anth 1500 week 1

The systematic, scientific study of the human past based on the investigation of material culture in its context

A society’s shared and socially transmitted ideas, values, and perceptions

Where, When, Who, What, & Why?

Survey methods (pedestrian, test pitting), geophysical survey (sonar, resistivity) and aerial reconnaissance, remote sensing

Team based, led by a director, Specialists work with excavators

Studies plant remains

Studies animal remains

Study ancient biomolecules

Studies ancient sediments

address questions regarding change through time

address questions regarding spatial differentiation across a site

layers of cultural and natural materials accumulate one on top of another (law of superposition). Reveals sequence of deposition

The in situ location and associations (3D) of finds

Portable objects made or altered by humans

Natural plant, animal, or sediment remains resulting from human activity

Non-portable structures (houses, walls, fireplaces)

Site and settlement patterns, spatial distribution of rooms, sites, group of sites

1650, determined that the Earth was created on the nightfall before Sunday Oct 23 40004 BECAUSE

Realization of vast scales of space allowed acceptance of vast scales of time

“Theory of the Earth,” formation of sedimentary rock suggested great antiquity of Earth

James Hutton, The laws of nature are constant and do not change with time, the rate of sedimentation in oceans is very slow, due to the thickness of deposition, the world is old

Principles of Geology, documented antiquity of the Earth with work on eriosion

Belief that the bottom layer of sediment is the oldest

Origin of Species, natural selection, Discussed gradual evolutionary change in plant and animals (not humans)

recovered extinct animals in the Somme River Valley, first association of stone tools w early humans

Coined the terms Paleolithic and Neolithic in “Prehistoric Times,” applied Darwinism concepts to the archaeological record, saw moral and technological progress as inevitable and unlinear

Developed by Christian Jurgensen Thomsen

Curator of the National Museum of Denmark, arbitrary technological labels

Progress is inevitable

Savages, starving, ignorant, superstitious, & violent

Barbarians, less starving, ignorant, superstitious, & violent

Civilized, orderly, moral, wealthy, sophisticated, reasonable

Objective, Evolutionary and scientific perspective, seeks universal laws of social change, sees societies as systems with environment and technology as most significant variables

subjective, part of general trends towards postmodernism, often more particular and less universal in scope, explicit recognition of political context of archaeology, focus on role of individuals, not systems in the past

Establish a sequence of change, pace of change, and allow correlation with other phenomena

Provide a date such as (3500 B.C), can be expensive, historical texts

Provides a sequence but not the pace of change (ex older younger), used in conjunction with absolute techniques