AR101 Unit 2

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Wilfrid Laurier University *

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AR101

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History

Date

Oct 30, 2023

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docx

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Pompeii's People:  UNESCO world heritage site, popular Italian attraction  Remains of a wealthy roman city famous for lavish villas  Population estimated 10-20k people in 79AD Event:  2 days in 79AD  Pompeii is buried under a rain of ash and stone  Caused by the explosive eruption of Mount Vesuvius  Stratovolcano- conical, built up of many layers, common in subduction zones  Critical volume of magma and gas caused breach of plug-in vent  Pyroclastic flow= ground-hugging avalanche of fragmented volcanic materials  Travels at speeds up to 160+km/h 1000 degree C UNIT 2 RESERACH PROCESS AND BASIC FIELD METHODS Who gets to do archaeology in Ontario?  License holders, professionals, applied research, avocational, marine, applicants certified in another jurisdiction  Ontario Heritage Act: it is illegal for anyone but a licensed archaeologist to knowingly disturb an archaeological site. This means that unless you are a licensed archaeologist, it is illegal for you to dig an archaeological site or dive on a shipwreck to record its condition or remove and keep artifacts- Ministry of tourism, culture and sport  Cemetaries Act- prohibits disturbance of burial sites, those who discover and have knowledge of a burial site must contact either the coroner or police immediately What to do if you find a artifact or site in Ontario?  Leave artifact in place  Context is very important in a find and if you remove it you're removing the context  Pre 19 th century requires 3 or more finds to declare it a site  19 th century requires 10 or more finds to declare it a site  Take a photo  Requires Borden number  Contact ministry of tourism, culture and sport

Research vs Rescue (Salvage, CRM) Archaeology Research:  Site not subject to immediate threat  Selected by archaeologists/ descendants based on suitability to answer research questions  Perceived benefits outweigh whole or partial destruction of original site, and loss to future generations Cultural Resouces Management:  Excavate and record as much as possible prior to development  Today most digs are rescue excavation, take place within the framework of the planning process  May result in only small parts of sites investigated rather than whole sites Stage 1: Background study and property inspection  Determine potential for archaeological sites  Review geographical features and land use, other historical information, previously identified sites for area  Inspect current conditions  Report to MTCS Historical information  Oral tradition  Ethnography – Jesuit relations, a collection of letters and reports written by jesuit missionaries during the 17 th century in new France and other parts of the new world Ontario public register of archaeological reports and Ontario archaeological sites database (MTCS)  As a condition of license, archaeologists document results of field work by filing report with ministry  3000 reports annually, 22000 on file  800-1000 site annually  includes site location, type of site, history of research, cultural affinities, artifact collection location, research date, and other information Stage 2: Property Assessment  Identifies the location of any archaeological resources of cultural value  Requires survey of property  Archaeologist and ministry determine significance of finds and whether further intervention required  Ex: Drone surveillance, metal detecting Surface/ Pedestrian Survey:

 Ideal conditions, recently ploughed field followed by rainfall  Brings remains to surface, exposed by washing dirt away  Systemic search ex: advancing line 5m apart  Record location of each find ex:GPS, transit  Limitations include disturbance from plough, visibility and background noise Shovel Test Pit Survey  Overgrown fields, forests, other that can't be ploughed  When surface visibility is poor and/or undisturbed  Systemic search advancing line 5m apart  Digging 30cm wide pits to subsoil, sift soils for artifacts  Limitations missed evidence Stage 3: Site Specific Assessments  For all sites with archaeological resources of cultural significance  Further background research and field work  Determine size, map limits of site, investigate other characteristics to evaluate cultural significance Excavation – Strategies  Aim to uncover, identify, date and by understanding the formation process interpret each archaeological context on the site  2 key elements of any excavation are vertical sequence and horizontal layout Excavation – Strategies: Open Area  Extent of features determines the seize of excavation  Diggin may take place over several seasons  Good for recognition of spatial patterning over large areas  Complete structures can be studied, relationships between features clarified, full understanding of horizontal relationships  Stratigraphy recorded as excavation occurs, reconstructed later  Best for single component sites that are relatively shallow Excavation – Strategies: Planum  Use when clear stratification is lacking making identification of contexts problematic  Excavators place off a predetermined thickness of deposit across a unit  Map and photograph the revealed surface and then repeat the process Excavation – Soil Samples  Recovery of Enviromental remains to reconstruct past environment  Burials are very important to take soil samples from  Samples taken from locations such as pits, ditches and other diagnostic features or layers

