ARCH 2501 Second Half Study Guide PDF

ARCH 2501 Second Half Study Guide Underwater Archaeology What kinds of questions are underwater archaeologists interested in? What techniques do they use? ○ Questions: Ancient navigation, trade routes, ship construction, impact of environmental change ○ T...

ARCH 2501 Second Half Study Guide Underwater Archaeology What kinds of questions are underwater archaeologists interested in? What techniques do they use? ○ Questions: Ancient navigation, trade routes, ship construction, impact of environmental change ○ Techniques Remote sensing (sonar, magnetometers): Map seafloor (sonar) or detect buried metal objects (magnetometers) to identify shipwrecks and submerged structures without disturbing sites Underwater excavation: Digging with hand trowels or water dredges in low-visibility conditions to record sites, recover artifacts, & for stratigraphy Photogrammetry: Overlap photos to create 3D models without removing artifacts from context Scuba diving for direct exploration, mapping, documenting Uluburun Shipwreck: Discovered off the coast of Turkey, dated to 14th cent. BCE. Vast cargo of copper, ivory, glass, tin ingots. Skara Brae: Neolithic settlement on Orkney Islands (Scotland) preserved under sand. Insights into prehistoric life, housing design, resource use; often studied alongside underwater sites to understand adaptation to changing shorelines Social Archaeology Band, Tribe, Chiefdom, State (definitions and features of each) ○ Band - Small, self-sufficient, egalitarian groups with informal leadership. Members are family members and labor is divided by age & sex. Small, ephemeral sites & as many positions of prestige as possible ○ Tribe - Egalitarian, greater social/cultural integration. More sedentary and leadership is nonpermanent and charismatic. A few hundred in villages & huts; farmers/herders ○ Chiefdom - More hierarchy, permanent leadership positions, charismatic leader, kin-based. Social ranks lead to stratification, inequality, differential access. Fortification, warriors, early metallurgy, central accumulation & redist. ○ State - Centralized & permanent social/political organization encompassing many communities w/ most specialization. Bureaucracy: roles independent of leader’s ability. Tax, laws, tribute, cities (monopoly on legitimate use of force) Hierarchy vs. Heterarchy ○ Hierarchy - Top-down organizational structure with clear chain of command and vertical power relationships ○ Heterarchy - More flexible network-based structure; power distributed horizontally & elements can be ranked in multiple ways. Shared decision-making Emergence theories of complex societies ○ Cooperation 1: Hydraulic Hypothesis: Inequality/hierarchy arises through efforts to organize public works  ○ Cooperation 2: Population Growth: Need to organize to feed/manage larger populations ○ Cooperation 3: Environmental Variability/Stress: Risk-reduction strat. ○ Cooperation 4: Trade: Develops thru construction & control of regional trade ○ Coercion 1: Warfare with Environmental Circumscription: Population pressure -> fights over land. Conflict -> subordination of conquered, institutional leadership ○ Coercion 2: Class Conflict: All societies are exploitative. Hierarchies protect interest of those w/ surplus/power and state is organized to perpetuate inequality ○ Individual Agency: Political Entrepreneurs: Exceptional individuals that arise by chance and manipulate emotions/information/economics/rituals/grievances/ political structures, often for personal profit How do archaeologists identify social status in the past? Elite residences, burials. Unequal distribution of exotic resources & labor investment. Variable nutrition & health and variable work-loads Environmental Archaeology How do archaeologists study past environments? ○ O16/O18 ratios: the ratio between the light (O16) & heavy (O18) ○ isotopes of oxygen as found in ice cores, deep-sea cores, corals ○ O16:O18 chart glacial-interglacial cycles ○ Atmospheric CO2 concentrations from gas bubbles in ice ○ Phytoliths & pollen Beringia: Landbridge between Siberia & Alaska that emerged periodically during glaciations (35-11 ka) Last Glacial Maximum: ~24ka Agriculture and the environment: As population grows, deforestation increases, then soil erodes Climate change ○ Upcoming “super-interglacial” period induced by CO2. Less ice coverage and rising sea level ○ Levels of CO2 in the atmosphere surged past important threshold and may not dip below it for "many generations”. 400 ppm benchmark broken globally for first time in 2015 ○ 2021 levels of CO2 in the atmosphere reached 149% of pre-industrial levels. Methane increase is largest ever recorded ○ Extreme weather (drought, fire, storms), begets… Worse economic productivity & food production, begets… Famine & starvation, begets… Displaced people & competition for resources, begets… Social & political instability, begets… Conflict & warfare, begets… Chaos and collapse Archaeological Science What are the following methods and what are their uses?  ○ Stable Isotopes (Oxygen, Nitrogen, Carbon) - Analyzes isotopic ratios in organic/inorganic materials to infer diet, migration patterns, environmental conditions Oxygen: past climates; Nitrogen: trophic levels; Carbon: dietary sources ○ Ancient DNA - Extract genetic material from bio remains to study evolutionary relationships, population migrations, species identification ○ Elemental Analysis - Measures elemental comp. of materials (bones, soils, artifacts) to understand diet, tech processes, environmental exposure ○ Residue Analysis - Identifies chemical residues (oils, fats, plant compounds) left on artifacts to reconstruct food processing, drug use, or material production Why is Ötzi interesting to archaeological scientists? Oldest preserved human body! Scientific analysis able to show disposition to diseases, life events, origins, appearance, etc. Cultural Resource Management and Historic Archaeology NAGPRA (Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act): Law passed in 1990 that requires institutions to return human remains/funerary objects/sacred artifacts to affiliated Native American tribes Kennewick Man: 9000 y/o skeleton found in Washington in 1996 determined to be Native American after years of legal battles. Remains repatriated to local tribes in 2017 Bioarchaeology What do bioarchaeologists study, and what techniques do they use? ○ Study of human remains in arch. context ○ Techniques Burial data: Disposal location, body orientation, disposal method, sex, age, grave goods, human/non-human associations, inhumations, burial containers, trauma, paleopathology (bones w/ signs of nutritional/disease stresses like rickets, scurvy, enamel hypoplasia, harris lines, cribra orbitalia, TB, leprosy, syphilis, etc.) Ante-mortem vs. Pari-mortem vs. Post-mortem ○ Ante-mortem: Signs of healing ○ Peri-: At or shortly after time of death (no healing) ○ Post-: No healing Aging and Sexing ○ Males: Robust skull (large canines, square chin, pronounced muscle attachments, extreme supraorbital ridge). In the femur: muscle attachments and weight-bearing surfaces markedly larger in males ○ Females: Gracile skull (round chin, sharp orbital border, slight supraorbital ridge)