1. Deep Time, Uniformity, & Chronology…
Dating
Deep Time,
Uniformity,
& Chronology…
Material Culture Changes
Over Time…

2. In The Beginning
Biblical Account of Genesis taken literally until the 1800’s
Uniformitarianism accounts for geological processes of great age (Earth is 4.5 Billion years old)
Superposition (Stratigraphy) was the first method used for dating prehistoric artifacts

3. PREHISTORY
The Oldowan Tool Industry is the first evidence for tool making by Homo habilis, 2.6 million years BP
The Acheulian hand ax is the earliest bifacial tool industry, invented by Homo erectus more than 1.5 million years BP

4. PREHISTORIC ERAS
Paleolithic: 2.6 million to 12,000 years BP. Includes Homo habilis, erectus, and sapiens. (Oldowan, Acheulean Industries)
Mesolithic (Archaic in US): 12,000 to 10,000 years BP. Includes human cultural and technology advances. (Mousterian, Solutrean, Paleolithic in US)
Neolithic: 10,000 to 4,500 years BP (Varies depending on location) Includes innovations such as settled villages, agriculture and the idea of progress. (Blade)
Bronze Age: (Dates Vary depending on location)
Iron Age: (Dates Vary depending on location)

5. Historic Periods Babylonian and Persian periods 586 BCE – 332 BCE
Hellenistic period
(332 BCE – 37 BCE) Early Hellenistic 332 BCE – 167 BCE
Late Hellenistic 167 BCE – 37 BCE
Roman period
(37 BCE – 324 CE) Early Roman 37 BCE – 132 CE
Late Roman 132 CE – 324
Byzantine period 324 – 638
Early Arab period (Umayyad and Abbasid) 638 – 1099
Crusader and Ayyubid periods 1099 – 1291
Late Arab period (Fatimid and Mamluk) 1291 – 1516
Ottoman period 1516 – 1917
Modern period 1918 – Present

6. RELATIVE DATING
Stratigraphic
Typological Sequences
Seriation

7. ABSOLUTE DATING Historical Documents and Inscriptions Dendrochronology
Annual Sediment Cycles (ie. Varves, ice cores, sea-bottom sediments cores, pollen)
Radiometric Dating (carbon-14, uranium series, potassium/argon)

8. Historical Documents & Inscriptions

9. Dendrochronology

10. Radiometric Dating

11. Elements

12. Half-Life: Length of time for ½ of amount of isotope to decay

13. Thurmoluminescence

14. Key Events Earliest Stone Tools: 2.5+ million years BP
Acheulian Hand Axe: 1.6 million years BP
Homo sapiens: 100,000 years BP
First Australians: 50,000 years BP
First Americans: 15,000+ years BP
First Farmers: 8,500/10,000 years BP
First State-level Societies: 3,500/8500 y BP

15. Homo sapiens migration