Archaeology RQ Chapter 5

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Archaeology Reading Questions Chapter 5 1) What is the law of superposition? The geological principle that in any pile of sedimentary rocks that have not been disturbed by folding or overturning, each bed is older than the layers above and younger than the layers below; also known as Steno’s Law. 2) Briefly explain the geoarchaeology of the Laetoli footprints. How were they dated? A nearby volcano had erupted blanketing the Laetoli landscape with volcanic ash and then a light rainfall made it possible for the animal footprints and imprints to be solidified in the carbonatite with the fossil footprints contained in the upper portion of the Laetoli beds. The footprints themselves cannot be directly dates and geology had to be relied up for dating with the potassium-argon dating technique used to date the Laetoli footprints based on samples from the major stratified layers in the Laetoli area. The fossil hominid footprints from Laetoli are between 3.49 and 3.56 million years old. 3) What is the difference between alluvial and eolian? So what is colluvial then? Alluvial sediments are sediments transported by flowing water while eolian sediments are materials transported and accumulated by wind. Colluvial sediments are the sediments deposited primarily through the action of gravity on geological material lying on hillsides. 4) What is a soil? What are those A, B and C horizons all about? Soil – sediments that have undergone in situ chemical and mechanical alternation A horizon – the upper part of a soil, where active organic and mechanical decomposition of geological and organic material occurs B horizon – a layer found below the A horizon, where clays accumulate that are transported downward by water C horizon – a layer found below the B horizon that consists of the unaltered or slightly altered parent material; below the C horizon is bedrock

5) What is reverse stratigraphy? Why might it be more common in archaeology than geology or physical geography? Reverse stratigraphy – the result when sediment is unearthed by human or natural actions and moved elsewhere in such a way that the latest material is deposited on the bottom of the new sediment and progressively earlier material is deposited higher and higher in the stratigraphy Reverse stratigraphy is more common in archaeology then in geology or physical geography because there is a lot of excavation work done in archaeology and the ages of the artifacts in the layers of fill are in reverse order where in geology or physical geography the stratigraphy is more often not reversed but natural. 6) What is all this about systemic vs. archaeological context? Systemic context – a living behavioral system in which artifacts are part of an ongoing system of manufacture, use, reuse and discard Archaeological context – once artifacts enter the ground, they become part of the archaeological context, where they can continue to be affected by human action but are also affected by natural processes 7) List all those formation processes (in the systemic context) in the text. (They seem like the kind of list that list people like and that would make easy test questions.)  Cultural depositional processes  Reclamation processes  Cultural disturbance processes  Reuse processes 8) List all those formation processes (in the archaeological context) in the text. (They seem like the kind of list that list people like and that would make easy test questions.)  Floralturbation  Faunalturbation  Cryoturbation  Argilliturbation  Graviturbation 9) Explain what is meant by “there is no such thing as an undisturbed site.” It means that a lot can happen between the time an artifact is deposited in the ground and when an archaeologist excavates it and that formation

processes affect all archaeological sites to one extent or another. 10) So, seriously, what are we supposed to do? How do we know which sites, which features (parts of sites), and whic artifacts are “good” ones and which are not? In most sites, stratigraphy results from a complex interplay between natural and cultural processes and archaeologists must understand the difference between an artifact’s systemic and archaeological contexts to know how an artifact in the ground relates to the human behavior that is their ultimate interest.

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Archaeology RQ Chapter 5

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