Archeology Exam II Questions With Verified Answers

Archeology Exam II Questions With Verified Answers Stratigraphy the study of rock layers and the sequence of events they reflect Context where a particular artifact or feature was found relative to other things around it Floralturbation Trees and other plants affect the distribution of artifacts Cryoturbation A natural formation process in which freeze/thaw activity in a soil selectively pushes larger artifacts to the surface of a site eolian sediments materials transported and accumulated by wind Dendrochronology tree ring dating Depositional Units the material deposited at a site at a particular point in time Law of Superposition The geologic principle that states that in horizontal layers of sedimentary rock, each layer is older than the layer above it and younger than the layer below it. Screening filtering through all of the dirt/material collected and looking through all of it to find potential artifacts Radio-Carbon Dating (Carbon-14) A method of dating based on the falling levels of carbon-14 in tissue over time Gatecliff Shelter, Nevada A cliff that hangs and makes a good place to stay that has been proven to have human activity dating back many years. As well as been shown that it was a stopping point on the way to other spotsn Datum A horizontal plane from which heights and depths are measured. Relative Dating any method of determining whether an event or object is older or younger than other events or objects. Relies heavily on the law of superposition Charge Dating luminescence dating and electron spin resonance Half-Life length of time required for half of the radioactive atoms in a sample to decay Principle of Uniformitarianism Earth processes occurring today are similar to those that occurred in the past Arbitray Levels The basic vertical subdivision of an excavation square