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Recording – Borden System  A coding system recording location of archaeological sites and tracking finds  Upper case letters represent intervals of 2 degrees latitude and 4 degrees longitude  Lowercase letters represent 10-minute intervals used to create a smaller grid square within the larger grid Recording – Field  Mapping is key to the accurate recording of data  Datum – a fixed point in 3-dimensional space that serves as a reference point for all horizontal and vertical measurements taken at an archaeological site  Grid system – used to record the exact locations of artifacts/ Eco facts/ features accurately, both horizontally and vertically  Observations and descriptions are recorded on standardized forms, notebooks, journals  Finds are documented in situ using photography, videography  Piece plotting, horizontal and vertical location of finds are plotted on plans and profiles  When finds are removed this information is also recorded on the containers housing the finds (ex: Borden #, unit #, level) Recovery – Screening  Screening methods used are determined by the nature of the site and the expected finds  Standard screen size is ½ inch  1/8 inch for small finds like beads  Water screening with window mesh for tiny finds Recovery – Flotation  A way to recover small artifacts and Eco facts based on their buoyancy  Involves putting soil samples into water  Light fraction – things that are lighter will float to the surface o Ex: plant remains  Water is drained from the top through a sequence of increasingly fine mesh sieves  Heavy fraction – non-floating materials and soils drop to the bottom of the container Analysis – Material Culture  Sort  To wash or not to wash?  Distinguish between alterations due to burial environments and human modifications (taphonomy)  Cataloguing provides a permanent link between artifact and context  Conservation includes cleaning, repair and stabilization  Classification and data collection  Curation

Dating – Techniques Relative Methods:  Stratigraphy  Seriation or chronology building  Cross-dating  Bone chemistry Absolute Methods:  Calendars  Historical chronologies  Dendrochronology  radiometric Relative Dating – Techniques: Stratigraphy, Seriation, Cross- Dating  Surface decoration changes most rapidly, lends to be the best chronological indicator  Least affected by functional or technological requirements  Variation may reflect either temporal or spatial distance  The smaller the study area the more likely to reflect passage of time  Cross-dating used when unable to use seriation  Involves comparison with other well documented artifact sequences from same geographical area  Assumes cultural connections Absolute Dating Techniques – Dendrochronology  Andrew Douglass (1867-1962)  Based on annual growth rings in tress  Assigns calendar ages to ancient wood samples  Andrew Douglas (1867-1962)  Based on living trees and tree stumps that spanned 500 years  Later sequence expanded by sampling ancient beams in pueblo sites  Cross-dating used to assign exact year of formation to each ring  Requires a minimum of 20 rings  Trees must reflect climate change  Region specific  There must be a clear association between datable specimen and cultural behavior

Absolute Dating – Techniques: Radiocarbon  discovered by William Libby, chemist in 1949  only organic materials i.e. plant remains, bone no more than 45,000 years old  measures the number of beta emissions over a measured interval of time e.g. emission rates are high if a young sample, rates are low if an older sample  atmospheric radiocarbon has changed over the last 20,000 years  use correlations between tree rings and radiocarbon levels  archaeologists calibrate dates-convert radiocarbon years into calendar years Interpretation  Triangulation, a powerful technique that facilitates validation of data through verification from more than two sources Limits of Scientific Data and ethical responsibilities as researchers  Piltdown man – the world's greatest archaeological hox – Charles Dawson  Archaeologists need to be responsible  Dissemniate results in an unbiased manner  Recognize limitation of their data, methods and inferences Artifact Curation in Archaeological Research  over 150 years of archaeological investigation in Ontario  “keep everything” mentality  amassed enormous collections of artifacts & remains  inventoried, packed, stored & secured in climate-controlled environments into perpetuity  now experiencing a ‘curation Crisis' Artifact Curation in Archaeological Research – Sustainable Archaeology  Theoretical approach advocating lessening the archaeological footprint  Facilities at Mcmaster and. UWO for curation, study of collections  Makes collections accessible to everyone  Still limitations on space available, costly $$$ Artifact Curation in Archaeological Research – Private Collection  Private collection kept by farmers and looters  Reported to government Artifact Curation in Archaeological Research – Catch and Release  Artifacts found are studied in situ  Then left/reburied in original place  Limitation: loss of data, error

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