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| things that owe any of their physical chracteristics or their place in time and space to human activity |
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used to determine how our ancestors actually lived and changed over time.
All archaeological evidence, including the physical remains of pst human activities which archaeologists seek out and record in an attempt to analyze and reconstruct the past. |
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a modification to a ste that is not portable.
usually reflects inferred specific, sometimes repeated activities, such as quarries and latrines (bathrooms) |
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| an imprecise term generally used to refer to relatively dense concentrations of artifact and features |
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transforming living systems into the archaeological record
all artifacts, features, and sites must be understood to have been formed by a complex interplay not only of the activities of the people who created the, but alsoof natural forces. |
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recording and analyzing reltionships between artifacts, features, and stratigraphic layers: depositional, temporal, and spatial data.
providing pimart data to infer change over time
established on sites by grid system, mapping ,recording, labeling. |
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| Global positioning system |
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Definition
reads locational data by trianglating signals from orbitin satellites and thus records highly accuate spatial information, such as universal transverse Mercator coordinates, or alternatively, longitude and latitude. Inexpecsive, portable, capable of digitally storing info.
Decreases chance of error from handwritten data. |
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sequence of layers or levels of sediments at archaeological sites.
can be natural or cultural in origin.
"law of superposition"- oldest things on bttom, and youngest on top. |
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the science of determining the relative order of past events, without necessarily determining thei absolute age.
include: seriation, stratigraphy, cross-dating.
Goal: establishing a relationship with the thing you're dating and something else |
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provide either calendar year, date ranges, bracket dates
includes: dendrochronology, radiocarbon, potassium/argon, thermoluminesence, optically stimulated luminescence |
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uses tree-rings to pin-point actual calendar years
most precise of absolute dating methods
basic principle: tree grows one ring per year, match ring patterns in a sequence of the same tree species from same regions.
affected by weather: wet=thick, dry=thin |
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also calle carbon-14. radiometric technique that is based on decay of naturally occruing radioactive elements or isotopes. used to date organic materials (most often: wood charcoal, charred seeds, bone collagen, wood, shell; paper, leather, other organics.)
Date up to 50,000 years |
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uses the measurement of light produced by trapped electrons to calculate age
used first to date ceramics and now used to date burnt stone artifacts.
Complication: can be reset everytime you heat it |
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uses ratio of K40 to Ar40 to estimate the time since rock or ash from volcano cooled and solidified.
half life of 1.3 billion years. Ar trapped in rock when it cools.
used to estimate dates of materialsmany millios of years old. remains of ancestors at olduvai gorge dated with this method. |
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| Optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) |
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Definition
uses light produced by trapped electrons to calculate age.
mainly used to date sediments (like layers at an archaeological sit and nowadays the samples can be as small as single grains of quartz.)
higher precision than TL
can date single quartz grains between 0-1 million years ago. |
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also known as typological sequencing.
relative dating method based on styles and their popularity over time.
styles originate, grow in popularity, decline, and then die out.
complication: you have to have an anchor point. if you can't anchor one end of popularity trend using stratigraphy or absolute dating methd, you don't know which style is younger/older.
