ANTH 202 Lecture Notes - Lecture 11: Projectile Point, Spacetime, Archaeological Culture
24 Oct 2017
School
Department
Course
Professor
Document Summary
Lecture 11, 10/9/14: archaeological reckoning of time, space, & artifact and feature types. Back to basics: the general nature of archaeology. Archaeology"s major strength is its access to tremendous quantities of time and space, addressing the entire history of humanity. Archaeologists document patterns of human behavior across vast reaches of space. Archaeological records represent the only material evidence of our ancient predecessors & their activities. Archaeology affords exclusive coverage of 99% of human heritage. Only a fraction of 1% of our past is covered by written records in most parts of the world and as much as 3% in a few places, such as the middle east. Material remains of the past recovered for study by careful excavation as well as systematic screening of sediments. Artifacts: objects recovered from archaeological contexts that show traces. Features: non-portable evidence of technology; functionally related, conjoined artifacts (e. g. , hearths, architectural elements, artifact clusters, pits, burials, sediment stains) .
