Goals of Archaeology

Archaeology: Important Terms Focuses on ___________ _____________________ ____________________ Sites:  Precise __________

Archaeology: Important Terms

Features:  ____________________________ Artifacts:  ___________________________ Ethnoarchaeology  _______________________________  Example: modern-day foragers

Archaeology & Cultural Anthropology ________________________  Learn about individual cultures  Compare & contrast  Form a broad understanding of ______________ Archaeology  1.  2.

Goals of Archaeology Overall goal:  __________________________ Achieved through:  1.  2.  3.

Discovery & Description ______________ Includes  _________ located & investigated  _______ described & classified  ______ chronologies formulated  _____________  ________________

Explanation Seek to ___________ explanations based _________________________ results ‘Understanding why things are the way they are.’

Understanding Human Behavior Contribute to ________________ _________________________  Subsistence strategies  How is this achieved? ________________  Cultural & social change  Use of technology

Branches of Archaeology Based on time period and/or geographical area Divisions:  1.  2.  3.  4.

Archaeological Record

Learning Objectives 1. Understand how archaeologists gather information about past cultures. 2. Understand how the archaeological process works, and the ways archaeologists use science to explore how people lived in the past. 3. 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

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

Survey ________________________  Possible location of site  Ground, aerial, GPR, GIS

Excavation _______________________  Removal of soil deposits and other materials

Interpreting the Past _________________________  Ecological niches  Can the environment influence population size?  How so? _______________________  Bands, Tribes, Chiefdoms, & States

Interpreting the Past Subsistence Strategies Food CollectorsFood Producers Foragers Pastoralists Horticulturists & Agriculturists _____ ______ _____

Interpreting the Past Human societies  Remember Morgan, Radcliffe-Brown, Malinowski, Boas…. After WWII  Archaeological & ethnographic information  Considered: 1. 2.

Interpreting the Past: Social Organization  Bands: _____ _______________

Interpreting the Past: Social Organization  Tribes: _______ ____

Interpreting the Past: Social Organization Chiefdoms: States: stratified society, defined territory, governmental institutions  Empires:

Interpreting the Past: What are Material Remains?

Artifact  Any movable object that has been __________________________________ Stone, bone, metal tools; beads & other ornaments, pottery, artwork, religious & sacred items

Interpreting the Past: What are Material Remains? Ecofact  Artifacts that ____________________ _______________________

Interpreting the Past: What are Material Remains? Midden  _______________________________  Consists of sediment Food remains & discarded artifacts

Interpreting the Past: What are Material Remains? Feature  ______________________ Hearths, pits, or house floors Reveal information ______________

Interpreting the Past: Importance of Context An artifact’s context  __________________where it was found  How it relates to other artifacts around it Why is context important?  1.  2.