ARKY 201 Lecture Notes - Lecture 16: Ethnohistory, Ethnoarchaeology, Basalt
Wednesday, October 5, 2016
Archeological Dating
-only works on clay
INCLINATION AND DECLINATION
POTASSIUM -ARGON (K-AR ) dating
•uses the rate of decay of a radioactive form of potassium (^40 K )into argon (^40 Ar)
•can date samples from 50,000 to 2 billion years old
•works on : the minerals and rocks surrounding a fossil
•does not date the fossil itself.
•date the strata
URANIUM - BASED METHODS
-Uranium Series dating
•measures the decay of uranium isotopes found in calcium carbonate deposits
•Uranium (255 U and 238 U ) decays into other isotopes (such as 230 Th , thorium)
•works on : limestone bedrock, cave deposits (stalagmites , flow stone)
•finds between 50,000 and 1 million years old
-Fission - Track Dating
•measures the number of uranium fission tracks in a sample (narrow trials of damage)
•works on: volcanic rocks ( basalt , obsidian)
•finds between 100,000 and 20 million years old
ANALOGY
•ANATOMY of an ATLATL AND DART
•3 types of analogy: ethnohistory , ethnoarchaeology , experimental Archaeology
•analogy- linking the various traces of human activity in the archaeology record to behaviours
•ETHNOHISTORY- is the study of the past using indigenous historical records and oral
histories
•ETHNOARCHAEOLOGY - is the study of living societies to aid in understanding and
interpreting the archaeological record
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