Chapter 2 Flashcards
What is provenience?
The location of an artifact or feature within a site
Whats a “midden?”
A waste dump that contains products of the population that produced the waste
What is “Taphonomy?”
The study of changes that occur to organisms or objects (bones) after being buried or deposited
What is an “archaeological site?”
Areas of past human habitation or where fossils are found
What is a Artifact Ecofact Feature Association?
Items made by peoplefound in archaeological context:
Nature objects that have been used/affected by humans:
Non portable portions of a site(posts, graves etc.)
The realationship between artifacts and features in a site
What is provenience?
The location of an artifact or feature within a site
What is a subsurface technique?
Archaeological survey technique that maps features beneath the surface
What is a datum?
A fixed reference in an archaeological site used to define the location of info & specimine found on a site
What is the law of superposition?
The farther down the layer is the older it is
What is dendrochronology?
An absolute dating method based on counting annual tree rings
What is radiocarbon dating
A dating method that uses the decay rate of carbon 14 to date organic materials
What is potassium- argon dating? (K-Ar)
Dating method that uses rate of decay of potassium to date samples from 5000-3bill years ago (use for rocks with lots of potassuim not bomes etc.)
What ways can archaeological sites be found?
Random finding, clearing forests,
Making new developments, and searching for them
2 types of dating methods
Relative dating
Absolute dating
What is a type of reletive dating?
Stratigraphy: determines wether an object or feature is younger or older than other objects/features
