Was a big proponent of using statistics in discovering types. He outlines 2 attribute states in his case analyzing two hypothetical villages, using 100 ceramic vessels in each case.

1) "temper" - grit/sand or shell

2) "surface treatment" - smoothed or stamped

Case 1- Shows no discernible difference:

Surface treatment Temper

Grit Shell

Stamped 25 25

Smoothed 25 25

Case 2- Shows 2 clearly discernible types,

too clear to be a recording error:

Surface treatment Temper

Grit Shell

Stamped 50 0

Smoothed 0 50

Analysis- a stage in archaeological research design in which data are isolated, described, and structured, usually via typological classification, and chronological, functional, technological, and constituent determinations are made.

1) Stylistic attributes - usually involve the most obvious descriptive characteristics of an artifact believed to reflect choices of the maker (ex: color, texture, decoration, alterations...).

2) Form attributes - include the overall three-dimensional shape of the artifact and aspects of that shape. (include: measurable dimensions/ metric attributes; length, width, thickness, and weight).

3) Technological attributes - include the characteristics of the raw materials used to make artifacts (constituent attributes) & any other traits that reflect the manufacturing process.

Año Nuevo State Preserve

Case Study - Looking at landscape management practices by complex hunter gatherers, that increased biodiversity, pruning plants, moving plants, clearing underbrush & burning ragiems. Burning cattails near Mono Lake - what the Spanish saw when they came hear what they saw was not a truly wild landscape but one that was the result of hundreds of years of complex hunter gatherer land management & burning practices. New plants following fire not only provides various kinds of grasses and tubers (3 to 5 fold increase in biodiversity of plants), but also attracts wild game. Patchwork of different aged vegetation stands from successive burns in chaparral country. Fire regiems before Spanish were more than could have been produced by natural means.

archaeobotany / paleoethnobotany

Archaeological sub-field that studies plant remains from archaeological sites. (Seeds, Nuts); Pollen (Palynology); Starch Grains; Phytoliths= microscopic cilica remains from plants.

assemblages / sub-assemblages

Archaeological Culture (Societies) - the sum total of material remains assumed to represent the culture of a past society.    

Assemblage (rep. communities)- is a gross grouping of all subassemblages assumed to represent the sum of human activities carried out within an ancient community.     

Sub-assemblages (rep. groups) - A grouping of arifact classes based on form and function that is assumed to represent a single occupational group within an ancient community.    

Artifacts (Individual) - A discrete & portable object in the arch. record whose charact. result from human activity.

association

attributes (form, technological, stylistic)

Attribute - the minimal characteristic used as a criterion for grouping artifacts into classes; includes;

1) Stylistic attributes - usually involve the most obvious descriptive characteristics of an artifact believed to reflect choices of the maker (ex: color, texture, decoration, alterations...).

2) Form attributes - include the overall three-dimensional shape of the artifact and aspects of that shape. (include: measurable dimensions/ metric attributes; length, width, thickness, and weight).

3) Technological attributes - include the characteristics of the raw materials used to make artifacts (constituent attributes) & any other traits that reflect the manufacturing process.

Barbara Voss / Rebecca Allen

Barb Voss & Rebecca Allen (CRM archaeologist that talked Stanford University into going in and looking at orphaned collection of 450 boxes from the Market Street Chinatown, San Jose site - established in 1866,in 2 city blocks it housed over 3000 people, burned in 1887. Original CRM project done for Fairmont Hotel in 1980s, Barb & Rebecca picked up the ball in 2002. Collaboration with Chinese community. Chinese community often viewed as very traditional, insuler, and self-segrigating. Their findings showed diverse material cultures. Many interactions with non-Chinese through work, leisure, politics & various social relations. (4/8/11)

Catal hoyuk

In Turkey, extremely important site. One of the earliest sedetary villages, mud houses built would break down over time, and new houses were build on top of the old. This was a case study for reflexive methodology (constant & continuous interpretation and reinterpretation), and a good example of post-processual archaeology.They do a lot with public outreach. Ian Hodder - argued that you need to use the reflexive methodology to analyze as you go.

chronology (direct vs. indirect age determination ; relative vs. absolute dating)

Direct dating - uses analysis of the arifact, ecofact, or feature itself to arrive at its age.