often used where many surface collections or artifcts have been made. |
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| Lithics: scrapers, denticulates, bifaces, points, flakes, blades |
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stone artifacts
classified into types and technologies:
uniface: only shape one side
biface: shape both sides
scrapers: sharp edges, fatter: used for cleaning hide off animal
blade: long and skinny
denticulate: like scraper but with notches on side |
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provides good record of past human activity (what they ate)
past environment and climate
unnatural accumulation. reflects selection by humans: hunting activity, rituals. includes mammals, fish |
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microscopic particles of silica from plants
useful in reconstructing plant use at sites ad local plants near a sie
silica is inorganic and does not decay together with plant |
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microscopic plant grains that can be used to reconstruct past environments
most can be transported by wind, birds, and insects
variations in shape, size, and surface identify specific plants
transport of pollen can be misleading. |
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very small creatures such as rodents nd snails
tend to accumulate naturally at a site
reflects immediate environmental conditions more accurately than larger animals becausee these small creatures are more sensitive to changes in climate |
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preserved plant remains (usually burnt)
large plant remains, such as wood, charcoal, seeds, provides information about fuel, types of plants near a site, and diet. |
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| 1940's cultural-historical approach |
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the "where and when" of past cultures
group seen as culturally homogenous and temporally static
little interest in culture-internal variation or individual behavior
Critique: overly simplistic, doesn't account for processual/dynamic nature of arch. record |
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| Late 1960's Processual approach |
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application of scientific method to understand past behavior
logical positivism
prefer to look at culture process, not history-comparing cultural systems over time
critique: assumes same objectivity as in natural sciences, harder to be objective when your subject is human |
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| 1980's Post-processual approach |
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Definition
associated with postmodernism, post structuralis
legitimacy of multiple voices, interpretations
archaeologists never objective
we must acknowledge our biases, which alwys affect our research
influenced by neo-marxism, feminism |
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| characteristics: no culture, symbiotic wih nature, subsistence level food production, isolated "villate" contexts, "simple" societies. examples from philosophy and early anth: Native Americans, Australian aborigines, !Kung |
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earliest hominins. brain size slightly bigger than australopiths, smaller than ergaster.
biped, but sill had arboreal adaptation
homo ergaster probably descended from habilis
one specimen VERY short |
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| larger brain than habilis. In Africa. 2.5 mya. same time as habilis |
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| originates in Africa, leaves from Africa. 1.8mya. evolved into members of H. Sapiens? |
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| Asian hominin that developed from ergaster after they migrated to Asia. 1.5mya |
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| originae in Africa 800kya, some migrate out of Africa to Europe, maybe Asia. according to single origins model, may be the one to replace other homos and evolve into sapiens |
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brain size larger ca 1000cc
larger body than earlier hominins
low sloping forehead
big brow ridges
post cranially same as modern humans |
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human dwarf species that were marooed on remote Indonesian island of Flores between 95,000 and 12,000 ya
overturns conventional wisdo that modern humans began to crowd out other uprightwalking species 160kya |
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| Australopithecus afarensis |
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sexual dimorphism more pronounced in afarensis than ramidus
4 to 3 mya. habitual biped from pelvis shape and bicondylar angle. arboreal adaptation becaus it retains curved finger bones and long arms |
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4.4 mya
small brained, ape like body
terrestria bipedalism, but ar. ramidus still had featurs indicating arboreal adaptation grasping big toe on foot, elongated arms, curved finger bones
optional biped |
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earliest evidnce for tool assited behavior 2.6 mya
Oldowan industry: first stone tools i early stone age, chopper/chopping tools and flakes, spheroids
DLK interpreted as base camps where hunters brught food, butchered meat, shared food. |
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walking upright, on two legs: skeletal anatomy:
S-shape of the spinal column helps with body weight bearing stresses, head direcly on o of spinal colum
pelvis bowl-shaped
very stable foot immobile big toe
bicondylar angle: kneeing n. kne ad foot irectly below center of gravity
hands are free, increased field of vision |
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animal species radiate across the world naturally until they reach the limits of their adaptation, evolutionary change most rapid along limits of adaptations.
ex: elephant tropical species evolved cold adapted subspecies to go further north, couldn't expand to icy extremes of the poles |
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lower paleolithic
reconstructed as ashelter built on the beach by hominins. 350kya
the straw roof hut |
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excavations at Boxgrove have yielded Acheulian artfacts associated wih Homo heidelbergensis and lots of animal bones.
500kya.
lots of butchering activities |
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| consists of chopper tools an flakes, other spheroids |
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In Africa, the Acheulian is part of ESA. outside africa, part of lower paleolithic
characterized by bifaces (handaxes and cleavers) as well as some other tools and scrapers.
