Archaeological Facts (correct answers)
Optimal Foraging correct answers - archaeological theory
- helps to predict which foods foragers will harvest based on some principles borrowed
from evolutionary ecology.
- the diet-breadth model predicts that as high return rate resources become rare, the
diet should expand to include lower rate resources
Obsidian correct answers - rock that is produced when lava extruded from a volcano
cools rapidly without crystal growth
- used to process lithic tools such as arrowheads
- occurs naturally only in western United States so example of trade to Hopewell Indians
3-Age System correct answers 1. Stone Age
2. Bronze Age
3. Iron Age
- organization of material based on technological process through time (primitive to
advanced)
-developed by Christian Thomsen (1788-1865), a Danish arch, and currator of
Copenhagen Museum
- proven valid by J.A.A. Worsaae, an employer of CJT, through stratigraphy
In-Situ correct answers - Latin "in position"
- the place where an artifact, ecofact or feature was found during excavation or survey;
original "primary" depositional context
- allows us to maximize behavioral information
Flotation correct answers - the use of fluid suspension to recover tiny burned plant
remains and bone fragments from archaeological sites.
Ethnoarchaeology correct answers - the study of contemporary peoples to determine
how human behavior is translated into the archaeological record
Pollen & Palynology correct answers - technique through which the fossil pollen grains
and spores from archaeological sites are studied
Datum correct answers - the zero point, a fixed reference used to keep control on a dig
- usually controls both the vertical and horizontal dimensions of provenience
Wet (Water) Screening correct answers - a sieving process in which deposit is placed in
a screen and the matrix washed away with hoses
- essential where artifacts are expected to be small and/or difficult to find without
washing
Scientific Method correct answers - Test Hypothesis, Collect Data
- accepted principles and procedures for the systematic pursuit of secure knowledge
Nationalistic Archaeology correct answers - not scientific, has agenda. Practicing what
we now call Direct Historical Approach
- eg. Nabonidus
Ecofact correct answers - non-artifactual organic remains at sites
- plant and animal remains
Remote Sensing correct answers - gathering data and information about the physical
"world"
- by detecting and measuring radiation, particles, and fields
, - located beyond the immediate vicinity of sensor devices
-associated with objects and features
- magnetometry, ground penetrating radar, soil resistivity
Stratified Random Sampling correct answers - we already have assumptions about
behavior in varied environments so clump those together and and then chose random
survey from those
- (the process of dividing members of the population into homogeneous subgroups
before sampling)
- can be more representative of the population than a survey of simple random sampling
or systematic sampling.
Flintknapping correct answers -tool:
-hammerstone (percussion)
-antler(soft percussion)
-pressure flaker
-results:
- flakes, exhausted core
-tools (bifaces,, arrowhead)
Aerial Survey correct answers - pictures from airplanes, satellites
- low angle light best (especially in agricultural fields)...shadows (topography)
-not systematic, little detail
- crop marks in England Bronze Age Sites
- good for finding sites and features, not artifacts
Bioturbation correct answers - geoarchaeology, essential in determining if primary or
secondary deposit
- the displacement and mixing of sediment particles (i.e. sediment reworking) and
solutes (i.e. bio-irrigation) by fauna (animals) or flora (plants).
- creates mixed deposit (vertical movement within a site)
Uniformitarianism correct answers - the principle asserting that the processes now
operating to modify the Earth's surface are the same processes that operated long ago
in the geological past.
- popularized by Charles Lyell
Stratigraphy correct answers - a site's physical structure produced by the deposition of
geological and/or cultural sediments into layers or strata
- the sequence of deposition can be assessed by a study of the relationships of different
layers
- adopted from geology and is basis for reconstructing the history of an archaeological
site
Index Fossils correct answers - idea that strata containing similar fossil assemblages
are of similar age.
- this concept enables archaeologists to characterize and data strata within sites using
distinctive artifact forms that research shows to be diagnostic of particular period of time
- certain extinct fossils consistently occur in distinct strata.... extinct animals occur in
same baisc sequence, in similar types of rocks, then they date to the same time
- developed by George Cuvier, French zoologist
Optimal Foraging correct answers - archaeological theory
- helps to predict which foods foragers will harvest based on some principles borrowed
from evolutionary ecology.