Indirect dating - uses analysis of material associated with the artifact, or feature being studied to evaluate its age.

Example: organic remains found in a tomb - radio carbon dated (direct dating), but other artifacts found in the same tomb assigned the same date based on their association with the organic remains (indirect dating).

Relative dating - evaluating the age of one artifact relative to another. Relative methods - seriation, sequence comparison, stratigraphy, geochronology, bone chemistry, & obsidian hydration layers in microns (per prof. Lightfoot best at relative dating method).

Absolute dating - referes to placing the age of a sample on an absolute time scale, usually a calendrical system, but is seldom precise. Therefore expressed in range of years normally using plus or minus. (Pg. 156-157 text)

Absolute methods - obsidian hydration, dendrochronology, radiometric (radiocarbon, potassium-argon, etc.), archaeomagnetic.

classification

Refers to the process of arranging or ordering objects into groups on the basis of the sharing of particular characteristics called "attributes" (see analysis). Classification of archaeological materials is an essential part of the discipline of archaeology and allows us to make sense of the data we are collecting. It creates order from chaos (pg. 117-118 text).

Construction of Arch. Interpretations

Construction of archaeological interpretation (Ian Hodder) - is part of an ongoing dynamic process and it takes place at all stages of the research design, all stages of the research process. Ian Hodder makes the point that arch. of the past tend to dichotomize (separate) data description (recovery of arch. materials) from interpretation. Particularly true of processual archaeologists as they are very objective in the treatment of data collection, "just the facts", then laboratory analysis, then finally they would construct interpretations. Hodder says this is a linear process, running from objective to subjective. He critiques for example the type of research design in the text & how prof. Lightfoot operates.

Hodder says that the definition of how we conceive & describe arch. data are theory laden, and our own perspective & approaches influence this. We need to break down the boundaries of the field and the lab.

context

context - characteristics of archaeological data that result from combined behavioral and transformational processes by considering significance of provenience, association and matrix for artifacts and ecofacts.

Primary context - both proveninece and matrix remain undisturbed since original deposition. Use related - materials left in place where people used these materials. transposed - materials that disposed, not at original place of manufacture and use.

Secondary context - artifacts not at original context or deposted by orginal occupation of site; are altered by human activity (ex: looting) or natural (ex: bioturbation). 

coprolite

coprolite = fossilized feces

curation crisis

data as “theory laden”

"Theory Laden" (Ian Hodder reading) - states that excavation method, data collection, and data recording are all dependent on interpretation.

datum

Robert "Dave" David

Robert "Dave" David - "If I ask you; give an example or who is an experimental archaeologist? GSI - Dave David would be a good answer" (prof. Lightfoot said almost exactly this in lecture on 4/27) 

Additional info - from Chiloquin Oregon.

Allen David – great great great grandfather. 1st elected chief, “Bosskiyou” – meaning blackened by scorching (scorched butt).

Graduated from Oregon State - music major, then journalism, then finally anthropology b/c he wanted to connect with his heritage & was horrified to find that none of the elders of his tribe knew anything about their rock art.

.CRM at Spokane ,WA. 2006 @ UCB. Focused on Klamath Basin Map, worried that these rock arts won’t translate to the next generation.  Did some work at “Butterfly” site, rock art..Chiloquin Rock Art example…rock art. Said that context is everything. (social context?). Rock art A @ Bezuksawas, 700 m long. Rock art B – 57 circle images.. located at Paradise Creek Rock art. Rock art C – Fern Cave Entrance , Shaman… (doctor ppl)  diseases were considered as a supernatural  origin… Dissertation – saulding’s “discovered types” , determining social context for different types of rock art. Debitage analysis… likes flakes..

debitage

dendrochronology (& fire-scar dendro.)

dendrochronology (& fire-scar dendro.) - Tree ring-ring dating. Master tree ring chronology (MOST PRECISE DATING METHOD IN ARCH) all the way to the time before Christ and you can date the cutting to the year! Can date to year of cut because tree rings record climate & can be compared to percipitation and temperature records. Provide great information on paleoenvironmental conditons. Can give you information about fire chronology and fire methods, by looking at the fire scars.

