Intro to Archaeology Study Notes Ch 1 2 4 5
Some terms
• Geographical informations system (GIS): Included digital elevation, streets, land use and cover, topographic map, hydrology, aerial photographs. Software app that brings spatial data together for consolidation.
• Horizontal excavation: an excavation for which the goal is to excavate a broad area in order to expose the remains of a single point in time.
• Vertical excavation: an excavation for which the goal is to excavate a significant depth of deposits to expose the record of a sequence of occupation.
• Law of superposition: in any undisturbed depositional sequence, each layer of sediments is younger than the one beneath it.
• Strata: discrete layers in a stratigraphic sequence.
• Anthropogenic deposits: deposits that result from human activity. Ex. Building fires on ephemeral hunter-gatherer campsites to erecting places of great cities
• Depositional unit: the material deposited at a site at a particular point in time
• Provenience: the precise context in which an object is recovered in an excavation
• Datum point: the linchpin for the control of excavation. Serves as a reference point for all depth measurements on the site
• Wet screening: process of spraying water onto a sieve to break up sediments and move them through screen: all artifacts recovered
• Flotation: process used to recover botanical material (wood, seeds) in water. Charred seeds and wood float and can be dried, skimmed off for analysis
• Artifacts: objects that show traces of human manufacture
• Ecofacts: stuff recovered from an archaeological context either the remains of a biological organism or results of geological processes
• Postdepositional processes: events that take place after a site has been occupied
• Taphonomy: the study of the processes that affect organic remains after death
• Quantification: methods used by archaeologists to represent the large quantities of material recovered in excavation and surveys
• Typology: a list used to draw up an
• Geographical informations system (GIS): Included digital elevation, streets, land use and cover, topographic map, hydrology, aerial photographs. Software app that brings spatial data together for consolidation.
• Horizontal excavation: an excavation for which the goal is to excavate a broad area in order to expose the remains of a single point in time.
• Vertical excavation: an excavation for which the goal is to excavate a significant depth of deposits to expose the record of a sequence of occupation.
• Law of superposition: in any undisturbed depositional sequence, each layer of sediments is younger than the one beneath it.
• Strata: discrete layers in a stratigraphic sequence.
• Anthropogenic deposits: deposits that result from human activity. Ex. Building fires on ephemeral hunter-gatherer campsites to erecting places of great cities
• Depositional unit: the material deposited at a site at a particular point in time
• Provenience: the precise context in which an object is recovered in an excavation
• Datum point: the linchpin for the control of excavation. Serves as a reference point for all depth measurements on the site
• Wet screening: process of spraying water onto a sieve to break up sediments and move them through screen: all artifacts recovered
• Flotation: process used to recover botanical material (wood, seeds) in water. Charred seeds and wood float and can be dried, skimmed off for analysis
• Artifacts: objects that show traces of human manufacture
• Ecofacts: stuff recovered from an archaeological context either the remains of a biological organism or results of geological processes
• Postdepositional processes: events that take place after a site has been occupied
• Taphonomy: the study of the processes that affect organic remains after death
• Quantification: methods used by archaeologists to represent the large quantities of material recovered in excavation and surveys
• Typology: a list used to draw up an