- the diet-breadth model predicts that as high return rate resources become rare, the
diet should expand to include lower rate resources
Obsidian correct answers - rock that is produced when lava extruded from a volcano
cools rapidly without crystal growth
- used to process lithic tools such as arrowheads
- occurs naturally only in western United States so example of trade to Hopewell Indians
3-Age System correct answers 1. Stone Age
2. Bronze Age
3. Iron Age
- organization of material based on technological process through time (primitive to
advanced)
-developed by Christian Thomsen (1788-1865), a Danish arch, and currator of
Copenhagen Museum
- proven valid by J.A.A. Worsaae, an employer of CJT, through stratigraphy
In-Situ correct answers - Latin "in position"
- the place where an artifact, ecofact or feature was found during excavation or survey;
original "primary" depositional context
- allows us to maximize behavioral information
Flotation correct answers - the use of fluid suspension to recover tiny burned plant
remains and bone fragments from archaeological sites.
Ethnoarchaeology correct answers - the study of contemporary peoples to determine
how human behavior is translated into the archaeological record
Pollen & Palynology correct answers - technique through which the fossil pollen grains
and spores from archaeological sites are studied
Datum correct answers - the zero point, a fixed reference used to keep control on a dig
- usually controls both the vertical and horizontal dimensions of provenience
Wet (Water) Screening correct answers - a sieving process in which deposit is placed in
a screen and the matrix washed away with hoses
- essential where artifacts are expected to be small and/or difficult to find without
washing
Scientific Method correct answers - Test Hypothesis, Collect Data
- accepted principles and procedures for the systematic pursuit of secure knowledge
Nationalistic Archaeology correct answers - not scientific, has agenda. Practicing what
we now call Direct Historical Approach
- eg. Nabonidus
Ecofact correct answers - non-artifactual organic remains at sites
- plant and animal remains
Remote Sensing correct answers - gathering data and information about the physical
"world"
- by detecting and measuring radiation, particles, and fields
, - located beyond the immediate vicinity of sensor devices
-associated with objects and features
- magnetometry, ground penetrating radar, soil resistivity
Stratified Random Sampling correct answers - we already have assumptions about
behavior in varied environments so clump those together and and then chose random
survey from those
- (the process of dividing members of the population into homogeneous subgroups
before sampling)
- can be more representative of the population than a survey of simple random sampling
or systematic sampling.
Flintknapping correct answers -tool:
-hammerstone (percussion)
-antler(soft percussion)
-pressure flaker
-results:
- flakes, exhausted core
-tools (bifaces,, arrowhead)
Aerial Survey correct answers - pictures from airplanes, satellites
- low angle light best (especially in agricultural fields)...shadows (topography)
-not systematic, little detail
- crop marks in England Bronze Age Sites
- good for finding sites and features, not artifacts
Bioturbation correct answers - geoarchaeology, essential in determining if primary or
secondary deposit
- the displacement and mixing of sediment particles (i.e. sediment reworking) and
solutes (i.e. bio-irrigation) by fauna (animals) or flora (plants).
- creates mixed deposit (vertical movement within a site)
Uniformitarianism correct answers - the principle asserting that the processes now
operating to modify the Earth's surface are the same processes that operated long ago
in the geological past.
- popularized by Charles Lyell
Stratigraphy correct answers - a site's physical structure produced by the deposition of
geological and/or cultural sediments into layers or strata
- the sequence of deposition can be assessed by a study of the relationships of different
layers
- adopted from geology and is basis for reconstructing the history of an archaeological
site
Index Fossils correct answers - idea that strata containing similar fossil assemblages
are of similar age.
- this concept enables archaeologists to characterize and data strata within sites using
distinctive artifact forms that research shows to be diagnostic of particular period of time
- certain extinct fossils consistently occur in distinct strata.... extinct animals occur in
same baisc sequence, in similar types of rocks, then they date to the same time
- developed by George Cuvier, French zoologist