Problem: Complacent trees don't work - Pines & Redwoods are best to use.

deposition

Direct and Indirect Percussion

Both are techniques used to make chipped-stone artifacts.

DIRECT Percussion: Flakes are produced by striking a core with a hammer stone or striking the core against a fixed stone or anvil.

INDIRECT Percussion: Flakes are produced by striking a punch placed against a core.

ecofacts

Elliot Blair

Elliot Blair - Volunteered at a project in Mangolia, studied point excavations at Bureau of Land Management, and studied Mission Catalina de Guale at St. Catherine's Island, GA. He employed methods such as X-ray spectrometry to examine soil and electric resistivity to produce a map image of the mission. 

Good example of working with low impact archaeology!!

Ellis Landing (CA-CCO-295)

Ellis Landing (CA-CCO-295) - Case study, orphaned collection, had to really get to know Nels Nelson to investigate and understand the data that was  not collected (ex: debitage) to weed out what we can understand. Prof. lightfoot researched the records from this site. Nels Nelson used soil samples, mining, dug trenches, and stratigraphy to examine a large shellmound there. He found out the shellomunds at this site were most likely cemeteries or mounded villages. The old collection of artifacts was used to attempt to determine if the site was possibly a religious or burial site.

emic / etic classifications

emic / etic classifications - These classifications are not mutually exclusive.

ETIC: an outsider's perspective; describing outside observer; part of processual behavior (ex. Arbitrary Types).

EMIC: an insider's perspective; try ti understand the internal meanings and symbols of life; post-processual behavior (ex. Discovery Types).

ethnoarchaeology

ethnoarchaeology - Ethnographic studies and ethnographic field observation used to describe beahvioral processes and other archaeological interpretations, especially the way material items enter the archaeological record.

Study of the PRESENT to better understand the PAST. Classic case- Moundbuilders Myth (Cyrus Thomas)- Direct Historical Approach uses ethnographic  analogy. Study MATERIAL CULTURE of current people, live with them, and study the artifacts they produce and the discard of material to find the use of these materials.

ethnographic analogy (specific vs. general)

A) Specific Analogy - made within a single cultural tradition, like in a single tribal area. Often working with decendent communities, using current cultures to make specific analogies about their ancestors.

B) General Analogy - An anology used in archaeological interpretation based on broad and generalized comparisons that are documented across many cultural traditions. General comparative method, using current people under for example similar "environmental" conditions to draw conclussions about past people under similar conditions. Similarities of cultural form - anologies must be based on observable similarities, which will usually be determined by the degree to which traditional behavior is maintained by the analog society.   

CAUTION!! :  Abuse of Analogy; Be careful because it Assumes Cultural Conservatism (-that past people are not that different from the present). This can be a dangerous assumption and has at times created unrealistic perspective of past people.

excavation methods

(penetrating vs. clearing; arbitrary vs. natural levels)

PENETRATING: Surgical operations; non-probablistic samples that reveal the vertical dimensions of archaeological deposits to define the depth, sequence, and composition of buried data.

CLEARING: Excavtaions that reveal the horizontal dimensions of archaeological sites to define the extend, distribution, and patterning of archaeological data.

ARBITRARY LEVELS: Metrical stratigraphy that defines the depth of level (Cuts into different strata). Ex: Every 10 cm will be a level.

NATURAL LEVELS: Excavate by stratigraphy; More chronological because strata is just as deposited. Normally accompanied by a change in color and or texture.

experimental archaeology

(lithic manufacture, lithic use-wear analysis, residue analysis)

Experimental Archaeology - is the study of artifacts made from chipped stone or ground stone.

Examples:

LITHIC MANUFACTURE, which is the production of lithics through indirect percussion, direct percussion, or pressure flaking, and produces debitage.

LITHIC USE-WEAR ANALYSIS:used to study what the tools were used for; there are different types, traces, and patterns that are analyzed and some lithics have signatures, which could also hint to who was using the tools.

RESIDUE ANALYSIS: analysis of residue on the lithic tolls to find certain chemical that show what the tool was used for such as food or blood residue, which could hint to cooking tool or hunting tool.

