ASU ASB 222 exam 1
Archaeology - answer talking rationally about ancient things
How old does something need to be for archaeologists to study it? - answer3.3 million
years ago to 5.4 thousand years ago
What do archaeologists do? - answer Collect evidence systematically
•Conduct experiments
•Formulate hypotheses to account for data
•Test hypotheses against more data
•Come-up with interpretations / models: descriptions that best summarize the patterns
observed in data
•Are always aware that their data depend on their assumptions
•They are responsible for the protection of the material they unearth and towards the
people who may be affected
What are the responsibilities of the archaeologist? - answer Discovery of past material
remains (material culture)
•
•Scientific analysis of these remains and their ordering in space and time
•
•Exercise in creative imagination combined with painstaking task of interpretation, so
that we understand 'what it all means' for the human story
•
•Responsibility of conserving the world's cultural heritage against looting and
unnecessary destruction
•Responsibility towards the public
What ideas needed to be accepted for modern archaeology to begin? - answer1) Great
antiquity of humanity
2) Darwin's principle of evolution
3) Three Age System for organizing material
What did these newly accepted ideas provide archaeology? - answer•Human cultures
evolve, like plants and animals do
•
•We can devise schemes to describe the evolution of artifact forms
•
•Typology
, What does the Law of Uniformitarianism state? - answerthat the same processes that
shaped the earth in the past still shape it today
What does the law of superposition state? - answernew rock forms on top of older rock
What did the Three Age System allow us to do? - answerBy studying artifacts you can
produce chronological ordering
What new innovations quickly changed archaeology after World War II? -
answer•Important new scientific techniques for dating (C14) and reconnaissance (air
photography)
•
•Development of ecology with its focus on human adaptation to environment and focus
on wide regions
What kinds of questions did New/Processual Archaeology ask?
Why did they start asking these questions?
How did archaeology change? - answerAsk not only what and when, but also WHY, to
explain the process of change
Change can come from within!
Focus on adaptation & large scale
What did Post-Processual Archaeology teach us about the study of the past? -
answer•Why depends on who's asking the question!
•There is not ONE objective truth, neither one explanation
•There are multiple interpretations
•Focus on individual + small scale
•Multivocality
•Responsibility to today
archaeological record - answerThe source of information for archaeologists
What is the difference between primary and secondary context? - answerPRIMARY
CONTEXT-Things are deposited in the context where they were first made or used
Secondary Context-•Things are removed from where they were first made or used and
deposited somewhere else
What are cultural formation processes? - answerchange the materials within the
archaeological record itself
What are some examples of cultural formation processes? - answerIntentional
destruction of cultural heritage, looting, construction
Archaeology - answer talking rationally about ancient things
How old does something need to be for archaeologists to study it? - answer3.3 million
years ago to 5.4 thousand years ago
What do archaeologists do? - answer Collect evidence systematically
•Conduct experiments
•Formulate hypotheses to account for data
•Test hypotheses against more data
•Come-up with interpretations / models: descriptions that best summarize the patterns
observed in data
•Are always aware that their data depend on their assumptions
•They are responsible for the protection of the material they unearth and towards the
people who may be affected
What are the responsibilities of the archaeologist? - answer Discovery of past material
remains (material culture)
•
•Scientific analysis of these remains and their ordering in space and time
•
•Exercise in creative imagination combined with painstaking task of interpretation, so
that we understand 'what it all means' for the human story
•
•Responsibility of conserving the world's cultural heritage against looting and
unnecessary destruction
•Responsibility towards the public
What ideas needed to be accepted for modern archaeology to begin? - answer1) Great
antiquity of humanity
2) Darwin's principle of evolution
3) Three Age System for organizing material
What did these newly accepted ideas provide archaeology? - answer•Human cultures
evolve, like plants and animals do
•
•We can devise schemes to describe the evolution of artifact forms
•
•Typology
, What does the Law of Uniformitarianism state? - answerthat the same processes that
shaped the earth in the past still shape it today
What does the law of superposition state? - answernew rock forms on top of older rock
What did the Three Age System allow us to do? - answerBy studying artifacts you can
produce chronological ordering
What new innovations quickly changed archaeology after World War II? -
answer•Important new scientific techniques for dating (C14) and reconnaissance (air
photography)
•
•Development of ecology with its focus on human adaptation to environment and focus
on wide regions
What kinds of questions did New/Processual Archaeology ask?
Why did they start asking these questions?
How did archaeology change? - answerAsk not only what and when, but also WHY, to
explain the process of change
Change can come from within!
Focus on adaptation & large scale
What did Post-Processual Archaeology teach us about the study of the past? -
answer•Why depends on who's asking the question!
•There is not ONE objective truth, neither one explanation
•There are multiple interpretations
•Focus on individual + small scale
•Multivocality
•Responsibility to today
archaeological record - answerThe source of information for archaeologists
What is the difference between primary and secondary context? - answerPRIMARY
CONTEXT-Things are deposited in the context where they were first made or used
Secondary Context-•Things are removed from where they were first made or used and
deposited somewhere else
What are cultural formation processes? - answerchange the materials within the
archaeological record itself
What are some examples of cultural formation processes? - answerIntentional
destruction of cultural heritage, looting, construction
