Vocab
The term used to describe ordering artifact assemblages into relative age sequences
What is Seriation?
This archaeologist conducted excavations at Jericho and Jerusalem, using stratigraphy to identify occupation of the sites.
Who is Kathleen Kenyon?
Maximizing information and minimizing cost is key when conducting what form of archaeological ground reconnaissance?
Water can both accelerate decomposition AND promote preservation, impacting the _______ of an artifact.
What is taphonomy?
These four artifact types are commonly preserved in the archaeological record.
What are lithics, ceramics, metals, and organics?
Using this law, archaeologists understand that older stratigraphic layers tend to be below younger layers.
What is the Law of Superposition?
This chemist developed radiocarbon dating, a dating technique still prevalent in archaeology today.
Who is Willard Libby?
This approach, promoted by Julian Steward in the early 20th century, emphasizes that cultures interact with each other AND their environment
What is the Ecological Approach?
This direction of excavation (digging) is typically employed by archaeologists interested in space, rather than time.
Body fossils exhibit organismal remains likes bones and teeth while ______ fossils evidence activity/presence of organisms at one point in time.
What are trace fossils?
This term describes the material in which artifacts are found.
What is Matrix?
She was the first female professor at Cambridge and focused the archaeology of Paleolithic sites in Palestine.
Who is Dorothy Garrod?
What is Cultural History?
Term used to describe ways in which humans alter their environment
What are Cultural Formation Processes?
This practice heavily impacted early archaeology, giving British and French representatives an excuse to loot artifacts and enhance national prestige back home.
What is colonialism?
This term describes the horizontal and vertical position of an artifact or feature within a matrix.
What is Provenience?
This archaeologist was the first to propose the existence of the Neolithic Revolution, in which societies changed from hunter-gathered to agriculture.
Who is Gordon Childe?
The archaeological theory that puts less emphasis on typology/classification and more emphasis on scientific methodology and inductive reasoning (explanations > descriptions)
What is Processual Archaeology?
Top 3 strategies used by archaeologists to locate sites
What is documentation, ground reconnaissance, and remote sensing?
Fossils can be found in areas with large amounts of _______ rock and erosion/geological activity
This dating technique is typically used to calculate the age of volcanic rock.
What is Potassium-Argon dating?
This archaeologist coined the term "New Archaeology," as he focused on the social and economic aspects of past societies to understand processes of cultural change.
Who is Lewis Binford?
The theory that emphasizes that there are no universal laws and objectivity is unattainable (interpretation > description/explanation)
What is Postprocessual Archaeology?
These three conditions are needed for mummification to occur.
What is a quick loss of moisture, dry/low humidity, and no insects?
Franklin's Lost Expedition of ships in search for the Northwest Passage were eventually rediscovered by archaeologists using ________.
Indigenous (Inuit) oral tradition