Who is an experimental archaeologist?  Answer: Robert "Dave" David GSI

flaked stone technology

flaked stone technology - The production of lithic artifacts that are detached from the core, either as waste (debitage) or as a tool. The debitage is used to determine what of percussion of if pressure flaking was employed.

flakes (bulb of percussion, striking platform)

Flake - a lithic artifact detached from a core, either as waste or as a tool. The force used to knock the flake off leaves charactoristic attributes. We look for "platform" an "bowl of precussion", as well as others. Such as a series of flake scars that look like turtle shells.

Striking platform - is the area where they were knocking the flake off.

Bulb of precussion - the bump before it narrows.

If you picture the flake like a ducks head, the back of the head is the "striking platform" and the curve of the top of its head is the "bulb of precussion".

geoarchaeology

Geoarchaeology - Determining age by studying the association of archaeological data with geological formations. Looking at the geology of the site, formation processes, minerals of the site, etc.

geophysical survey

Geophysical survey - Geophysical survey can refer to any systematic collection of geophysical data for spatial studies. In archaeology, it most often refers to ground-based subsurface mapping using a number of different sensing technologies. Data collected from the surface can be used for mapping subsurface archaeological features without excavation. Most commonly applied to archaeology are magnetometers, electrical resistance meters, ground penetrating radar (GPR) and electromagnetic (EM) conductivity.

Gina Michaels

Gina Michaels - Reading on Market Street China Town, San Jose. Studied the pecking marks and how this related to the structure of the community. The peck marks allowed these men to mark their china as personal property (due to possible housing arrangements) and possibly was a hypridization of familiar Chinese cultural practice of marking vessels to aid in creating an environment that was more comfortable and livable. (pg. 379 reader) (4/22)

Glenn Farris

Glenn Farris - wrote about the use of oral tradition at Fort Ross, looking at the Kashaya Pomo & Hudson Bay expedition 1833. Utilized the work of Robert Oswalt (a linguistic anthropologist fluent in Kashaya Pomo), who translated 2 stories from Sept. 1958 regarding the arrival of "the undersea people". (Pg. 369 in Reader)

groundstone technology

Groundstone technology - One of the 2 basic kinds of lithic technology (the other is chipped-stone): the ground-stone industry is based on pecking and grinding or polishing stone. (Pg. 125 Text)

holistic approach

The holistic approach of historical anthropology brings in multiple lines of evidence, such as historical documents where available, native naratives, oral histories, paintings, etc. This approach helps generate a more balanced and multicultural view of the past and helps to return excluded pasts. (4/15/11 lecture)

 Example: Glenn Farris use of oral tradition coupled with the historical record to piece together the Kashaya Pomo view of a historical event.

Ian Hodder - argued that you need to use the reflexive methodology to analyze as you go. He critiques a linear approach to archaeology, where you go from field and retrieval, to the lab and analysis, then einterpretation and publishing. He says the definition of how we conceive & describe archaeological data are THEORY LADEN and our own perspective and training effect this. We need to break down the boundaries of the field and the lab. Interpretation is continually taking place, it starts in the field with deciding what to recover & record (continually thinking about it).

Hodder developed a project at "Catal hoyuk site", which is a "tell site" and is a mounded village that has been interpreted in the past but he is at the "trauls edge" and is using a POST-PROCESSUAL archaeologist perspective & re-evaluating this site. They are constantly in the process of developing & constructing interpretations. Bringing  specialist to the site that are able to give more specific input as to how samples should be collected for optimal information assessment.

The down site is that this cost a great deal of $ and is therefor not a typical project.

interface

Interface - the surface at which two strata meet.

Interpretation at the “trowel’s edge”

Interpretation at the “trowel’s edge” - idea that analysis takes place at every step of research process (when writing research design, during excavation, during lab analyses, when writing up report, etc). Part of reflexive methodology. (4/13)

Ishi

Ishi - Considered to be the last "wild" Native American in California. He made stone tools (1911-1916) that were stored in the Phoebe Hearts Museum of Anthropology. Steve Shackley used stylistic analysis of these Obsidian and Glass artifacts to show that the design of his tools were influenced by many tribes, not just his own. (4/22, lecture notes on Shackley reading)

Kashaya Pomo

Kashaya Pomo - Tribe living in Metinni Village near Fort Ross. Worked for the Russians in agriculture, shipyards, etc. This is also the decendant community that professor Lightfoot has worked with extensively using a colaboritive approach to the archaeological research at Fort Ross, particularly the Metini Village Site (sacred site).

