Archaeology

What is Archaeology? Study of past human life and activities by the recovery and examination of remaining material evidence. It is a sub field of anthropology - study of humans both past and present. Supplies the information that written history leaves out.

Archaeologists DO NOT: Study dinosaurs. Just look for pretty or valuable objects. Just pick up artifacts. Spend all their time just digging. Buy, sell, or put a price on artifacts. Many people have the wrong idea about what archeologists do. But before we learn what they do, lets learn what they don’t do. Archeologists do not study dinosaurs, that is paleontology. We do not just look for pretty or valuable objects. Every day, seemingly boring items can tell a lot about a person or group. We don’t just pick up the artifacts we find. Archaeologists must take notes, take photographs, and make maps so that we can recreate how objects are associated or in relation to one another. The placement of items can tell us what an item may have been used for, not just what the item is. We do not spend all our time digging, that’s actually a minor part of the process—we spend most of our time analyzing artifacts. We do not buy, sell or put a price on artifacts; professional archaeologists consider this unethical. If you ask an archaeologist they will tell you what something is if they can, but they will not tell you what it’s worth.

The Evidence Pottery Stone artifacts Animal bones Insects, snails and fish Human remains and teeth Pollen Plant remains

How Does it Survive? Many factors affect an artifact’s survival: Climate Type of soil Speed at which something is buried Extent to which they are disturbed after burial. Organic or inorganic

Organic Materials Require special conditions in order to survive. Hot and dry Extremely cold/frozen Waterlogged environments - bogs, wells, bodies of water.

Bad Conditions Tropical climates Acidic Soil Rainforests grow rapidly Destroy bone and wood

Relative Dating Methods Used for getting an approximate age. Stratigraphy the study of rock layers and their relative ages. Law of Superposition - rocks in the deepest layers are older than the rocks near the surface. Some layers take longer to form than others. Ex: shale vs. sand

Biostratigraphy Helps determine the dates of rock layers based on the fossils found within. Works with stratigraphy. Based on sequence of change for various animals. Ex: Pigs’ molar teeth

Absolute Dating Used to get specific dates of artifacts using scientific methods. Tree ring dating Each ring represents one year. Thinner rings indicate a poor growth season. Useful for identifying environmental patterns.

Carbon-14 Type of radioactive dating method. All living things contain carbon-14 (C-14). Upon death, C-14 begins to disappear. After 5730 years, half of it has decayed. Cannot be used on objects older than 50 000 years.

Potassium-argon (K-Ar) Type of radioactive dating Decays into argon gas in volcanic rocks. Much like C-14, except slower rate of decay. Takes 1.3 billion years for half of the original to decay.

Thermoluminescence Useful for dating pottery, flint rocks,cooking hearths, etc. Pottery contains radioactive elements that escape in the form of light energy when heated to 500º C or more. To determine the date, a sample is reheated and TL measured. Suitable for objects up to 80 000 years old.