15022018

Question 1

1st Exam

Answer 1

• Mainly MC
• Fill in the blanks
• SQ
• Review session: Williams 5th floor (get in from back door) 2-3pm

Question 2

Radiometric Dating (14C)

Answer 2

1. “Conventional” radiocarbon dating
   - Cheaper
   - Need larger sample of material (about 6g of charcoal)
   - Larger error ranges
2. Accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS)
   - More expensive
   - Can date tiny samples
   - Smaller error ranges (+/- 40yrs only)
   ** ALL radiometric dating is destructive!
   > (Entire sample is incinerated)

Question 3

Obsidian hydration dating

Answer 3

1. Obsidian has only ca. 2% water
2. When fractured, fractured surface begins to hydrate and develop a crust “hydration band”
3. Thickness of hydration band equivalent to time since fractured
   > In California, for example, approximately 1 micron of thickness of hydration band is equal to 1000 years
4. Need lots of samples to get average date
5. Advantage is it is inexpensive BUT you need obsidian in your site to use it

Question 4

Potassium-Argon dating (KAr)

Answer 4

1. Based on rate of decay for radioactive isotope of Potassium, Potassium 40 and ratio to Argon which is a byproduct of decay
2. Used in volcanic contexts to date ash layers
3. Useful for dating very old sites
4. Problem is that is has huge error ranges and subsequent eruptions can mess up isotope ratios

Question 5

Subsistence

Answer 5

= Action or means by which an individual or group supports themselves

• Main focus is on FOOD. What people eat and all that goes into obtaining what they eat
• Can study subsistence DIRECTLY and INDIRECTLY

Question 6

Direct ways to study subsistence

Answer 6

1. Faunal analysis
2. Plant remains
3. Coprolites
   - e.g. Hinds cave, southwest Texas
   > Portion of domesticated dog skull recovered from a paleo fetal sample or human coprolite
   > Dig skull fragment directly dated with AMS to 9,260 +/- 7- years B.P.
   > Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) extracted from bone sample
   > Shows that sample from Domesticated dog, not wolf or coyote

Question 7

Indirect ways to study subsistence

Answer 7

1. Environmental reconstruction ecofacts, pollen, phytoliths (e.g. in the soil)
2. Settlement patterns
   > e.g. hunter/gatherers v agriculturalists farmers v fishermen
3. Technology
4. Human skeletal remains:
   - Bone isotopes, subsistence stress, nutritional inadequacies, paleopathology

Question 8

Faunal analysis

Answer 8

Issues:
1. Most animals (ca. 99%) die and do not preserve
2. Preservation is best when ground water is alkaline (non-acidic)
> e.g. limestone
3. Emplacement shortly after death is essential to preservation
Goals:
1. Reconstruction of past human-animal relationship
2. Reconstruction of past (animal) environment
Good faunal analysis requires:
A. Large samples
B. Careful excavation (to avoid bias)
C. Comparative samples