Law of Superposition

Law of Superposition - The principal that the sequence of ovservable strata from bottom to top reflects the order of deposition from earliest to latest (Ch. 5) This concept is the basis for the archaeological reasoning that, in undisturbed strata, artifacts that are buried deeply are older than those buried shallowly. (Midterm 2 question) 

Makah Cultural Research Center

Makah Cultural Research Center - Whaling tribe, this tribe is interpreting their own past. Tribal museum in contrast to museums not controlled by decendant communities. Most information in this tribal museum is from the Ozette site, excavated by Fagan. Trying to get young men involved, cultural traditions, supporting their argument that they should be able to hunt whale based on it being part of their tradition (4/11). Article on this is written by Erikson.

Market Street Chinatown

Market Street Chinatown - Example of urban Chinese-American archaeology. Rebecca Allen and Barbara Voss worked on orphan collections from this place. Gina Michaels analyzed pottery samples from this place. It was excavated quickly during construction of the Fairmont Hotel, and the materials were preserved well due to the fire which burned everything and caused the Chinese to move to a different region of the city. (4/08)

matrix

Matrix - Physical medium surrounding/supporting other archaeological material. (Textbook definition)

Metini Village Site / Fort Ross

Metini Village Site / Fort Ross - Native village near Fort Ross. Was used as an example of research design. KGL had to use low impact methods at this site to respect the sacred site of the Kashaya Pomo. Also, this collaboration with the tribe included obeying the Kellah rule (women cannot be involved with sacred sites while on their menstrual cycle). (4/06)

multiple lines of evidence

multiple lines of evidence - We consider a strong argument one that brings together multiple lines of evidence to form a plausible argument.  These could include historical records, paintings, information about matrix/sediments, context (primary/secondary), stratigraphy (deposition of materials in archaeological site), lithics, bone tools, pollen, macrobotanical remains, faunal remains, features (hearths, storage pits, house structures), spatial organization, patterning, and association of artifacts (presented, for example, on a plan map), and the broader settlement pattern. (4/15)

(Note: This is the holistic approach of archaeology that helps generate a more balanced and multicultural view of the past. Helps to return excluded pasts.)

Museums (relation to archaeology; museum research)

Museums (relation to archaeology; museum research) - Material is curated here and can be re-analyzed. Benefits of working with this type of information: low cost, material is available after site has been destroyed. Challenges of working with this type of information: excavation and lab methods might not have been carried out the way you wanted them to be carried out. For example, KGL had to understand Nels Nelson's notes to study and analyze Ellis landing. At the time, it was not considered important to collect debitage, so its presence or absence could not be determined and used in analyses so many years after the actual excavation. (4/11 - 4/13)

NAGPRA

Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA)

- 1990 law

A) Museums - repatriation of human remains, associated funerary opjects, inventories when requested by federally recognized decendant communities.

B) Field Work -Preserve and protect sacred sites, strict permit process, to work on government land.

This law has influenced the move of archaeology back to a more collaborative approach. (2/11 lecture)

Native landscape management - the use of pyrodiversity practices to increase the biodiversity of the landscape. New plants following fire not only provides varies kinds of grasses and tubers, but also attracts wild game. Patchwork of different aged vegetation stands from successive burns in chaparral country. Fire regiems before Spanish arrived were more than could have been produced by natural means. Additionally, prescribed burning helped to prevent large scale fires. (4/22 lecture)

Nels Nelson

Nels Nelson - Get to know the excavator - Was a farm boy from the midwest. He went to Stanford University but came to Cal in 1906. Initially interested in theology but was encouraged to get involved in anthropology due to an interest in archaeology (1906 & 1907 was working on PhD). He was put on a project to go out and map the great shell mounds of the San Francisco Bay. He was very meticulous, in his journals he talks about every place he ate and how much he spent. He set up his field research in a similar way.

