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Prehistoric Archaeology Archaeological study of the past before written records begin Classical archaeology Archaeological study of Ancient Greece and Rome Egyptology Archaeological study of Ancient Egypt Near East Studies Archaeological study of the Middle East, generally the maximum area encompassed by the Ottoman Empire Historic/Post-Medieval Archaeology Archaeological study of the material past over the last 500 years Ethno Archaeology Ethnographic study of peoples for archaeological purposes Nautical Archaeology Discipline of archaeology that specifically studies human interaction with the sea Stylistic attributes Usually involve the most obvious descriptive characteristics of an artifact believed to reflect choices of its maker Stylistic attributes -Color -Texture -Decoration -Alterations Form attributes Includes overall 3-dimensional shape of the artifact and aspects of that shape Form attributes -Measurable dimensions/metric attributes •Length •Width •Thickness •Weight Technological attributes -Include the characteristics of the raw materials used to make artifacts (constituent attributes) -Any other traits that reflect the manufacturing process Constituent attributes Characteristics of the raw materials used to make the artifact Formulation, Implementation, Data Gathering & Processing, Analysis, Interpretation, Publication Research Process Formulation Hypothesizing Data Gathering and Processing -Surface collection -Excavation •Penetrating •Clearing -Mapping -Survey, Excavation, and Lab Publication -Publication of all primary data -Publication of results of data analysis -Publication of their interpretation of said data Stratigraphy Study of rock/sediment layers Law of Superposition Sedimentary layers are deposited in a time sequence, with the oldest on the bottom and the youngest on the top Uniformitarianism The assumption that the same natural laws and processes that operate in the universe now have always operated in the universe in the past and apply everywhere in the universe Harris Matrix Each stratigraphic layer (stratification) is assigned a letter. The layers are arranged in a vertical tree, with the bottom-most (oldest) layers appearing on the bottom of the tree, and subsequently higher (newer) layers moving vertically upwards. Concurrent layers are arranged horizontally to each other. To reveal the form of the past; to discover function; to understand culture processes; to understand the process by which similar political, social, and behavioral changes occur through time and space; to preserve, manage, and administer global heritage resources Goals of archaeological research Seriation (indirect) Dating technique in which artifacts or other data are ordered chronologically according to stylistic similarities or frequency of appearance Radiometric dating (direct) Dating of an object based on observed abundance of naturally occurring isotopes and its decay products using known decay rates Radiometric dating (direct) Includes radiocarbon and K-Ar dating Fluorine Dating (direct, relative) -Dating the period an artifact has been underground by the amount of fluoride ions that has been absorbed -Relatively impractical method of dating Dendrochronology (indirect) Method of dating based on the analysis of patterns of tree-rings Archaeomagnetism (direct) Dating using the study and interpretation of the signatures of Earth's magnetic fields at past times recorded in archaeological materials Thermoluminescence (direct) Dating technique in which levels of accumulated radiation since the archaeological material was last heated or exposed to sunlight Vertical Excavation Strengths: -Understand the total occupational sequence of a site (Diachronic) -Recover representative cultural materials for different periods of occupation -Understand preservation conditions for all periods of occupations Vertical Excavation Weaknesses: -Not able to understand detailed temporal relationship between structures -Not able to understand temporal relationships for the entire site Horizontal (Clearing) Excavation Strengths: -Understand the relationships of features, structures, and houses from a single occupation (Synchronic) -Recover representative cultural materials from a single period -Understand the social, economic, and political relationships within communities Horizontal (Clearing) Excavation Weaknesses: -Not able to understand total occupational history of site -In general, excavation limited to the last major occupation of a site -Excavations are much slower compared to vertical excavations Artifact Any portable object made, used, or modified by humans Ecofact An object found at an archaeological site that has been previously unhanded by humans Ex.: Seed Feature A collection of one or more contexts representing some human, non-portable activity that generally has a vertical characteristic relative to site stratigraphy Assemblage A group of different artifacts found in association with one another (within the same context) Subassemblage Association of artifacts denoting a particular form of prehistoric activity practiced by a group of people Activity area A patterning of artifacts in a site, indicating that a specific set of tasks or operations took place there Looting, Warfare/Colonialism, Construction Causes of archaeological site destruction