ArchaeoloGEEZ
Archaeology is a ______________ science
destructive
What is the 4-field approach?
Integrating biological, linguistic, cultural and archaeological sub-fields
Describe the difference between excavation and survey.
Survey: Surface examination (low-impact, broad view, low-resolution) - Pedestrian Survey, Intensive Field Walking, Shovel Testing, Aerial Survey, Geophysical Survey
Excavation: Digging (high-impact, narrow view, high-resolution) - vertical, horizontal, test, full
Archaeological theory is...
A collection of intellectual frameworks that archaeologists use to interpret archaeological data and understand human history.
Dunnell says this about the site concept:
Deleterious, defective, bad - "site" is a "synthetic construct created to deal with varying spatial distribution"
What specifically is archaeology concerned with?
Material Culture, People and Patterns!
What is anthropology: the long version?
Anthropology involves the study of human beings in all places, at all times. As a discipline, anthropology employs the comparative study of human societies and cultures to produce useful generalizations about people and their behavior, and to arrive at an unbiased understanding of human diversity.
What is arguably the most important part of archaeological documentation and gives the archaeological record its informative value?
C____
Context
Johnson argues that archaeologists need good theory because _________ ______ is not _____.
Common sense is not enough
Bourdieu is credited with ______ theory and the concept of _______.
Practice theory and habitus
Archaeology is trying to answer questions of ___ and ___ by identifying _______.
How; Why; Patterns
Why do pots not equal people? And how does this premise connect to anthropology?
A material signature does not necessarily correlate to a particular people group, culture or region. An anthropological lens looks at people as dynamic, heterogeneous and active, which deconstructs a simply-archaeological view of artifacts and features as fitting into singular categories/typologies.
GPR stands for ____ ____ ____ and is a tool for...
Ground Penetrating Radar;
Subterranean reconnaissance remote sensing survey, type of geophysical survey
The three big theoretical categories for archaeological theory are:
1. Culture History
2. Processualism
3. Postprocessualism
1. Modification/Transformation
2. Meaning
3. Industry
What specifically belongs in the archaeological black box, which archaeologists are trying to interpret? C_________ and T__________ processes.
Culture and Taphonomic Processes
Why is archaeology anthropology or nothing?
While not allll archaeologists would say this (art history, classics, ancient near eastern studies, biblical studies, etc.) archaeology is about PEOPLE. If you are not answering questions about people, thinking about people, and using knowledge of culture, action, and behavior to shape your conclusions... you're just putting things in categories for laughs...
A stratigraphic profile in fieldwork documentation is:
A vertical, scientific, gridded drawing of an excavation side wall which profiles the exact depths, thicknesses, dimensions, colors, and soil characteristics of each excavated layer in relationship.
Processualism uses _________ reasoning and relies heavily on ........?
Its major critique was accusations of _______ __________.
environmental determinism.
What major branch of archaeological theory does Kent Flannery subscribe to, what theory did he contribute to this branch and what mechanisms did he use to demonstrate his theory?
Processualism;
Systems Theory;
Positive and Negative Feedback Loops in Mesoamerican HG/Agriculture
Why do we do archaeology, and why is it interdisciplinary?
Answer should include the words: culture, history, patterns, past, future, help, preserve, learn.
Overall goals:
1. Reconstruct histories
2. Interpreting past cultures
3. Explaining changes over time
4. Preserving the archaeological record
with the long-term goal of helping communities, shaping the future and exposing the past
It is interdisciplinary because archaeologists have to use a variety of methods and theories to achive these goals: biology, chemistry, geography, geology, sociology, religion, philosophy, astronomy, ecology, etc.
How does anthropology/archaeology deal with the question of cultural evolution? Hint: think Yoffee & postprocessual...
Societies do not evolve linearly - Social darwinism and many early culture-history iterations were flawed - communities adapt and decline according to their environments, selective pressures and changes in human action - which may be adaptive and may not be - but are always variable. Too many chiefs, too many chiefdoms!
While a t_____ s_____ or a _ _ _ are ideal for geographic documentation during fieldwork, if you don't have the technology you might have to set up a d_____ and walk off of it by knowing your p_____.
total station; GPS; datum; pacing
Postprocessualism hinges on what major principles; who was its most renowned pioneer author; and what was the importance of dichotomies in its movement?
Agency, archaeological subjectivity, marginalized archaeologies, human cognition, symbolism;
Ian Hodder;
Archaeologists have been to concerned with dichotomies, categories, dualisms, etc. Fact/Theory; Objective/Subjective; Norm/Process; Culture/Individual; Function/Meaning; all cannot be separated - they are in relationship!
Watson argues that there is a ______ ___ between _________ and __________. Watson is clearly a _______ theorist, even though she is doing cognitive archaeology.