Chapter 3: Uncovering the Past: Analysis and Interpretation
Reconstructing past diet
Analyzing Human Remains
Cultural Change
Reconstructing past settlement patterns
Reconstructing past environments
Primary Analysis: Material Culture
Artifacts
Cleaned, Fully described, data catalogued
Some need to be conserved by special treatments. (Oetzi: iceman who started to mould while melting)
Long process, with goal of knowing: how artifact was made, decisions in making artifact, as well as the reconstruction of artifacts
Ecofacts
Faunal remains: identify most specific taxon(e.g. Bison) and the element found (e.g. Femur)
MNI(minimum number of individuals) shows the number of actual animals represented by remains
Plant Remains: identify to most specific taxon & identify most specific plant part (e.g. seeds, wood)
Taphonomy: grouping artifacts by similarities of traits. The study of changes that occur after organisms or objects after they are buried or deposited
Intrasite and intersite comparisons
Relative date of artifact & duration of use
Human Osteology
Identify if bones are human
Identify element(difficult when bones are small and fragmented)
Skeletal age indicator techniques
Macroscopic: age related degradation(fusing of epiphyses)
Microscopic: internal structure of bone, remodelling-replacing bone from wear and tear on body
Sex Determination
More difficult than aging. Only done on sexually mature adults
Children: based on development of teeth and skeleton(more accurate than adult aging)
Uses sexually dimorphic traits(pelvis & cranium)
Palaeopathology
Health and state of disease in past populations
Origins, prevalence and spread of disease
Biocultural context: biology of individual, environmental factors, cultural and social factors
Differential Diagnosis: determining all the diseases or conditions affecting an archaeological skeleton
Palaeodemography
Age and sex structure of populations
Patterns of mortality, fertility, and population growth in the past
Affected by growth and migration
Direct
Stomach contents
Coprolites
Cooking Vessels (not common)
Indirect
Faunal
Floral
Species, age, numbers
Hunting practices(strategies)
Seasonality of sites & domestication
Preservation: desiccation, frozen , anaerobic, charred
Domestication
Phytoliths, starches from cooking pots, soils, stone tools
Residues
Isotopes and trace elements: analyze human bone, nutritional levels of people over time
Stable isotopes: Trace elements, carbon ratios
Creates picture of place across time and space
Uses sediments, pollen, plant microfossils and invertebrates
Palaeoecology: Ecology change over time
Environmental archaeology: how environmental conditions affected past peoples decisions and lives(Vikings in Greenland)
Palynology: Pollen from sediments
Settlement Archaeology
Estimating Population size & growth rates
Understanding patterns of human occupation
Distribution of sites across a landscape
Relationship between structures within a site: reflects social, political structure of community; social organization families and households
Number and size of buildings= estimated population size
Artifacts and ethnographic data= families, gender, age and sex roles
Population growth and collapse
Carrying capacity: amount of organisms a given area of land can support
Distant resources less likely to be used
Decisions influenced by cultural, technological and social aspects
Funerary Archaeology
Building and furnishing of grave indicates social status
Cultures are dynamic, and change through discovery and invention inside ofr outside of society
Types of Diffusion
Direct: move through direct contact between neighbours(markets)
Intermediate: middleman brings goods or ideas from one group to another (Hopewell interaction sphere)
Stimulus: local idea of something seen or heard elsewhere (Cherokee writing system)
Acculturation: extensive cultural borrowing, uneven power relationship between two groups
Non-portable: walls, floors, etc
Portable
Features
Fossils
Foraminifera, Varges, Deep sea Oxygen isotope ratios
Geographic Information System(GIS)
Insight into attitudes, symbolism, status, trade networks, population structure, social organization