ARCH 100 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Conchoidal Fracture, Taphonomy, Bioturbation

• School: Simon Fraser University
• Department: Archaeology
• Course: ARCH 100
• Professor: David Maxwell

Document Summary

The study of past humans behaviours based on materials they left behind. Remote sensing=gives archeologists a better idea of where items are situated. Digging small amounts at a time, arbitrary in depth. Allows archaeologist to keep better records of where stuff is found. After excavation, careful records are made of different layers of soil, their consistency and colour. Soil is run through mesh of different sizes, to ensure small items aren"t missed. Ojects are sorted, cleaned, preserved, classi ed and analyzed. Lab analysis takes 5-10 times as much time as work and excavation. A portable object that has been modi ed by humans (ancestral human) behaviour. Non-portable artifacts ie. re pits, are called features. Impact of one stone on another to produce a distinctive type of fracture. These breakages occur rarely in nature > man made by tools. It is rare for natural factors to produce artifacts mimic it is not impossible.