ASU ASB 222 EXAM 1
Archaeology - Answer- talking rationally about ancient things
How old does something need to be for archaeologists to study it? - Answer- 3.3 million years ago to 5.4 thousand years ago
What do archaeologists do? - Answer- •Collect evidence systematically
•Conduct e...
ASU ASB 222 EXAM 1
Archaeology - Answer- talking rationally about ancient things
How old does something need to be for archaeologists to study it? - Answer- 3.3
million years ago to 5.4 thousand years ago
What do archaeologists do? - Answer- •Collect evidence systematically
•Conduct experiments
•Formulate hypotheses to account for data
•Test hypotheses against more data
•Come-up with interpretations / models: descriptions that best summarize the
patterns observed in data
•Are always aware that their data depend on their assumptions
•They are responsible for the protection of the material they unearth and towards the
people who may be affected
What are the responsibilities of the archaeologist? - Answer- •Discovery of past
material remains (material culture)
•
•Scientific analysis of these remains and their ordering in space and time
•
•Exercise in creative imagination combined with painstaking task of interpretation, so
that we understand 'what it all means' for the human story
•
•Responsibility of conserving the world's cultural heritage against looting and
unnecessary destruction
•Responsibility towards the public
What ideas needed to be accepted for modern archaeology to begin? - Answer- 1)
Great antiquity of humanity
2) Darwin's principle of evolution
3) Three Age System for organizing material
What did these newly accepted ideas provide archaeology? - Answer- •Human
cultures evolve, like plants and animals do
•
•We can devise schemes to describe the evolution of artifact forms
•
•Typology
What does the Law of Uniformitarianism state? - Answer- that the same processes
that shaped the earth in the past still shape it today
What does the law of superposition state? - Answer- new rock forms on top of older
rock
, What did the Three Age System allow us to do? - Answer- By studying artifacts you
can produce chronological ordering
What new innovations quickly changed archaeology after World War II? - Answer-
•Important new scientific techniques for dating (C14) and reconnaissance (air
photography)
•
•Development of ecology with its focus on human adaptation to environment and
focus on wide regions
What kinds of questions did New/Processual Archaeology ask?
Why did they start asking these questions?
How did archaeology change? - Answer- Ask not only what and when, but also
WHY, to explain the process of change
Change can come from within!
Focus on adaptation & large scale
What did Post-Processual Archaeology teach us about the study of the past? -
Answer- •Why depends on who's asking the question!
•There is not ONE objective truth, neither one explanation
•There are multiple interpretations
•Focus on individual + small scale
•Multivocality
•Responsibility to today
archaeological record - Answer- The source of information for archaeologists
What is the difference between primary and secondary context? - Answer-
PRIMARY CONTEXT-Things are deposited in the context where they were first
made or used
Secondary Context-•Things are removed from where they were first made or used
and deposited somewhere else
What are cultural formation processes? - Answer- change the materials within the
archaeological record itself
What are some examples of cultural formation processes? - Answer- Intentional
destruction of cultural heritage, looting, construction
What are natural formation processes? - Answer- change the materials within the
archaeological record itself
What are some examples of natural formation processes? - Answer- natural causes
such as animals, erosion, etc
What are preservation processes? - Answer- affect the survival of materials remains
in the archaeological record
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