Key Terms:
Context
Context
What is a defined layer of sediment?
Stratum/sediment horizon
Who pioneered scientific excavation with a focus on context and small details?
(Gridded excavation, stratigraphic excavation, detailed data recording.)
Flinders Petrie
(1880-1905)
When was Howard Carter active and what is he known for?
Good and bad?
1890's-1930's
Worked with Flinders Petrie, was chief inspector of antiquities (Upper Egypt), found the tomb of Tutankhamun (1922)
Good: meticulous excavation and documentation
Bad: Colonial extraction
What are Emic and Etic?
Emic and Etic are approaches to archaeology.
Emic: Insider's perspective, relevant to human experience, post-processualist
Etic: Outsider's perspective, scientific observation, New Arch/Processualist
What is the single most important term we have learned this semester and what does it mean?
CONTEXT
The intersecting relationships pertaining to any component of the archaeological record.
What is Stratigraphy?
Multiple layers of sediment we can see.
What is Boucher de Perthes known for?
Bonus: When was he active in the field?
geological time-spans which extend beyond Bishop Ussher's date of Creation
Bonus: 1840-1860
What was American archaeologist Julian Steward known for?
When was he active?
Cultural Ecology: the relationship between nature and culture, culture as adaptation to an ecological niche
Direct Historical Approach: start at the most recent documented cultural component and work backwards, observing the changes.
Active during the 1940's
What are taphonomic processes?
Processes related to the decomposition of organic materials after death.
(C-Transforms, N-Transforms)
What is archaeology by analysis?
Comparative Analysis: using the present to understand the past.
Ethnohistory
● Documents from the past.
Ethnoarchaeology
● Observations of similar actions in the present
Experimental archaeology:
● Replications of similar actions in the present
What do you call the order in which strata were deposited?
Bonus: This relates to relative position in which way?
Depositional sequence
The strata level in which an artifact is found can provide context clues which indicate the age of the find.
Who is known for introducing the "three age system"?
Bonus: What are the three ages?
Christian Jürgensen Thomsen
Bonus: Stone, Bronze, and Iron
Which American archaeologist, active in the 1960's-90's, is known for their connection to New Archaeology, Middle Range Theory/Processualism, and Archaeology by Analogy?
Lewis Binford
What is New Archaeology?
Bonus: What is Middle Range Theory/Processualism?
New archaeology: scientific method, testable hypotheses in archaeology
Bonus:
Middle Age Theory/Processualism:
+ Observe the static remains in the present, and use analogy to deduce the dynamic processes of the past.
+ Site formation processes
Who said the following quote?:
“As soon as the context of an object is known it is no longer totally mute”.
Ian Hodder
(Hodder 1986, 4).
What is stratigraphic association?
Bonus: What is the Law of Superposition?
Finds from the same layer.
Bonus: Vertical sequence reflects the order of deposition
What is John Lubbock known for refining? How?
The Stone Age; he introduced the paleolithic and neolithic.
Which archaeologist is best known for their approach of Behavioural Archaeology which builds on processualism and concentrates on the dynamism of the archaeological record?
When were they active in the field?
Michael Schiffer
1970's-2010's
What is an N-transform?
Examples?
Natural factors
● Decay of organic material
● Patina (i.e. on rock art, artifacts)
● Erosion (soil or object/feature; wind or water)
● Landform changes (landslides, frost heave)
● Animal activity (i.e. burrowing)
● Plant growth (i.e. tree roots)
To whom can the following quote be attributed?:
“Culture is man’s extrosomatic [i.e., external to the body] means of adapting to the environment”
Lewis Binford
“Archaeological Systematics and the Study of Cultural Process.” American Antiquity 31 (1965): 203–10.
To specify whether a find is in it's original place, we say it is in _______ or __________ context.
Primary (original) or Secondary (unoriginal) context.
Who is best known for their work's incorporation if culture history and comparative analysis of cultures, a shift away from the focus on objects toward human lifeways, and redefinition of the "neolithic" on the basis of economy/subsistence?
(When?)
V. Gordon Childe
(1920's-1950's)
Which English archaeologist, active from the 1960's-2000's, is best known for his work in Post-processual Archaeology?
BONUS: What is post processual archaeology?
Ian Hodder
Post-processual Archaeology:
● Rejection of law-like statements
● Emphasis on subjectivity and interpretation
● Emphasis on self awareness in the researcher, and reflection on archaeological practice (!!!)
What is a C-transform?
Cultural factors
● Re-use of materials
● Re-use/occupation of land
● Farming (plowing, etc.)
● Development/building
● Excavation
● Irrigation; constr.; etc. ie: Archaeology + Un-sanctioned digging
● Removal of objects ie: Archaeology + Un-sanctioned collecting
Which English archaeologist excavated Star Carr, incorporated scientific insights from other fields, invited specialists to collaborate, studies subsistence and lifeways, and was active at the same time as Julian Steward?
Graham Clark