Archaeological assemblage correct answers • A group of objects of different or similar types
found in close association with each other and thus considered to be the product of one people
from one period of time.
• Where the assemblage is frequently repeated and covers a reasonably full range of human
activity, it is described as a culture; where it is repeated but limited in content, e.g. flint tools
only (a set of objects in one medium), it is called an industry. When a group of industries are
found together in a single archaeological context, it is called an assemblage.
• Such a group characterizes a certain culture, era, site, or phase and it is the sum of all
subassemblages.
• Assemblage examples are artifacts from a site or feature.
Archaeological survey correct answers • The methods used to examine an area to determine if
archaeological deposits are present.
• To examine the land archeologists
o use a total station to map the site
o use a GPS system,
o used to only use a compass
o map the site then layout a grad
o every site will have a name
• survey's are often dictated by where the road goes
Ba correct answers • In ancient Egyptian religion, one of the principal aspects of the personality
-- the soul -- along with ka and akh.
• The ba, which was freed from the body at death, stood for the mobility of the soul in the
underworld and its ability to return to earth.
• It was often represented as a bird or human-headed bird. Graves were often provided with
narrow passages for visitation by the ba.
• An Egyptian form of the transient spirit
,Balks (baulks) correct answers • A strip (usu. 10-25 centimeters) of unexcavated earth left in
place between excavated units, pits, or trenches for the purpose of revealing the stratigraphy of
an excavation for as long as possible.
• The balk provides a constant reference to the original pre-excavation level of the site, and also
carries all sections along or across the site.
• In an excavation carried out according to the grid method, 25% of the site may consist of balks.
Balks may also serve to facilitate access to different areas of the excavation.
Beveled Rim Bowls correct answers • Possible ration bowls. Proof that there was an elite class in
charge of gathering together produce and handing it out exchange for work.
• Most common artifact found at the temple of Anu at Uruk and related sites.
• Made out of crude clay in a mold.
Binford, Lewis correct answers • An influential contemporary Americanist archaeologist,
considered by many to be the father of the new archaeology.
• Argued that essentially archaeologists had to be social scientists
• Focused on the archaeology of hunting and gathering
Bioarchaeology correct answers • The study of human or animal remains
• A subdiscipline of biology that integrates the concepts of human biology with those of
anthropological archaeology
• Uses radioactive carbon dating
Byblos correct answers • Sea border coast controlled by Egypt
• Eyptians went through the trouble to make the trip to get cedar from Lebanon. Egyptians didn't
have wood.
• We have proof that the Egyptians did this because in an Egyptian tomb we have found a ship of
Khufu (c.2500 BCE) made from cedar imported from Lebanon.
,C14 dating correct answers • Can only be used to date something that was once living
• Measures the proportion of C14 to N14 left in the specimen to calibrate how long ago the item
died. Things can survive long after they die so often the wrong date is found. An example of this
is roof beams that are re used as charcoal, often reused.
• A correction curve (dendrochronology) is necessary because C14 is not constant in the
atmosphere. Tree cores are used to create correction curves by correlating them to C14 dates of
wood. When there is a plateau there is a much wider range of dates plausible
Çatal Höyük correct answers • (7400-6000 BCE) First excavated by James Mellart 6 years but
then became involved in an antiquities trading scandal because he bought stolen antiquities from
a dealer and was kicked out of turkey.
• The site became abandoned but when found the walls were still intact in remarkable condition.
They were made of mud brick must be plastered to become waterproof. Fires baked and
preserved the bricks. The city was abandoned very quickly and covered before it had time to
dissolve. The site had crumbled before Ian Hodder got back to start excavating.
• Excavated by Ian Hodder using micro stratigraphy under a covering built to prevent further
damage
Cuneiform correct answers • Used a wedge shaped stylus
• A shape representing an idea. It eventually becomes a syllabic writing system. 200 or so
syllabic forms in use at one time
• To learn the cuneiform system kids went to school from age 7. Not everyone could read and
write
• Necessary to record information to record mass amounts of people. Tablets became a diagnostic
for the Uruk period.
Cylinder Seals correct answers • Found in Uruk
• Used to show ownership
• Rolled across clay tablets. Easily repeatable
, Ebla correct answers • A city on the upper Euphrates that was not directly controlled by Sargon.
It was a very large city state that may have been ruled by a counsel of elders that rotated. It was a
famous trading post.
• Known as Tell Mardikn in Syria-Early Bronze Age Palace Archives (c. 2500-2100 BCE)
• Found a massive archive of 20,000 tablets that were baked in a fire and preserved. The tablets
were mostly economic texts and bilingual administrative texts. The tablets indicate that there was
a shared power.
Egyptian tomb decoration correct answers • Offering scenes and scenes of everyday life. There
are four proposed reasons for them
o Providing the deceased with things for the afterlife
o Documentary of what the deceased did during his life
o Tomb owner coming back and watching over
o Specific religious ideology
• Males depicted as darker than females Egyptians did not discriminate based on race.
Categorized people and discriminated based on whether or not a person is Egyptian.
• Used hieratical scale to demonstrate which figures are important
Ethnoarchaeology correct answers • strengthened ties with anthropology and created a link with
post-structuralism
• The study of contemporary cultures with a view to understanding the behavioral relationships
which underlie the production of material culture. It is the use of archaeological techniques and
data to study these living cultures and the use of ethnographic data to inform the examination of
the archaeological record.
• It seeks to compare the patterns recognized in the material culture from archaeological contexts
with patterns yielded through the study of living societies. The ethnoarchaeologist is particularly
concerned with the manufacture, distribution, and use of artifacts, the remains of various
processes that might be expected to survive, and the interpretation of archaeological material in
the light of the ethnographic information.
• Luis Binford used Ethnoarchaeology