The Dimensions of Archaeology: Time, Space, and Form

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Chapter 9

• The Dimensions of Archaeology Time, Space, and
  Form

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Outline

• After the Excavation Conservation and Cataloging
• Archaeological Classification
• Space-Time Systematics
• Conclusion Space-Time Systematics and
  Archaeological Objectives

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Patterns Time and Space

• Archaeologists document patterns in how material
  culture changes through time and across space.
• Organizing data into meaningful patterns is vital
  to the field of archaeology.

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After the Excavation Conservation and Cataloging

• As a rule of thumb, for every week spent
  excavating, archaeologists spend 3 to 5 weeks or
  more cleaning, conserving, and cataloging the
  finds.
• Cataloging is essential.
• Without the catalog, provenience is lost, and
  without provenience an artifacts value to future
  researchers is greatly reduced.

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Typology

• Classification of artifacts into types.
• Archaeologys basic unit of classification is
  termed a type.
• Types are abstractions imposed by the
  archaeologist on a variable batch of artifacts.
• We formulate a classification with a specific
  purpose in mind.

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Three Major Types of Types

• Morphological - A descriptive grouping of
  artifacts whose focus is on similarity rather
  than function or chronological significance.
• Temporal types are morphological types that have
  specific chronological meaning for a particular
  region.
• Functional types reflect how objects were used in
  the past.

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Two Prehistoric Stone Disks Excavated from
Ventana Cave
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Doing Typology

• A good typology possesses two crucial
  characteristics
• Minimize the differences within each created type
  and maximize the differences between each type.
• The typology must be objective and explicit. This
  means that the result should be replicable by any
  trained observer.

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A Great Basin Projectile Point and Some Data
Recorded From It
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Attribute

• A characteristic that distinguishes one artifact
  from another based on
• Size
• Surface texture
• Form
• Material
• Method of manufacture
• Design pattern

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Relationship between Attributes of Weight and
Proximal Shoulder Angle for the Great Basin
Projectile Points
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Mousterian

• A culture from the Middle Paleolithic (Middle
  Old Stone Age) period that appeared throughout
  Europe after 250,000 and before 30,000 years ago.
  
• Mousterian artifacts are frequently associated
  with Neanderthal human remains.

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Projectile Point Key Central Great Basin
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North American Culture Areas
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Southwestern Archaeological Cultures, or
Traditions
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Phase

• A block of time that is characterized by one or
  more distinctive artifact types.
• Example a particular kind of pottery, housing
  style, and/or projectile point
• Phases are defined by temporal types, items of
  material culture that show patterned changes over
  time.

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Assemblages and Components

• Archaeological sites consist of assemblages,
  collections of artifacts recovered from some unit
  of provenience.
• We might then cluster these assemblages into
  components.
• A component is considered a culturally
  homogeneous unit within a single site.

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Relationship of Archaeological Sites to Concepts
of Component and Phase
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Time-space Systematics
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Quick Quiz
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• 1. Cataloging is essential, because
• archaeologists spend so much time on this process
  
• without this step, data would decay
• without the catalog, provenience is lost
• All of the above.

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Answer C

• Cataloging is essential because without the
  catalog, provenience is lost.
• Without provenience an artifacts value to future
  researchers is greatly reduced.

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• 2. ______ is the classification of artifacts into
  types.

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Answer typology

• Typology is the classification of artifacts into
  types.

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• 3. Archaeological sites consist of ________,
  collections of artifacts recovered from some unit
  of provenience, that are then clustered into
  _______.

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Answerassemblages, components

• Archaeological sites consist of assemblages,
  collections of artifacts recovered from some unit
  of provenience, that are then clustered into
  components