ANTA01H3 Lecture 4: ANTA01 Lecture 4.docx
Document Summary
Overview: y dating methods y the stuff of biological anthropology and archaeology y excavation techniques and principles y relative dating: no actual age, provides a relative ordering of material or sites. Tells you that object a is older than object b y absolute dating/chronometric dating: gives an actual chronological age, usually with an error range, it is an estimate for an object or part of a site. Relative dating y stratigraphy: sub discipline of geology: study of the sequential layering of deposits. This is what is studied by stratigraphy. y principle of super positioning: the lower layers were deposited before the upper layers. Work from the top down: but sometimes human dig into earth, creating a problem. Relative age for the materials. y goal of archaeology is not just to find cool stuff, but to interpret the stuff properly. y physical correlation: linking of geological layers (strata) based on their physical characteristics.
