Archaeology

Physical

Cultural

Linguistic

Study the culture or history of a given group

to reconstruct past human behavior 

explain why culture change occurs

discover attitudes and beliefs of people in the past

make the past relevant to the present

challenge stereotypes or assumptions of people in the past

Different types of Archaeology

Prehistoric- before writing

Historical- written record

Classical- Greeks and Romans

Underwater- shipwrecks

Cultural Resources Management-Checking building zones for sites

Wanted to know where things came from?

how they were made?

what they were used for?

Went about it in not so scientific ways

looting, digging haphazardly, poorly excavated

"cabinets of curiosity"

Giovanni Belzoni- Monk merchant strong man the Patagonian Samson

Blew stuff up- didnt use modern techniques to excavate

1914-1960

Where did the exist?

When did they exist?

How long did they exist?

Goals: Define culture through space and time and define archaeological culture How they were going to act

Research tools: Excavation, Define archaeological culture through time, compare cultures and chronology through regions, take a direct history

Major proponents: AV Kidder AL Krober NC Nelson

View of culture change: Migration, trade, cultures were static and didnt change except by these means

Processual Archaeology

1960-Present

Why does culture change happen?

Goals:discover general laws of cultural change explain culture change

Research Tools: take a scientific approach-problem oriented research hypothetico-deductive research

major proponents: Lewis Binford Colin Renfrew

View of culture change: A series of systems work together and hen one thing is altered it results in change

1980-Present

Who was there?

Why were they there?

How do cultures ideas attitudes and beliefs affect how they work and change through time?

How did ancients view their world?

Goals: Focus on the people of the culture-learns about their social engagements

Research tools: attention of cultural context

attention to historical context

Major proponents: Ian Hodder

View of Culture Change: focus on the beliefs and ideas of their inhabitants- new social interactions lead to changes

Artifacts don't speak 

common sense is not enough

we must be explicit

use the theory no mater what

alternative to hypothesis testing

way of integrating theory and data 

continuous interpretation and reinterpretation

data and theory are all in flux

chance discovery

Survey-do historical research go out into field and walk around

sampling zones

remote sensing

-the occurance of events can be ordered in a sequence of relative to one another through time

-tells us how old a deposit or material is in comparison to others

the occurance of events can be determined in years

chronometric dating

tells us how old a deposit or material is in calendar years

dendrochronology-tree ring dating

Stratigraphy- layering of sediment 

Index fossil: fossils we used to identify strata

Index pottery: change in form and decoration in a succession through time

Seriation-putting artifacts into a series based on similarities

cross dating-use an index of comparison

frequency seriation: ordering based on frequencies - battle ship curves

Dendrochronology

found between 25 degrees and 65 degree latitude

width and strength of rings record relative amounts of water and nutrients that year

sun, wind, fire,soil, bugs, slope all effect rings

Issues: cutting date-a sample that has retained it's outter most ring(wood modification)

Non cutting date-tells you an unspecified amount of rings have been shaved off

wood reuse, wood scavaging, wood stockpiling

 5370 year half life

discovered by Walter Libby

after an organism dies it stops taking in C14 and the c14 begins to diminish over time

used on bone wood seeds anything that lived

can only be used up to the 8th half life- about 45000 years

Potassium 40 decays into argon 40

used on volcanic rock 

half life is 1.25 billion years

1. Rock heated and the clock is zeroed all the argon flies out of it 

2. K40-->Ar40

3. Ar40 trapped in rock

4. Analysis measures ratio of Ar40-->K40

5.Calculate age based on known half life and ratios

6. 100,000 years ago to several billion years ago

Issues: can usually only sandwich something

standard deviation gets much more problematic

magnetism of the north pole changes over time

iron particles align with true north

Stone, bronze, iron

Thomsen

1581-1656

Determined that the earth came into existence 4004 BC by chronologically analyzing the bible

1797-1875

Looked all over the world for processes that shaped the world over long periods of time

the earth is VERY old 

God created the world a lot earlier than 4004bc

1707-1778

Father of taxonomy 

placed humans in the animal kingdom

humans classified into 4 different races based on geography

1809-1882

English naturalist

sailed on the HMS Beagle 1831

Visited Gallapagos Islands

Natural Selection

Origin of Species-1859

worked in the middle east interested in interactions between neanderthals and early humans

first woman to reach professional status