Ancient Civilizations: Lecture 1
What types of material culture might archaeologists study?
Lithics – stone tools
Ceramics
Animal (fauna) remains – food
Plant (flora) remains – food remains, climate
Architecture
Art
Writing
Key procedures to learning about the past
Discovery
Analysis
Interpretation
Curation
How archaeologists find a site
Research design: frames questions asked of the archaeological record
CRM (cultural resource management) versus academic
o Define search area
o Record search – topographic and aerial maps, info center
o Pedestrian survey
All or sample?
Transect width
Site vs isolate
What do archaeologists find?
Artifact: any moveable object that has been used, modified or manufactured by humans
o Pottery, stone tools, spear point
Ecofact: plant or animal remains found at an archaeological site
o Bison bones (unmodified)
Feature: non-portable evidence of technology
o Modified but not able to move
Storage pits
Hearth (campfire)
Hearth, rock-lined
Architecture
How to find site when nothing is seen on ground
STPs (shovel test pit)
o 30 cm round or square
little holes to see whether there is something there below the ground
, Remote sensing techniques – methods that employ electromagnetic energy (heat, light)
to detect and measure an archaeological target
o TIMS (thermal infrared multispectral scanner)
Artifact or satellite
Variation in thermal radiation (heat)
0.1 degree centigrade
o GPR (ground penetrating radar)
Radar (sonar) pulses reflect back to the surface when strike feature
Possible location and depth of buried features – big, solid objects
Scanner sends radar pulse down to bedrock and length of signature is
recorded in receiver antenna
Once a buried object is discovered through radar pulse, the pulse will hit
object instead of bedrock and signature length will be shorter
Cellars, parts of foundations, parts of temples, hardened floors
Must be pretty big
Found a site, now what?
Testing
o How deep, large, old, dense? Answer questions?
o Auger probes, STPs
Shove probe into ground, it lifts up dirt, and you can see if there’s
any artifacts inside
50 cm^2 or 1m^2 excavation pit
o Block excavation/data recovery
Once decide answers questions
Large areas – 1 m^2 contiguous units
Activity areas – where people were working at the fire hearth, etc
Establishing provenience: the key to excavation
Provenience: artifact’s location relative to a system of spatial data
o Most important thing to track in the field – lab reconstruction
Excavation is destructive
o Folsom site
1924 found arrowhead between extinct bison bones
discovered that native Americans have been in the US area for
much longer than originally thought
Datum
o Fixed reference or control point (x, y)
o Horizontal and vertical provenience
Screening methods: 1/8”
Dry screening: shake bucket with a mesh on top, anything larger than 1/8” will be
stopped on screen and can find artifacts or bones
, Flotation device
o Really small screen and artifacts will float
What to collect and record
Artifacts, ecofacts, features
Specialized samples – soil, pollen, blood residue (hemoglobin crystals and can be tested
to find what animal it belongs to
Stratigraphic profile
Detailed notes
Lab – cleaning, processing, and analysis
Analysis: got the artifacts... now what?
Culture change – big part of what we study
o How and why societies changed through both time and space – the story (culture
history)
Track by analyzing
Style – projectile points, ceramics, architecture
Food procurement – food gatherers vs. food procedures
Political structure – egalitarian vs. state level society
Lithic analysis
Time perspective
Relative dates – relative to one another (earlier vs later)
o Law of superposition: each geologic layer is older than the layers above and
younger than the layers below
Unknown times
o Time markers
o Seriation
Absolute dates – specific unit of scientific measurement (e.g., 9000 +/- 100 years B.P.)
o Dendrochronology
o Radiocarbon dating: known rate of decay of carbon- 14 to date organic remains
Organic material
Conventional vs. AMS (bigger material vs. smaller material)
Both work 50,000 years BP
Standard deviation
Types of archaeological sites
Lithic scatter
Quarry
Architecture
Bone bad
What types of material culture might archaeologists study?
Lithics – stone tools
Ceramics
Animal (fauna) remains – food
Plant (flora) remains – food remains, climate
Architecture
Art
Writing
Key procedures to learning about the past
Discovery
Analysis
Interpretation
Curation
How archaeologists find a site
Research design: frames questions asked of the archaeological record
CRM (cultural resource management) versus academic
o Define search area
o Record search – topographic and aerial maps, info center
o Pedestrian survey
All or sample?
Transect width
Site vs isolate
What do archaeologists find?
Artifact: any moveable object that has been used, modified or manufactured by humans
o Pottery, stone tools, spear point
Ecofact: plant or animal remains found at an archaeological site
o Bison bones (unmodified)
Feature: non-portable evidence of technology
o Modified but not able to move
Storage pits
Hearth (campfire)
Hearth, rock-lined
Architecture
How to find site when nothing is seen on ground
STPs (shovel test pit)
o 30 cm round or square
little holes to see whether there is something there below the ground
, Remote sensing techniques – methods that employ electromagnetic energy (heat, light)
to detect and measure an archaeological target
o TIMS (thermal infrared multispectral scanner)
Artifact or satellite
Variation in thermal radiation (heat)
0.1 degree centigrade
o GPR (ground penetrating radar)
Radar (sonar) pulses reflect back to the surface when strike feature
Possible location and depth of buried features – big, solid objects
Scanner sends radar pulse down to bedrock and length of signature is
recorded in receiver antenna
Once a buried object is discovered through radar pulse, the pulse will hit
object instead of bedrock and signature length will be shorter
Cellars, parts of foundations, parts of temples, hardened floors
Must be pretty big
Found a site, now what?
Testing
o How deep, large, old, dense? Answer questions?
o Auger probes, STPs
Shove probe into ground, it lifts up dirt, and you can see if there’s
any artifacts inside
50 cm^2 or 1m^2 excavation pit
o Block excavation/data recovery
Once decide answers questions
Large areas – 1 m^2 contiguous units
Activity areas – where people were working at the fire hearth, etc
Establishing provenience: the key to excavation
Provenience: artifact’s location relative to a system of spatial data
o Most important thing to track in the field – lab reconstruction
Excavation is destructive
o Folsom site
1924 found arrowhead between extinct bison bones
discovered that native Americans have been in the US area for
much longer than originally thought
Datum
o Fixed reference or control point (x, y)
o Horizontal and vertical provenience
Screening methods: 1/8”
Dry screening: shake bucket with a mesh on top, anything larger than 1/8” will be
stopped on screen and can find artifacts or bones
, Flotation device
o Really small screen and artifacts will float
What to collect and record
Artifacts, ecofacts, features
Specialized samples – soil, pollen, blood residue (hemoglobin crystals and can be tested
to find what animal it belongs to
Stratigraphic profile
Detailed notes
Lab – cleaning, processing, and analysis
Analysis: got the artifacts... now what?
Culture change – big part of what we study
o How and why societies changed through both time and space – the story (culture
history)
Track by analyzing
Style – projectile points, ceramics, architecture
Food procurement – food gatherers vs. food procedures
Political structure – egalitarian vs. state level society
Lithic analysis
Time perspective
Relative dates – relative to one another (earlier vs later)
o Law of superposition: each geologic layer is older than the layers above and
younger than the layers below
Unknown times
o Time markers
o Seriation
Absolute dates – specific unit of scientific measurement (e.g., 9000 +/- 100 years B.P.)
o Dendrochronology
o Radiocarbon dating: known rate of decay of carbon- 14 to date organic remains
Organic material
Conventional vs. AMS (bigger material vs. smaller material)
Both work 50,000 years BP
Standard deviation
Types of archaeological sites
Lithic scatter
Quarry
Architecture
Bone bad
