Goals of Archaeology

Archaeology: Important Terms• Focuses on ___________ _____________________ ____________________

• Sites: Precise __________

Archaeology: Important Terms

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 BehaviorContribute 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 Objectives1. 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 Collectors Food 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?

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.