ANTH 003 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Moe Williams, Paleoethnobotany, Acheulean
9 May 2020
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Document Summary
Goal of excavation is to recover materials, as well as uncovering sites. All material is put through screens most are quarter inch screens, but sometimes you get smaller screens when you"re looking for finer material like fish bones. Speed at which you"re digging determines how much you"re going to find balance of cost efficiency. Soil matrix also affects recovery clay will take a lot longer to get through than sand. Archaeobotany flotation: water is pumped in and samples are dumped in they skim it off with screens to study ancient plant remains. Tomb excavation you don"t want to ruin anything, so they called in a conservator who helped dig and they helped determine the items as remnant textile, painted stucco. Artifacts: objects created or modified by humans. Ecofacts: unmodified natural materials that are deposited as a result of human activity ex: bones as remnants of humans eating.
