Classical Studies 2500A/B Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Radiocarbon Dating, Social Stratification, Collective Identity
13 Sep 2016
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Document Summary
Key component of pottery is that it helps us date the levels of the archaeological layers that we"re finding. We know what types and what forms were used at diff times at any given site/region. So if we"re finding an abundance of pottery at that level, we can say that matches a certain date. Pottery originates from around 7000-6800 bc; at that point we can date sites closely. Also one of the windfalls of human history; neolithic rev/agricultural revolution at around 8000. Bc, and then around 7000 bc they control pottery. What we usually find are just pottery sherds, not whole pots; just pieces of pottery. Shard in archaeology describes glass, sherd is ceramic. We take this pottery and decipher what the shape of the pot actually was; if there are designs on the outside it"s easier to match. There are people who only do archaeological illustrations of pottery. Artefacts are anything man-made (item of pottery or metal)
