AR101 Study Guide - Midterm Guide: Pathologic Fracture, Archaeological Culture, Soft Tissue

• School: WLU
• Department: Archaeology and Heritage Studies
• Course: AR101
• Professor: Max Gwynn

Document Summary

Basic principles of & approaches to excavation, recovery methods. Yields the most reliable evidence for the two main kinds of information archaeologists are interested in: human activities @ a particular period in past, changes in those activities from period to period. Contemporary activities take place horizontally in space & changes in activities occur vertically through time: form basis of most excavation methodology. Horizontal dimension: archaeologist demonstrate contemporaneity activities did indeed occur at the same time, artifacts and features are found in association in an undisturbed context. Vertical dimension: archaeologists analyze changes through time by the study of stratigraphy. The layers of cultural/natural debris visible in the side of any excavation. Accumulate over much shorter periods of time than geological ones, but conform to the same law of superposition. States that where on layer overlies another, the lower was deposited first. Refers only to the sequence of deposition, not to the age of the material in the different strata.