Ellis Island Shell Mound - main site he excavated & was going to be the subject of his dissertation (his greatest regret was not finishing this). He did some good work with stratigraphy. He point provenieced materials (THIS IS REALLY SIGNIFICANT), he measured along the trench, in from the edge & it's depth. He took soil samples, which was not part of archaeology in his time. He was way ahead of his time!

obsidian hydration

Obsidian hydration - Exposed surface, used for dating; Acquires hydration layer, then measures the microns to give an absolute date; Fresh exposed accumulates hydration; Can be used for relative dating, but can put into absolute dating; Absolute dating: fixed number of years before present (ie. carbon dating because gives fixed number); Relative dating: certain number of years before something else (ie. before or after something when looking at artifacts, older than this, but that one was later)

orphan collections

Orphan collections - collections of artifacts that have yet to be analyzed, dug up from the ground, curated but not analyzed.

Overseas Chinese Archaeology - study of the Chinese people around the globe, recent emphasis; collaborative archaeology. An important category of archaeology that is expanding, generating new research questions.

Examples: San Jose Market Street Chinatown. Also, pumping money into state parks, such as Angel Island with its immigration station where many Chinese American families came through. 

Palynology

Palynology - the study of pollen grains and other spores, esp. as found in archaeological or geological deposits.

phytoliths

phytoliths - microscopic cilica remains from plants; durable flora ecofact that allows identification of plant remains.

plan drawing / profile drawing

Plan drawing - is creating a bird's eye view of the archaeological site.

Profile drawing - is looking at the wall of an excavation unit in order to see stratigraphic layering. We completed a GSI section activity related to both of these.

pressure flaking

Pressure flaking - method in flaked stone technology that uses steady pressure on the punch to detach flakes (pg 125 ashmore/sharer).

Pushing a small sharp object against the edge to brake away very small flakes and form edge shape (4/20 lecture).

profile

Profile - Side view of an archaeological site, a drawing which is made to create a profile perspective (eg looking at all the different lines when you cut into a shell mound/stratigraphic layers).

provenience (lot vs. point)

provenience (lot vs. point) - 

(1) Lot: artifacts are arbitrarily bagged together as a unit in levels [use this when you have secondary context or transposed primary content, so recording exact location isn’t critical and you can save time] 

(2) Point: Exact 3D location within excavation unit is plotted as a specific location [when the context is primary and can be used]

pyrodiversity practices

Pyrodiversity practices - purposeful burning of plants/shrubbery to increase biodiversity (part of landscape domestication). Used in a cyclic manner to keep areas of land readily available for agriculture.

radiocarbon (C14) dating / half-life / AMS

Radiocarbon (C14) dating - the most common dating method in archaeology; important for dating organic materials; based on the decay of c14 of dead organisms.

Half-life - how long it takes for 1 gram to decay halfway from C14 to N14 (5730 +/- 40 years; recorded w/margin of error)

AMS - Accelerator Mass Spectrometry - very sophisticated method to do carbon dating and can take materials back about 100,000 yrs (used to be only ~50,000 when using gigacounters). Allows us to test without the large amount of material that used to have to be destroyed for carbon dating. This in contract requires very small amount of organ material.

reflexive methodology

Reflexive methodology - interpretation takes place at all stages of investigation, from research design all the way until the end. This allows for a more flexible and purposeful direction. Ian Hodder / Post-Processual approach.

residue analysis

Residue analysis - The analysis of debris on artifacts in order to discover purpose (eg blood on a point or knife to see what sort of game was being hunted).

Robert Oswalt

Robert Oswalt - First person to use language to interpret oral traditions (translated the stories of many tribal elders) recorded the oral history and tradition of Kashaya Pomo taken in 1950s. From this, Farris was able to piece together a story that matched the historic event of an 1833 visit by the hudson trading co.

