ANT100Y1 Lecture : Archaeology - Notes from Every Lecture

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ANT100Y1 Full Course Notes
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Document Summary
Three elements of archaeological research: observed material culture, unobserved (past) human/non-human activity. Material evidence: physical, artifacts, features, ecofacts, spatial, activity areas, sites, regions. Any portable object whose form has been shaped, i. e. manufactured or modified by way of human utility. Can be further subdivided into macrofossils and microfossils. Macrofossils: visible to naked eye, retrieved through flotation or normal excavation procedures. Microfossils: pollen, phytoliths, found in soils or residues, adhering to artifacts, 200x magnification. Archaeological site can be defined in a number of ways consists of a collection of activity areas containing one of the following: artifacts, ecofacts, features. Physical location in three-dimensional space site level: grid system regional level: map, co-ordinates, settlement features. Natural agencies, e. g. soil composition, environment, temperature, disturbance by animals (taphonomic processes) Finding sites field methods subsurface technologies excavation: recovering archaeological data. Stratigraphy: the analytical process by which we order layers and features chronologically, based on the law of superposition.