Archaeology involves the analysis of material remains from past human cultures to understand how people lived. Archaeologists study artifacts, features, and ecofacts found at excavation sites. Relative dating techniques like stratigraphy and seriation are used to sequence finds chronologically without absolute dates, while absolute methods like radiocarbon dating provide specific ages. After excavation, artifacts undergo processing including classification and analysis to infer patterns of ancient behavior and human development over time. This helps archaeologists reconstruct past lifeways and cultures.

1. ARCHAEOLOGY
A way to see and learn about past
human cultures through the
analysis of material remains

2. Prehistoric archaeology
• study of eras and societies for which
there is no written record
Historic archaeology
• Studies societies for which written
records exist
• Reaches beyond documents to try to
understand and recreate people’s day-
to-day lives

3. Archaeologists study material remains
(physical traces of human action in the world)
• Artifacts: things touched by humans
• Features: human modifications in
landscape (houses, hearths, pits, fields,
roads...)
• “Ecofacts”: objects of non-cultural origin
(seeds, pollen, bones, shell…)

4. Material remains are byproducts of learned,
shared, cognitively structured behavior
Patterning in material record reflects cultural
behavior in a systematic way
– Archaeology aims to reconstruct these patterns
and explain their meaning in telling stories
about the past.

5. Potsherd
Potsherds are historic
or prehistoric
fragments of pottery.
Value:
• diagnostic characteristics
• high resistance to natural
destructive processes
To study potsherds is to
study technology and
resources

6. The grid system
Most commonly used
plan for excavation and
site study
• to excavate is to destroy
• grid: a network of
uniformly spaced squares
used to divide a site into
units
• measures and records the
position of artifacts and
features across a site

7. Archaeologists do three things:
1. Reconstruct
How did people live at some moment of the
distant past?
2. Chronologize
Put these moments in order: How did
history/pre-history change over time?
3. Hypothesize
Explain these changes over time
Exhaustively test these hypotheses

8. How do artifacts become buried?
1. Nature buries
Water is the most common burial tool
(especially flooding)
Land slides
Wind moves dirt, sand
Organisms: plants, earthworms, small
mammals
How do artifacts become buried?

9. How do artifacts become buried?
2. People bury
a. We bury our dead

11. How do artifacts become buried?
2. People bury
b. We bury our garbage

14. How do artifacts become buried?
2. People bury
c. We bury votive offerings

16. Bronze animal statuettes
Olympia, Greece c.800 BCE

18. How do artifacts become buried?
2. People bury
d. We bury treasure

19. What do archaeologists generally find?
Not much organic material
– wood, cloth, leather,
basketry, paper: all will decay
Durable artifacts
– stone construction
– stone or metal tools
– pottery
– patterns on the land

20. What do archaeologists generally find?
Basketry impressions
on potsherds

21. What do archaeologists generally find?
Ethnobotanical remains

22. What do archaeologists generally find?
Zooarchaeological remains

23. Preservation
Obviously, some environments are more
conducive to archaeological preservation.

24. Preservation
Extremely dry environments
inhibit growth of mold, bacteria
e.g. Egypt, Peruvian highlands

25. Preservation
Certain wet environments
preserve organic material
e.g. peat bogs, underwater
sites

26. Preservation
Frozen environments
e.g. mountaintops, Alaska, Siberia

27. Preservation
Odd circumstances
e.g. caves, climate change

28. How are sites found?
90% are discovered
accidentally.

29. How are sites found?
Other methods:
Ancient writings
– Mt. Ararat, Eden?
Satellite images
– Egyptian cities;
Road to Ubar
Oral traditions
Walls/foundations
Maps/documents
90% are discovered
accidentally.

30. How are sites destroyed?
1. Decomposition
Organic vs. inorganic

31. How are sites destroyed?
2. Vandalism

34. How are sites destroyed?
3. Looting

35. How are sites destroyed?
4. “Progress” (Human development)
Ten ancient tombs from the Six Dynasties (220-589) were
destroyed to make way for this Nanjing IKEA in 2007

36. How are sites destroyed?
5. Bad archaeology
Discovering Troy: Dynamite!

37. How are sites destroyed?
6. Environmental disasters
Natural or man-made

38. How are sites destroyed?
7. War and upheaval
The Buddhas of Bamiyan: Carved in
the 6th Century C.E., they couldn’t
survive the Taliban in 2001

39. How are sites destroyed?
8. Time

40. How do we best preserve artifacts?
1. Use care and caution
2. Wear gloves
3. Limit exposure to deteriorating
factors
- light, air, moisture, airborne
pollutants, pests
4. Use suitable containers
5. Limit access
On a micro level:

41. How do we best preserve artifacts?
On a macro level:
Institutional protection

42. Antiquities Act (1906)
Theodore Roosevelt and
forward-looking legislators
wrote federal legislation
protecting archaeological sites
Be it enacted by the Senate and
House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress
assembled, That any person who
shall appropriate, excavate, injure, or
destroy any historic or prehistoric ruin
or monument, or any object of
antiquity, situated on lands owned or
controlled by the Government of the
United States…

43. National Historic
Preservation Act
(1966)
The Act establishes
preservation as a national
policy and directs the Federal
government to provide
leadership in preserving,
restoring and maintaining the
historic and cultural
environment of the Nation.
Preservation is defined as the
protection, rehabilitation,
restoration, and
reconstruction of districts,
sites, buildings, structures,
and objects significant in
American history,
architecture, archeology, or
engineering.

