The Dimensions of Archaeology: Time, Space, and Form Chapter 6 The Dimensions of Archaeology: Time, Space, and Form

Outline After the Excavation: Conservation and Cataloging Archaeological Classification Space-Time Systematics

Patterns: Time and Space Archaeologists document patterns in how material culture changes through time and across space. Organizing data into meaningful patterns is vital to the field of archaeology.

After the Excavation: Conservation and Cataloging The first step is to conserve the recovered materials. It may be necessary to reconstruct broken pieces. As a rule of thumb, for every week spent excavating, archaeologists spend 3 to 5 weeks or more cleaning, conserving, and cataloging the finds. Cataloging is essential because provenience is lost without the catalogue. . Without the catalog, provenience is lost, and without provenience an artifact’s value to future researchers is greatly reduced.

Archaeological Classification Cataloguing and conservation begin with the classification of artifacts into types, or typology The archaeologist’s first responsibility is to simplify. Patterns appear only when you isolate some aspect of the variation and ignore the rest. Such patterning is know as space-time systematics. Archaeologists basic unit of classification is termed a type. Types are abstractions archaeologists impose on a variable batch of artifacts.

Typology Classification of artifacts into types. Archaeology’s basic unit of classification is termed a type. Types are abstractions imposed by the archaeologist on a variable batch of artifacts. We formulate a classification with a specific purpose in mind.

Three Major Types of Types Morphological – A descriptive grouping of artifacts whose focus is on similarity rather than function or chronological significance. Temporal types are morphological types that have specific chronological meaning for a particular region. Functional types reflect how objects were used in the past.

Morphological Types The first analytical step is to describe the artifacts carefully and accurately by grouping into morphological types to make sense of the past. Morphological types have a second, basic property: they are abstract and purely descriptive. Types are not the artifacts per se, they are composite descriptions of many similar artifacts. Morphological types help communicate what the archaeologist found without describing every single specimen.

Choosing Criteria Typology based on shape and size could be used to construct temporal types. The primary concern is to reduce the complexity to our primary criteria- shape and size.

Defining Attributes There are no rules governing the number of attributes to record. Archaeologists try to use as few as seem necessary to accomplish the purpose of typology. A characteristic that distinguishes one artifact from another based on: Size Surface texture Form Material Method of manufacture Design pattern

A Great Basin Projectile Point and Some Data Recorded From It

What Did the Typology Do? The two necessary characteristics of a typology minimize the differences within each type and maximize the differences between types. Most typologies today make use of statistical analysis. By using an explicit and objective typology, archaeologists know that when they talk about a “desert side-notched” or “rosegate” or some other type of point, all of them are talking about the same thing.

Relationship between Attributes of Weight and Proximal Shoulder Angle for the Great Basin Projectile Points

Space Time Systematics Archaeology has adopted a relatively standardized framework for integrating chronological information into a regional framework. The fifty-year-old Willey-Phillips framework remains the most generally accepted in North America.

Archaeological Cultures Dividing Space Subdivision of culture areas are called “traditions,” or archaeological cultures. This archaeological cultures are not ethnographic cultures. Drawing lines around areas on a map and labeling draws attention to spatial differences in the kinds of artifacts that are found in those regions.

North American Culture Areas

Periods: Diving Time Archaeologists divided pre-history into periods based on gross changes in easily observable archaeological remains. The concept of periods is still used to organize archaeological thinking about time. Archaic period (7,500-1,900 B.P.) is a time when people made heavier use of plant foods, began to develop distinctive regional traditions in material culture, and experimented with agricultural crops (i.e. maize). Periods record change over time, archaeological cultures record change over space.

Phases: Combining Space and Time A phase is a block of time that is characterized by one or more distinctive artifact types. Phases are defined by temporal types, items of material culture that show patterned changes over time. Assemblages: collections of artifacts recovered from some unit of provenience. Components: considered a cultural homogenous units within a single site. Archaeological components involves the intangible factor of cultural homogeneity. Components are by definition from a single site.

Phases: The Basic Units of Space-Time Systematics The phase is archaeology’s basic unit of time-space systematics, combining both spatial and temporal patterns. Neighboring regions do not necessarily have the same phases, because they did not see the same progression of change in material culture. Phases are ways to track spatial and temporal change in human cultural behavior. Phases can last a few generations of thousands of years, and are always defined provisionally.

Relationship of Archaeological Sites to Concepts of Component and Phase

Projectile Point Key: Central Great Basin

Time-Space Systematics

Related Videos Paleo and Archaic Projectile Point Distribution… http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4xFqQJWQcpc Everyday Life from the Archaeological Record: Arin Maeir http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fLWaUl0rN6Q

Quick Quiz

1. Cataloging is essential, because: Archaeologists spend so much time on this process. Without this step, data would decay. Without the catalog, provenience is lost. All of the above.

Answer: C Cataloging is essential because without the catalog, provenience is lost. Without provenience an artifact’s value to future researchers is greatly reduced.

2. ______ is the classification of artifacts into types.

Answer: typology Typology is the classification of artifacts into types.

3. Archaeological sites consist of ________, collections of artifacts recovered from some unit of provenience, that are then clustered into _______.

Answer: assemblages; components Archaeological sites consist of assemblages, collections of artifacts recovered from some unit of provenience, that are then clustered into components.