1.6mya |
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second major temp drop mid miocen 14mya, 3rd major cold period late miocene ca. 5mya. tertiary period
first hominins appear in late Miocene |
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| last 10,000 years representing the latest iterglacial period when temps rose almost t present day levels |
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1.04 to .01mya quarternary period, climatic fluctuation.
brutal winters. changes in glaciers and weather came in waves, forcing hominin populationst move arond-->mixing genes, forcing adaptations, shaping physical evolution.
great climatic shifts caused by a combo of fluctuations in sola radiation, eccentricities in arth's orbit, mountain, changes in atmosphere.' |
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wobble of Earth's sin on its axis (precession of the equinoxes)
the tilt of Earth's axis
shape of Earth's orbit around sun |
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narrow column of sedimens from drilling into sea bed with piston corer
record ofclimatic changes through Quaternary system |
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cor sample from accumulation of snow and ice over many years that have recrystallized and have trapped air bubbles from previous times
composition of ice cores: presence of hydrogen and oxygen isotopes, provides a picture of climate |
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| aea left behind when glaciers move |
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| warmer temps. 50,000 year eriods when temps rose. |
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| colder periods. seas locked in ice during coldest periods-> sea level dropped by 150 m-- land bridges that facilitated spread of people |
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| during glacial periods, thee are interstadials: short warming phases when temps rose, but didn't reach today's levels |
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| during the middle paleolithic. specialized way of preparing a core to remove flake/point/blade or specifc shape |
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150,000 to 27,000 ya. middle paleolithic stone artifacts
levollois techniques |
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160,000 ya. MSA area in Africa with early modern human fossil remains.
supports single origins model |
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| Pinnacle Point, South Africa |
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glacial stage climate, Africa was cooler and drier
human diets expanded to include more marine resources (shellfish)
early use of mdification of pigment=ochre
bladelet stone too technology
82kya art, bones as tools, personal ornamentation, point types found in subSaharan Africa |
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| Blombos Cave, South Africa |
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| 82,000-75,000 ya. bone tools, perforated shells, art on ochre, bifcial blades and scrapers, perforated marine shells on necklaces. modern behavior? |
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| Gravettian/Eastern Grvettian |
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people of this period lived during an intensely cold stage during lst ice age
populatios appear to have retreated to refugia
dnse population living arrangements because of cold--> art to relieve social pressures. "Venus" figurines
associated with byrian evidence from Dolni Vestonice
28000 to 21000 ya |
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18000 to 1400o bp
cold weather base camp
4 dwellings with large exterior storage pits, exterior and interior hearths, exterior piles of mammoth bones
149 total mammoths present, 95 mandibles used in dwelling construction. stacked on top of each other. fur draped on outside for insulation. not for purpose of art to attract other people.
decorated mammoth ivory |
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found: beads, arctic fox teeth, ivory bracelets, arm bands, red ochre and beads sugests tailored clothing with ornamentation
different things for males and females |
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| Dolni Vestonice, Czech Republic |
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28000-24000
semi-subtarranean huts built on platforms terraced into hillside
hearths, burials, abundant lithic, bone tools
large concentrtions of mammoth bones
thousans of clay figurine frgments,
multiple burial with red ochre, lithics, shells, pierced animal teeth, ivory beads, burnt wood, lots of ceramics |
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contain some of oldest and finest prehistoric art in the world
cave paintings, which mainly depict animals, are some 17000 years old and seem to have a ritual purpose
radiocarbon dating |
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famous for upper paleolithic cave paintings featuring drawings and polychrome rock paintings of wild mammals and human hands
first cave in which prehistoric cave paintings were discovered |
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16500 to 11000 bp
began during nther intensely cold period n Europe
known for enormous abundance of art: portable art, clay and stone bas relief sculpture
cave art found in sout of spain, natural features of cave walls used |
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earliest site outside Afica, 1.7 mya
chopper/chopping tools not bifaces
features of skulls make it differnt than modern humans: longer back part |
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| one of the places where homo erectus develops |
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