What is archaeology?

What is archaeological evidence?

How do we collect archaeological evidence?

How do we interpret and analyze archaeological evidence?

Study of human past through material remains

“Archaeology” comes from the Greek archaia (“ancient things”), and logos (“science” or “theory

Artifacts

Ecofacts

Features

Organic materials

• Evidence about past environments

• Examples: Seeds, animal bones and soil

• Things that people made or did that can't be moved

• Examples: house floors, post holes, hearths

• Tools or other items that people made and that can be moved or carried.

• Examples: arrowheads, pottery

• Things such as animal and human bones or their fossilized remains

The time and space setting of an artifact, feature, or culture

Specifically, its position on a site, its relationship through association with other artifacts, and its chronological position as revealed through stratigraphy

A precise geographical location of the remains of past human activity

Includes… Habitation Sites: Open campsites, Villages

Caves & Rockshelters

Earthworks: Mounds, Forts

Shell Middens

Ceremonial Sites

Architectural Sites

Burials and Cemetaries

Historic Sites

Surveys

Tests

Excavations

Relative Techniques Stratigraphy and Seriation Typology and Cross Dating Fluorine Obsidian Hydration Pollen Analyses

Absolute Techniques

Radio Carbon Dating Potassium Argon Dating Thermoluminescence Electron Spin Resonance Dendrochronology

Law of Superposition: strata that are younger will be deposited on top of strata that are older, given normal conditions of deposition

Stratigraphy: the study of strata, or layers

Cross-dating: Take advantage of consistencies in stratigraphy between parts of a site or different sites, and objects or strata with a known relative chronology

Lithics are stone tools and by-products of the stone tool making process

Typological: Classification into types Emic, etic

Functional: Use-wear, residue analysis

Technological: Reconstruct stone-tool making process Raw material choice, method of reduction, re-sharpening/re-

use, etc.