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Archaeological Record

Archaeological Record. Learning Objectives. Underst and how archaeologists gather information about past cultures. Understand how the archaeological process works, and the ways archaeologists use science to explore how people lived in the past.

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Archaeological Record

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  1. Archaeological Record

  2. Learning Objectives • Understand how archaeologists gather information about past cultures. • Understand how the archaeological process works, and the ways archaeologists use science to explore how people lived in the past. • Describe how studies of material culture can serve as a form of data to improve knowledge about human behavioral variability in past and contemporary societies

  3. Doing Archaeology • Locating Sites • Excavation • Dating Techniques • Artifact Analysis • Site & Regional Synthesis

  4. Survey • Physical examination of a geographical region • Possible location of site • Ground, aerial, GPR, GIS

  5. Excavation • Systematic uncovering of archaeological remains • Removal of soil deposits and other materials

  6. Interpreting the Past • Subsistence Strategies • Ecological niches • Can the environment influence population size? • How so? • Human Societies • Bands, Tribes, Chiefdoms, & States

  7. Interpreting the Past Subsistence Strategies Food Collectors Food Producers Horticulturists & Agriculturists Pastoralists Foragers Massai Inuit Dani

  8. Interpreting the Past • Human societies • Remember Morgan, Radcliffe-Brown, Malinowski, Boas…. • After WWII • Archaeological & ethnographic information • Considered: 1. Key points in social change 2. Avoidance of stereotypes & ethnocentrism

  9. Interpreting the Past: Social Organization • Bands: approximately 50 people, egalitarian, generally observed in foraging groups San ‘Bushman’ Inuit

  10. Interpreting the Past: Social Organization • Tribes: relatively egalitarian, sometimes a ‘big man’, generally pastoralists & small agricultural societies Sami Massai

  11. Interpreting the Past: Social Organization • Chiefdoms: inequalities to wealth & power, craft production, larger population size • States: stratified society, defined territory, governmental institutions • Empires: forms when one state conquers another

  12. Interpreting the Past: What are Material Remains?

  13. Interpreting the Past: What are Material Remains? • Artifact • Any movable object that has been used, modified, or manufactured by humans • Stone, bone, metal tools; beads & other ornaments, pottery, artwork, religious & sacred items

  14. Interpreting the Past: What are Material Remains? • Ecofact • Artifacts that convey information on the environment • Seeds, animals bones, soil

  15. Interpreting the Past: What are Material Remains? • Midden • Refuse deposit resulting from human activities • Consists of sediment • Food remains & discarded artifacts

  16. Interpreting the Past: What are Material Remains? • Feature • Nonmoveablearticles • Hearths, pits, or house floors • Reveal information on settlement & subsistence

  17. Interpreting the Past: Importance of Context • An artifact’s context • Specific location where it was found • How it relates to other artifacts around it • Why is context important? • Time & space • Systemic study of the past in its context

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