on economic organization and connectedness (i.e. transmission of ideas)
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16
Q
A
17
Q

Reconstructing World View and Ideologies | Ultimate Objective

A
  • all human societies have complex and elaborate ideologies
  • however, they leave particularly ambiguous remains, and many practises simply leave no evidence – songs, dances, etc.
18
Q

Archaeology’s Really Big Goal: Explain Culture Change

A
  • (the rest of the course will focus more on this.)

Mechanisms of Change:

  • innovation: a newly discovered or invented thing, idea, or way of behaving.
    • Can happen rapidly due to deliberate effort, or slowly and almost unconsciously
  • Diffusion: borrowing by one society of a trait (idea, object, technology, etc.) present in another society, due to contact between the two societies.
    • Will occur only when the borrowing culture sees an advantage, and can develop an understanding of it.
  • Acculturation: a process of extensive cultural borrowing between two societies, often in the context of unequal power relationships.
    • particularly – associated with colonialism
  • Adaptation to Environment / Environmental Change
    • using culture, not biological change, to adapt.
  • final note: most cases of culture change are complex, and involve more than one mechanism
  • important to remember that human societies are made up of complex individuals and that history and politics are critical in any instance of culture change.