44. Archaeological sites are non-renewable
Once destroyed, these sites and
objects can never be recreated.

45. Archaeology is incomplete
WEAKNESSES:
The most interesting and
informative components of
are not material culture.
– Politics, myth/religion,
social structure can only
be studied indirectly
– Overreliance on individuals’
interpretation

46. Archaeology is incomplete
STRENGTHS:
Material culture does not
lie.
What we leave behind shows
how we actually lived, not
merely how we want to be
remembered.
Examining a living society
often focuses too closely on
ideal culture.

47. 3.
2.
1.
4.

48. 7.
6.
5.
8.

49. 6.
9.
10.

50. What can we learn from pottery?
Pottery is common
1. Dates to 6000 BCE
2. It broke easily
3. It wasn’t reused
4. It wasn’t looted
Pottery was common
1. Used in all parts of life
2. Technique/resources
Pottery’s style changed
often

52. The grid system
Most commonly used
plan for excavation and
site study
• to excavate is to destroy
• grid: a network of
uniformly spaced squares
used to divide a site into
units
• measures and records the
position of artifacts and
features across a site
3-D grids also allow
digital recreation of
excavation sites.
Digital photogrammetic recreation

53. Relative dating
Relative dating allows us to put things in chronological order.
Relative dating relies on context, and doesn’t give you an
artifact or site’s exact age.
Also known as seriation.

54. Relative dating: Patination
Patina is the outermost
surface of an artifact
Patina is the result of
chemical, physical, and/or
biological change in
response to soil and
environmental conditions
Patination is the
measurement and analysis
of this outer layer.
(It kind of pins down erosion.)

55. Using patination: the moai of Rapa Nui (Easter Island)

56. Relative dating: Law of superposition
Usually it means that what’s on top is youngest. Assists us
in analyzing stratigraphy.

57. Relative dating: Rate of accumulation
Best described as a product of erosion. What we can learn
from the gathering of sediment in layers of rock and soil.

58. Relative dating: Biostratigraphy
the use of fossils to relatively
date the strata of rock in which
they are found

59. Relative dating: Fluorine absorption
Fluorine exists in
most groundwater.
Fluorine is absorbed
into bones over
time.
More fluorine =
older bones.
This is a chemical
test, but it’s still
relative.

60. Relative dating: Pollen dating analysis
AKA archaeological
palynology
Pollen is remarkable in
its resistance to decay
Scientists examine
pollen concentrations
across the strata to
draw other assumptions
about each layer

61. Absolute dating
Absolute dating allows us to get to (or near) an artifact or
site’s specific age.
Also known as chronometric dating
Most common method: radioactivity

62. Absolute dating: Dendrochronology
Dendroarchaeology is the use of tree rings to date when
timber has been transported, processed, felled or used in
construction.

63. Absolute dating: Radiocarbon dating
Measures organic material
like wood, charcoal, marine
and fresh-water shell, bone,
and antler.
Radiocarbon is absorbed by
plants through the air
Animals eat plants and take
C14 into their bodies.
When a living organism dies
it quits absorbing C14 and
starts to disintegrate.
Scientists measure
the C14 that is left.

64. Absolute dating: Archaeomagnetism
Relies on measuring
Geomagnetic polarity
Magnetic north changes
slowly (but consistently)
over time.
Any time ferromagnetic
materials are melted and
cool, they “point” to
magnetic north.
Mainly applies to clay
ovens and fire pits

65. Absolute dating: Potassium-Argon
Potassium-argon (K-Ar) dating is the measurement of the
accumulation of argon in a mineral.
As potassium decays, argon is accumulated.

66. What to do with excavated data?
1. Collect
One hour in the field vs.
appx. four hours in the lab
Identify and isolate
artifacts

67. What to do with excavated data?
2. Integrate
How and where does this
fit in with what we already
know?

68. What to do with excavated data?
2. Integrate
How and where does this
fit in with what we already
know?

69. What to do with excavated data?
3. Data-driven
inference
What new patterns of
ancient behavior can
we distill?
Integrated data serves
as an explanation of
patterns in cultural
terms

70. Processing and classification
Sorting into broad
categories (tools,
pottery, metal objects)
Typology: grouping
artifacts with similar
attributes
Example: point typology of
arrowheads

71. Processing and classification
Surface attributes
include decoration,
pattern, and color
Shape attributes
include size, dimension,
and shape (duh)
Technological attributes
address the transformation of
raw material