Week 2 Info

Question 1

3 misconceptions when encountering death

Answer 1

1. not all deaths involve graves
2. graves are found in a tomb/ chamber (like Indiana jones)
3. dead are always lifelike bodies with tissue and hair

Question 2

archaeology before 1800s

Answer 2

tombs target of looting (pieces in tact, jewelry, gold, weapons)

Question 3

archaeology 1800s-1900s

Answer 3

tombs target for museum pieces (intact)

Question 4

looting and museum have in common (3)

Answer 4

1. little interest in human remains
2. treating graves as sources for objects
3. not using graves to answer antrho questions

Question 5

encountering death: where? (4)

Answer 5

1. cemeteries
2. near/ under houses
3. mortuary monuments (burial mounds)
4. middens (refuse heaps - garbage deposits)

Question 6

why graves are special (4)

Answer 6

1. material deliberately placed in ground
2. very direct link to belief systems (religion, worldview) (product of ritual behavior)
3. bodies provide info on bio aspects of population (health, life history)
4. contain individuals (study on persona)

Question 7

deathways

Answer 7

refers to all funerary practices (funeral, order things placed in grave, how dead is dressed)

Question 8

deathways structured by (2)

Answer 8

1. social dimensions (who they were in society
2. symbolic (religious) dimensions

Question 9

goal of archaeology

Answer 9

use graves as clues to reconstruct deathways –> insights to organizations and beliefs

Question 10

looting, 19th cenutry archaelogy

Answer 10

object oriented

Question 11

modern archaeology

Answer 11

graves as clues, deathways

Question 12

contemporary archaeology questions (4)

Answer 12

1. what order stuff put into grave
2. by who? social groups, labor involved
3. how treatment of dead express symbolic, social aspects (why certain grave goods over others?)
4. what role did burial rites play in society?

Question 13

excavation

Answer 13

systematic, record all spatial positions, expose/ record things “in situ” (as followed)

Question 14

excavation goal

Answer 14

extract as much info as possible

Question 15

bioarchaeologists

Answer 15

study soil types (able to tell season, weather, unpreserved grave goods)

Question 16

arch-entomology

Answer 16

looking at insect activity associated with dead (season, length of funeral –> how long body lasted until exposed to soil)

Question 17

gut contents

Answer 17

take soil samples from where gut was to see last meal

Question 18

preservation correlates with

Answer 18

rainfall

Question 19

preservation improved by factors that

Answer 19

inhibit decomposition, discourage bacterial, microbial, fungal activity

Question 20

factors that inhibit decomposition (5)

Answer 20

1. very dry (desert)
2. dry caves
3. very wet (water logged)
4. abaeribis (low oxygen) (peat bog –> bog bodies)
5. very cold

Question 21

really good preservation (4)

Answer 21

1.bone
2.tissue
3.soft organic (organs)
4.clothing

Question 21

bad preservation (2)

Answer 21

1. no bone
2. bone meal

Question 22

differential preservation

Answer 22

some things preserve better than others (wool and leather preserve, not linen)

Question 23

anthropologie de terrain (achaeothanatology)

Answer 23

reconstructing burial activites by understanding how things decompose in grave

Question 24

taphonomy

Answer 24

study of how things decay/ preserve in the ground (can find sequence of how body decays)

Question 25

sequence of joint decay

Answer 25

soonest: fingers, toes, cerival vertebrae (neck)
intermediate: elbow, thoracic vertebrae (midback)
last: hip, lumbar vertebrae (lower back)

Question 26

if bones appear packed and balanced

Answer 26

corpse must have been in coffin or shroud (wall effect)

Question 27

if bones spread out

Answer 27

bones disarticulated and move outside of original space of body, body decayed in empty space not surrounded by soil

Question 28

ban lum khao site

Answer 28

wrapped (83% male) or buried in coffins (55% female)

Question 29

decay analysis can provide info on (6)

Answer 29

1.spatial relations
2.season of burial
3.clothing
4.timing of burial sequence (layering)
5.sequence objects put in grave
6.whether grave reopened

Question 30

interrogate grave to examine (4)

Answer 30

1.ritual sequences
2.intentionality
3.body aesthetics
4.spatial relationships