Archaeology Chapter 1

Bell Ringer What do you think Archaeologists do?

Archaeology The study of artifacts to learn about people’s culture & past.

What’s an Artifact? Pots Tools Art An artifact can be a lot of different things. Pots Tools Art

What don’t Archaeologist do? They are nothing like Indiana Jones They don’t get chased by Nazis They don’t carry around bull whips They don’t fall into pits of poisonous snakes And They don’t dig up dinosaurs… those are paleontologists

What do they do? They excavate archaeological sites. Excavate – means to dig layer by layer. Site – is any place that has remains of human use.

How do they do it? They survey the area like a crew building a new road. They grid the area making an exact map. They carefully dig and record the location of anything they find on their maps.

How old is an artifact ? Carbon 14 Dating measures the amount of carbon-14 left in a once living things. It tells archaeologist how old it is.

How old is an artifact ? Stratigraphy - Artifacts found deep down in the earth are older than those found higher up near the surface.

Why? Preservation - Keeping something from injury or harm, especially sites related to our past. Cataloging - identifying artifacts and making a record of them. Each artifact is given a code, that indicates where it was found on a site.

Windover – Titusville FL Native American site discovered in 1982 – remains were 7000 years old

Artifact Analysis The large pieces were collected on a dig at ‘En Hazeva (“En Hetzevuh”), in the Negev Desert of southern Israel. They date back to the: Byzantine era (1500-1800 years old!). The writing on the pieces are the coordinates of where the item was found on the grid. The smaller pieces are Napatian (2500 years old) and came from Petra, Jordan. Petra (Hidden City) was rediscovered by Romans in the year 1812.

Archeology- Bill, Bill, Bill, Bill, Bill! Bill Nye the Science Guy