Roger Echo-Hawk

Roger Echo-Hawk - Oral traditions and myths should not be dismissed, but be looked at to find common threads (like floods at a point in history, as recorded through different lines of evidence), and argued that we can utilize this information (pg. 366 in reader).  Long term oral tradition still matters, although many believe it is only valid for recent history.

seriation

seriation - Techniques used to order materials in a relative dating sequence in such a way that adjacent items in the series are more similar to each other than to items farther apart in the series. Can be used as a means of relative chronology or attempting to understand how things were deposited in relation to one another. One can define certain styles against one another and find depositional episodes.

Spatial Structure of Arch. Record

Spatial Structure of Arch. Record - Spatial distribution and association of archaeological data; Artifacts, ecofacts, features, and the spatial distribution of them.

Where we put together different pieces of the archaeolgocal record and consider multiple lines of evidence. How we devise logical consistant interpretations; example: Settlement Archaeology (Ch. 8). Macro scale - settlement patterns. Micro scale - excavation. The kinds of archaeological materials we work with; lithics, artifacts, ecofacts, features, sites, and settlement system of sites accross the landscape. Also matrix, material associated with its surroundings, provenience and association of materials is critical for developing the spatial structure. Context, stratigraphy of deposits, chronology and different analytical methods.  Where they're found and what is found with them is critical for developing and generating arch. interpretations. (4/27 lecture)

sterile deposit

sterile deposit - Geological stratum that contains no archaeological material/remains. Lightfoot talks about this in regards to geophysical survey and excavation and how this can separate different strata. How there can be tan soil under a large midden deposit. 

Steve Shackley

Steve Shackley - Example of looking at the style of the artifacts; He looked at the stone tool technology of artifacts produced by Ishi, who was a famous native found in Northern CA in 1911 and came and lived in the anthro museum and worked with anthropologists and made a number of stone tools out of obsidian and stone glass. Shackley looked at these tools in the museum today and analyzed them looking at form, technology and stylistic attributes of artifacts. Noticed that the artifacts produced were different than where he came from and that they were much more complex. They looked like other artifacts from other native Californian groups. He argued Ishi had been one of many to band together with other tribes during a time of disease and starvation. From them Ishi learned other techniques.  Ishi’s cultural identity.

stratigraphy / strata

stratigraphy / strata - Layering of the archaeological record, defines depositional episodes (when things were left in the ground and their chronology and age). Allows for use of ideas of seriation, law of superposition, and context evaluations. Can be used in multiple lines of evidence, can give insight to how things are deposited within the archaeological record and can give insight to chronology. Can define depositional episodes and look at relationships with other materials and find their relative age.

taphonomy

taphonomy - Study of the transformational processes affecting organic ecofacts after the death of the original organisms. Used in evaluation of ecofacts. Can give insight to context and how environment has changed. Part of multiple lines of evidence and developing technology in archaeology.

Thad Van Buren / CA-AMA-364/H

Thad Van Buren / CA-AMA-364/H - Amador County Farm 

-This was a CRM work done through Cal Trans

-Archaeologists found a ledger of a Chinese cook

-There was geophysical survey and controlled mechanical grading

-Looked for soil stains (changes in soil color, looking for anthropogenic signs)

-Excavation – (Feature 12 and Feature 4)

 -Shows interactions between Chinese and Non-Chinese people   

- Chinese were not an isolated group as was sometimes previously thought.

tribal museums / cultural centers

Tribal museums / Cultural centers

- Facilitated by Casino Money (Casinos in Indian Reserve Areas)

-Exhibits the Natives’ own view of the past

-Serve as Community Centers – Cultural Survival, Elders Teach Language, Arts, Crafts

-Education for the public and the younger tribe members (for Cultural survival)

-Example: Makah Cultural and Research Center (in Washington)       

types (discovered vs. arbitrary)

Type: a class of data defined by a consistent clutering of attributes

Discovered: Albert Spaulding, classify artifacts using attributes the makers of the artifact would have used, emic perspective, statistical analysis

Arbitrary: James Ford, classification based on attributes that the classifier creates/outlines, etic.  

zooarchaeology

zooarchaeology - is the study of animal remains from archaeological sites; primarily consists of the hard parts of the body (bones, teeth, and shells). Part of the analysis that can be done on ecofacts. Such remains may represent food refuse of ancient populations as well as animals used for transportation. Helps archaeologist understand past human subsistence strategies and environments.