ANTH100 Lecture Notes - Lecture 13: Lithosphere, Bioarchaeology, Taphonomy

• School: University of Waterloo
• Department: Anthropology
• Course: ANTH100
• Professor: Nancy Barrickman

Document Summary

Archaeology: material culture, bioarchaeology (bones, not fossils!) Finding sites: look for patterns on land, where people would most likely live. Salvaging areas before a building will be built. Excavation: archaeologists only want to take samples from a site. Some sites can preserve certain materials/objects better then others. Patterns of habitation across a landscape, trade, material distribution across a site (mittens) Taphonomy: study of process of transformation from the biosphere to the lithosphere. Provenience: location of finds, datum, 3d coordinates, detailed maps. Fossilization: process in which organic elements of bone or other material are mineralized (replaced by inorganic material) mineralization. (die/decay/get trampled) essential element = burial, fossilization is rare. Are rocks natural or modified? you typically find bits and pieces (puzzles), not full remains bones and other tissues (human and nonhuman remains) Ecofacts: tell you what the environment was like during that particular time period. Labs: analysis, you compare/contrast materials found in the dig.