Lingo
What is a feature? (give an example)
a nonmovable element of an archaeological site (firepit, housepit, midden)
pedestrian survey
Walking over an area
of land in evenly spaced parallel lines to look for site indicators
classification
How we organize things or understand their relationships to one another - often an analytical procedure to create order, sequence, and or "understanding"
Analogy + critique
Using known cultural, material, or historical examples (the
source-side) to interpret archaeological remains (the subject
side). - often "ethnographic"
examples (symbolism and agency, reflexivity, heuristic thinking)
repatriation
The legal return of cultural artifacts, ancestral
remains, and heritage to their country or community of origin, often
through government policies or institutional frameworks
What is a cache?
A place where items are left intentionally to be stored or recovered later
Sampling strategies (2)
Judgemental: Archaeologists' judgement is based on prior knowledge
Convienence: What is accessible (on foot/vehicle/atv/snowmobile)
Typologies (3 examples)
Typology: how we classify into discrete units
(examples - morphological, stylistic, functional, distributional)
Who introduced culture-history archaeology?
fining groups into distinct ethnic and cultural
groupings based on their artifacts
Who: V. Gordon Childe
Relationality/entaglement theory
The complex, interdependent
relationships between humans, objects, and the environment,
where each affects and is affected by the others, leading to
social and material changes in the world.
What is cultural relativism?
We must always keep in mind that the culture of
the people we are studying may be very different from our own. We
must work to account for our biases in our research; acknowledge
them and challenge them
Remote sensing (3 examples)
Technology to acquire information about a feature, objector surface without coming into physical contact (examples satellites, aircraft, helicopters, kites, drones)
Lithic manufacturing techniques (x3)
Grinding and abrasion: slowing wearing down a surface to shape tools
Pecking (flintknaping): repeat striking to form a rough shape
Polishing: smoothing and refining the surface to enhance function
Processualism (3 shifts)
Logical positivism: what we need to know from research can be learned through observation
The study of living people
Formal hypothesis/research methods (the scientific turn)
All about generalizations! - universalism is in
XRF
XRF is x-ray fluorescence - an analytical technique for lithics by exposing a sample to high-energy x-ray which emits fluorescent x-rays to reveal its chemical makeup
LiDAR and GPR
LiDAR: Light detection and ranging
GPR: Ground penetrating radar
One is airborne, one is at the surface level
Magnetometer
measures earth’s magnetic field to find iron-substances
in the ground
Flintknapping techniques (x3)
Direct percussion: striking the stone directly
indirect percussion: (more controlled) a punch (antler or wood) is used on a specific point - more precise flake removal
Pressure flaking: applying pressure with a pointed tool to sharpen edges
Post-processualism (2 shifts)
Emphasis on human agency!
Multivocality! - multiple interpretations are welcome - more than one way of knowing
Focus on emobied identity/culture (culture concept of lived experience) - more historically particular
emic vs etic
emic (insider): archaeologists seek to describe another culture/society’s objects in terms of the categories, concepts, and perceptions of the people being studied.
Etic (outsider): archaeologists use their own categories and
concepts to describe the objects under analysis
Proveniene vs provenance
Provenience: the exact location or findspot of an artifact, ecofact,
soil sample, or feature within an ancient site (recorded by depth, nothing and eating)
Provenance: an object's complete documented history, it’s
ownership history or geographic origins.
Electrical resistivity
mapping electrical conductivity in the earth
to find structures (typically for larger sites and or features)
What are the lithic "life stages"?
Aquisition, production, use, discard/recycle
Contemporary arcl - combination (x3 examples)
Combinations of all three (but more
emphasis on post-processual for many)
• We still build timelines (Cultural-
Historical)
• We still adhere to scientific, systematic
method (Processualism)
• We still employ analogy, albeit more
critically (Processualism)
• Many of us focus on the study of
everyday life (Both processual and post-
processual)
• We interpret social meaning and identity
in the past (post-processual)
• We reflect on our own biases and
cultural influences (post-processual)
Canada's NAGPRA
Heritage management is provincial
In BC it is the HCA (the Heritage Conservation Act)