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What is Archaeology?
- Greek: "arkhaios"-"ancient"; "logia"-"study"
- Scientific study of the human past
- Material remains left behind
- Time depth to the study of culture
- Inferences about past life based on what is found
- Two sub-fields 1) Prehistoric 2)Historic
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Fieldwork
- Site: spacial clustering of artifacts, features, structures, & organic remains found in context
- Context: knowing an artifact's relationship to other artifacts and the surrounding soil
- Mapping and Surveying
- Excavate, screen, collect soil samples, take photographs
- Map the stratigraphy
- Document your findings
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Artifact
Portable object used, modified, or made by humans
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Feature
Non-portable object used, modified, or made by humans
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Pottery
- Fired clay
- Food storage, preparation, and consumption
- Ancient artistry: figurines, beads, pendants
- Questions to ask:
- ---Age of the vessel?
- ---Materials and quarry site?
- ---How was the vessel made? (coil, pinch, wheel)?
- ---How was the vessel used?
- ---Culture that made the ceramic?
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Ecofacts
- Bone, antler, horn, teeth, shell, plant remains
- Questions to ask:
- 1) Age of the remains?
- 2) Which plant or animal species?
- 3) Ancient diets?
- 4) Ancient climates?
- 5) Domesticated or wild species?
- 6) Hunting and butchering strategies?
- 7) Animal's season and age of death?
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Lab Work
- Clean artifacts
- Label, store, and curate the artifacts
- Publish your findings
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Finding Sites
- 1) Pedestrian Surveys
- 2) Aerial Surveys
- 3) Geophysical Methods
- 4) Excavations
- 5) Word of Mouth
- 7) Documentary Sources
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Artifact Survival
- Stone Tools: very well
- Fired Clay: very well
- Metals: gold, silver, lead: very well
- Metals: copper, bronze, iron: not well
- Organic Materials: dependent on climate
- -Tropical Climates: destructive
- -Cold and Dry Climates: good
- -Waterlogged Environments: good
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The middle paleothic
- Homo Neanderthalensis
- Homo Sapiens
- ~200,000 -- ~40,000 BP
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Neanderthals
- Discovered in 1856 in the "Neander Tal"
- Lived in Europe and SW Asia - ~230,000 to ~28,000 BP
- Brain size (>1400cc)
- Stocky with large trunks, rugged skeleton and musculature
- Large front teeth; broad faces; large brow ridges
- Made and wore clothing
- Cooperative hunters (reindeer, mammoth, and woolly rhinos)
- Tool makers (Mousterian)
- Small flaked tools (often retouched) made using the prepared core method
- Deliberate burials (concept of afterlife? religion?)
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What happended to the Neanderthals species?
- 1) Genocide
- 2) Interbreeding hypothesis
- 3) Out-competed by humans
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Homo Sapiens
- 200,000 BP
- Earliest members of our species
- Africa, Europe, and Asia
- Tool technology became more sophisticated
- Bow and arro (60,000 BP?)
- Articulated speech, cognition, self-awareness, foresight, creative and emotional expression?
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Homo Sapien Migration Timeline
- Africa – ~200,000 BP;
- Asia – ~80,000 to ~60,000 BP;
- Europe – ~40,000 BP;
- Australia – ~45,000 BP;
- North and South America – ~15,000 BP
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