What’s Left? Material What’s Left? Material Evidence and Their Evidence and Their

PreservationPreservation

- announcements- announcements

- questions mid-term (recap)- questions mid-term (recap)

- Ch. 2- Ch. 2

Basic categories of archaeological Basic categories of archaeological finds:finds:

1. artefacts: portable objects used, modified or made by 1. artefacts: portable objects used, modified or made by people: tools, pottery, metal weapons, jewellery etc.people: tools, pottery, metal weapons, jewellery etc.

2. features: non-portable objects, so humanly modified 2. features: non-portable objects, so humanly modified parts of a site that are non-portable: hearths, postholes, parts of a site that are non-portable: hearths, postholes, storage pits, ditches, soils, sediments etc.storage pits, ditches, soils, sediments etc.

3. organic and environmental remains or ‘ecofacts’ that 3. organic and environmental remains or ‘ecofacts’ that are not objects: textiles, animal bones, skeletons, plant are not objects: textiles, animal bones, skeletons, plant remains, soils, sediments (material deposited in the remains, soils, sediments (material deposited in the earth’s surface) earth’s surface)

Archaeological site: place where all these characteristics are Archaeological site: place where all these characteristics are found or where significant traces of human activity can found or where significant traces of human activity can be foundbe found

Region: group of sitesRegion: group of sites

Tell Halula, Syria

Sedgebury Camp,

Iron Age site, England

ContextContext

Primary Context: Primary Context: original contextoriginal context

Secondary Context:Secondary Context:

Context disturbedContext disturbed by by humans/nature recently humans/nature recently

or in the pastor in the past

Context

Matrix

Provenience

Other finds

Formation Processes

2. Natural transformation processes (N-transforms): ‘natural events that govern burial and survival of archaeological record’

a. Inorganic materials

b. Organic materials: only survival in exceptional circumstances – natural disasters, extremely dry, cold or wet conditions (waterlogged environments)

1. Cultural formation processes (C-transforms): ‘deliberate or accidental activities of human beings’

a. original human behaviour: tools, buildings

b. deliberate burial: hoard/burial of the dead

c. human destruction of archaeological record

Quiz!Quiz!1. Cultural or natural formation process?1. Cultural or natural formation process?2. If cultural formation process:2. If cultural formation process:

a. original human behavioura. original human behaviourb. deliberate burialb. deliberate burialc. human destructionc. human destruction

If natural formation process:If natural formation process: a. is the find organic?a. is the find organic? b. is the find inorganic?b. is the find inorganic?

and: How has it been preserved?and: How has it been preserved?a. Dry conditionsa. Dry conditions

b. Wet conditionsb. Wet conditionsc. Cold conditionsc. Cold conditionsd. Natural disasterd. Natural disastere. Othere. Other

gold coins found in London, 1st century CE (Roman)

gold coins from ship wreck, 1865

Lindow Man (C-14 date: 2 BCE-119 CE), found at Lindow Moss, England in 1984

Iron Age burial

Caves of Lascaux, France (17,000 years old!), discovered in 1940

Vindolanda tablets (wood), Roman period,

England

Discovered in 1973

Plough marks, Etruria, Italy

Tollund Man, found near Silkeborg in Denmark in 1950 (C-14 date:

350 BCE)

Man found in desert sand of Egypt, 3000

BCE

Dead Sea scrolls, Qumran, Israel

(third to first centuries BCE)

Found in 1947

Discovery of thousands of papyri at Oxyrhynchus, Egypt, from 1896

onwards

Buddha statues of Bamiyan (Afghanistan) destroyed by Taliban March 1, 2001

Ötzi the Iceman, found in 1991 (c. 3300 BCE)