Final Flashcards
(45 cards)
Steps After Excavation
- Washing artifacts
- Faunal remains get dry brushed
- Fragile artifacts get preserved as is - Conservation
- Cataloging
Why Classify Artifacts?
- Organizing Data into Manageable Units
- Describing Types
Knowing what the artifacts are - Identifying Relationships between types
- Studying Assemblage Variability in the Archaeological Record
Organizes framework for synthesizing data
How do we Classify Artifacts?
Taxonomy:
System of classifying things
Typology:
System of classification based on construction of types
Searching for patterns
Types of Typology
- Morphological
- Functional
- Temporal
Diagnostic Artifacts
1 version of a temporal type
Definition of Attribute
Any feature of an artifact
Types of Attributes
Formal attributes
- Features such as shape, measurable dimensions and its components
- Defining features of its look
Stylistic attributes
- Surface characteristics of artifacts
Technological attributes
- Raw material characteristics
Technology
Set of techniques and information to process materials into tools
What systems/knowledge has developed that allowed humans to do things (really broad term)
Assemblage
Collection of artifacts of 1/several classes of materials that comes from a defined context such as a site, feature/stratum
Component
Archaeological unit consisting of a stratum or set of strata that are presumed to be culturally homogeneous
Phase
Series of components within a restricted geographical area sharing 1 or more distinctive archaeological types. Spatially and temporally limited
Occupation
assemblage of cultural material resulting from one use of a site by a human group (or a series of very closely spaced uses that are archaeological inseparable)
Why do we Reconstruct Reduction Sequences?
If lithic debitage can be matched with the stage of the reduction sequence in which it was produced, we can reconstruction the spatial organization of tool manufacturing, use and reworking
Stages of Lithic Reduction
- Acquire raw material
- Primary/early stage reduction
1) Core preparation
2) Initial reduction - Secondary reduction
1) Trimming, thinning and shaping
2) Preparation of preforms/tool blanks - Tertiary reduction
1) Final finishing/shaping of tool
2) Resharpening/modification of too
Primary/Early Stage Flakes
Flakes from earliest stages of breaking open raw material and preparing cores
Often 50-100% dorsal cortex
Large in size
Limited dorsal and platform scarring
Secondary Stage Flakes
Shaping and thinning of flakes to create tool blanks
Lots of variation
Medium in size/thickness
Shaping – broad; thinning - long
Platforms still fairly simple, more dorsal scarring (generally)
No cortex
Late/Tertiary Stage Flakes
Final stages of tool production – sharpening and resharpening of stone tools
Small
Multifaceted platform, angled lip
Complex scarring on platform; can be complex on dorsal surface but depends on size
Resharpening flakes have use wear on platform
Lithic Raw Materials
Better understand the knapping process (including acquisition and stone selection), settlement patterns, seasonal migration, cultural contact, trade networks, economics, and ethnicity
The best raw materials for chipped stone tools are fine grained (micro or crypto crystalline)
Identify raw materials through macroscopic and/or microscopic assessment of characteristics such as color, luster, texture, translucency
Obsidian
Extrusive, igneous, fast cooling rock
Volcanic glass
Comes from a number of sources – most common in Alberta are Obsidian Cliff (Wymoning) and Bear Gulch (Idaho), but there are also sources in Oregon (Glass Buttes), British Columbia (Mt. Edziza) and Alaska, among others.
Can be sourced to a specific volcano using XRF analysis
An obsidian flake is sharper than surgical steel
Massive Quartz
Coarsely crystalline quartz silicate
Large grain/crystal size
Fractures along facets
Multiple sources
Secondary alluvial deposits and glacial tills
Quarries in southern BC and Montana
Banff National Park
Knife River Flint
Chert silicate formed when silica replaced organic material in a North Dakota peat deposit 30-60 million years ago
Not actually flint (brown chalcedony)
Can have visible plant microfossils
Distinctive white patina with blueish tinge
Fluoresces faint orange under black light
Quarried from secondary deposits in North Dakota’s Dunn and Mercer counties
Widely used on the Plains
Swan River Chert
Chert silicate which ranges from gray to white and looks like curdled milk
Often heat treated – turns pink
Distinct vugs (irregularly shaped holes) and microfossiol inclusions
Outcrops in Swan River Valley, west-central Manitoba
Secondary deposits in gravels in alluvial and glacial deposits in southern Saskatchewan and Alberta, at least as far west as Medicine Hat
Montana Cherts
Chert silicate
Most are yellow/brown in color with black dendrites/inclusions
Avon and Madison Chert are exceptions – white/grey and creamy
Highly variable – come from a number of quarry sources in Montana, most near Helena (a few further west)
Etherington Chert
Chert silicate
aWhite to light gray, purples, mottled
Blocky, not as fine grained
Nodules in the Livingstone range of southern Alberta
