Chapter 8 Terminology

Question 1

Analogy

Answer 1

Noting similarities between two entities and inferring from that similarity that an additional attribute of one (the ethnographic case) is also true of the other (the archaeological case).

Question 2

Bonebed

Answer 2

Archaeological and paleontological sites consisting of the remains of a large number of animals, often representing a single moment in time - a mass kill or mass death.

Question 3

Channel flake

Answer 3

The longitudinal flake removed from the faces of Folsom and Clovis projectile points to create the flute.

Question 4

Core

Answer 4

A piece of stone that is worked (“knapped”κατεργασμένα). Cores sometimes serve merely as sources for raw materials; they also can serve as functional tools.

Question 5

Ethnoarchaeology

Answer 5

The study of contemporary people to determine how human behavior is translated in the archaeological record.

Question 6

Experimental archaeology

Answer 6

Experiments designed to determine the archaeological correlates of ancient behavior; may overlap with both ethnoarchaeology and taphonomy.

Question 7

Faunal

Answer 7

In archaeology, animal bones in archaeological sites.

Question 8

Flake

Answer 8

A thin, sharp sliver (φέτα) of stone removed from a core during the knapping process.

Question 9

Flute

Answer 9

Distinctive channel on the faces of Folsom and Clovis projectile points formed by removal of one or more flakes from the point’s base.

Question 10

Formal analogies

Answer 10

Analogies justified by similarities in the formal attributes of archaeological and ethnographic objects and features.

Question 11

Heat treatment

Answer 11

A process whereby the flintknapping properties of stone tool raw material are improved by subjecting the material to fire.

Question 12

Kiva

Answer 12

A pueblo ceremonial structure that is usually round (but may be square or rectangular) and semi-subterranean. They appear in early Pueblo sites and perhaps even in the earlier (pre-AD 700) pithouse villages.

Question 13

Microwear

Answer 13

Minute, often microscopic evidence of use damage on the surface and working edge of a flake or artifact; can include striations, pitting, microflaking and polish.

Question 14

Principle of uniformitarianism

Answer 14

The principle asserting that the processes now operating to modify the earth’s surface are the same processes that operated long ago in the geological past.

Question 15

Relational analogies

Answer 15

Analogies justified on the basis of close cultural continuity between the archaeological and ethnographic cases or similarity in general cultural form.

Question 16

Sipapu

Answer 16

A Hopi word that loosely translates as “place of emergence”. The original sipapu is the place where the Hopi are said to have emerged into this world from the underworld. Sipapus are also small pits in kivas through which communication with the supernatural world takes place.

Question 17

Slash-and-burn

Answer 17

A horticultural method used frequently in the topics wherein a section of forest is cut, dried and then burned, thus returning nutrients to the ground. This permits a plot of land to be farmed for a limited number of years.

Question 18

Taphonomy

Answer 18

The study of how organisms become part of the fossil record; in archaeology, it primarily refers to the study of how natural processes produce patterning in archaeological data.