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ANTH 110P Midterm (Ch. 7)
ARCHAEOLOGY- Colin Renfrew, Paul Bahn (UCLA) Ch. 7
8
Archaeology
Undergraduate 3
11/02/2011

Additional Archaeology Flashcards

 


 

Cards

Term
Subsistence
Definition
"Food Quest"

-Analysis of strategies used to find, capture, extract, process, trade, and consume foods
-Usually many different ways to accomplish the "food quest", why were some strategies chosen and not theirs?

Meals vs. Diet
Term
Meals
Definition
Direct evidence of what people were eating at a particular time and place

Evidence of meals:
ID -Historical accounts
-Depictions in various media
-Preserved foodstuffs
D -Stomach contents (in well-preserved remains)
-Coprolites (fossil dung)
-Direct evidence of what an animal was eating
-Evidence of body size
Term
Diet
Definition
Pattern of consumption over a period of time

-Indirect evidence of diets
-Food extraction technologies
-Stone and metal projectiles, digging tools, plant and animal fiber nets
-Food processing technologies
-Stone tools, grinding equipment, boiling equipment
-Food storage technologies
-Storage bags, gourds, pits, ceramic vessels
-Drying and salting technology
-Direct evidence
-Isotopic studies
-Bones and teeth
-Malnutrition: stature, rickets
-Microscopic features: abrasions and wear on teeth that indicate foods in diet
-Tooth decay and loss: often associated with increase in starches and sugars in diet from the advent of agriculture.

Is diet sum of all meals? Theoretically, yes.
Term
Isotopic Studies (Diet)
Definition
Bones (and other materials) preserve isotopic "signatures" of foods eaten
-13C/12C ratio in bone indicates whether individuals ate domesticated grasses (C4 plant) or other carbon sources not related to grasses (C3 plant, marine resources)
-15N/14N in bone: used to assess "trophic level": ratio tends to get higher the farther up the trophic pyramid one is. (vegetarian or carnivore,that kind of trophic level)
Term
Macrobotanical Remains
Definition
Roots, seeds, fruits, leaves, stems, branches, wood.
Burnt is better, preserved a lot better.
Term
Microbotanical Remains
Definition
-Pollen
-Phytoliths (plant opals): minute parts of dead plant cells
-Diatoms (unicellular algae with silica cell walls): algae
-Pulverized charcoal- good indication of if people are present.
Term
Microfaunal Remains
Definition
-Vertebrates: small mammals, birds, reptiles
-Small mammals particularly responsive to climate change
-Invertebrates: marine mollusks, worms, insects
Term
Macrofaunal Remains
Definition
Their remains most likely to have been deposited in an archaeological context through human or animal action.
Bones from animals killed by people cannot reflect full range of fauna b/c picked by people.

Can reflect sudden extinctions, by climactic shift or people... though cause is unknown.
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