CAS AR 101 Chapter Notes - Chapter 2: Underwater Archaeology, Permafrost, Experimental Archaeology
22 Mar 2016
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Artifacts- objects used, modified, or made by people (stone tools, pottery, metal weapons) ~pictorial decorations can be used to discover design styles or typology and can tell us stuff about ancient beliefs ecofacts- organic and environmental remains not made by humans (skeletons, animal bones, and plant remains) ~these can tell us what people ate or the environmental conditions they lived in features- non portable artifacts such as hearths, postholes, and storage pits: it is important to look at the context of of a find . Matrix > the material surrounding it like gravel, sand, or clay) Provenience > horizontal or vertical position within the matrix. *looters often dig up sites indiscriminately without recording matrix, provenience, or associations. *archeologists must be able to recognize that some material may not be in its primary context because of shifted material by previous archeologists. *forces of nature also destroy primary context of artifacts taphonomy- the study of the formation processes.
