Materials & Composition
This is a natural material commonly used to make pottery
What is clay?
This technique shapes clay by hand or wheel?
What is wheel-throwing?
What is the archaeological "address" of an object?
What is provenience?
What is gradual breakdown of materials over time?
What is degradation?
What must you obtain before sampling an object?
What is permission?
This test determines if an object is bronze or brass
What is elemental analysis?
This technique shapes stone tools by removing flakes
What is flintknapping?
This technique finds the source of raw materials
What is isotopic analysis?
This environmental factor can damage stored artifacts
What is humidity?
This process helps ensure transparency and accountability in archaeological research before publication
What is peer review?
This mineral causes green corrosion on copper-based artifacts
What is malachite?
What is applying gold chemically instead of by hammering?
What is depletion gliding?
This tells you whether an artifact was ritual or domestic
What is archaeological context?
This cleaning method may interfere with later analysis
What is acid cleaning?
One term describes how close repeated measurements are to one another and another describes how close a measurement is to the true or accpeted value
What is precision and accuracy?
This non-destructive method is used to analyze method composition
What is x-ray fluorescence?
This analysis examines repeated use damage
What is use-wear analysis?
This method combines radiocarbon dates with stratigraphy
What is Bayesian modeling?
This coating can interfere with radiocarbon dating?
What is wax?
This is a common problem that occurs when a study collects data that doesn't answer the research question
What is poor research design?
What issue can occur when X-ray peaks of different elements overlap during analysis?
What is elemental interference?
This decorated method impresses patterns into wet clay?
What is stamping?
This evidence suggests long-distance trade
What is the presence of exotic or imported materials?
This non-invasive technique can view internal structure
What is CT scanning?
This practice helps prevent damage, contamination or loss of integrity in archaeological samples after collection
What is proper sample storage?