What’s the first step in an archeological excavation?
Ordering things into sequences
If two objects are found in association within the same archaeological deposit, we generally assume that they became
buried at the same time
Why is being able to associate objects with each other important?
If you can assign a date to one of them, you can assign one to both
What might be difficult to date?
Long lasting objects as garbage- some stuff can be used for decades or centuries
How do we assign orders to things?
Look at characteristics of artifacts of known date, see where it fits.
True or false: Styles of artifacts are usually consistent for a very long time
False- things like pottery change every few decades
Frequency seriation:
changes in the popularity (or frequency) used to create a relative chronology
Lexicostatistics
The study of changes in the use of words in different groups speaking the same language
How has phylogenetic analysis been used in linguistics?
Using points of known divergence to find points of unknown divergence for languages
What was the ice age like?
A period of intermittent freezing and warming every few millenia
Deep sea cores
Contain the shells of microscopic foraminifera, whose structures show fluctuations in temperature
What plant remains are used in relative dating as well?
Pollen
What are the main rules for working with early historical chronologies?
First, the chronological system requires careful reconstruction, and lists of rulers (or kings and queens) must be reasonably complete. Second, while the list may reliably record the number of years in each reign, it needs to be linked to our own calendar. Third, the artifacts, features, or structures to be dated at a particular site have somehow to be related to the historical chronology, for example by association with an inscription naming the ruler of the time.
It should, however, be remembered that to date a coin or an artifact is not the same thing as to date the context in which it is found. The date of the coin indicates ______________, not ____________-
the year it was made, not the date of discard.
A well-established historical chronology in one country may help to date events in __________________________-
neighboring or more distant territories that lack their own historical records.
Any absolute dating method depends on the existence of a X process.
regular, time-dependent
For absolute dating purposes, a sequence needs to be
long and complete, linked to the present day, and capable of being related to the materials we want to date.
Tree ring dating
Rivals radiocarbon dating
Uses of dendochronology
1) as a successful means of calibrating or correcting radiocarbon dates (see below); and (2) as an independent method of absolute dating
How does dendochronology work?
Most trees produce a ring of new wood each year, creating circles of growth that can be easily seen in a cross section of the trunk of a felled tree [4.13]. The rings are not of uniform thickness. In an individual tree, they vary for two reasons. First, the rings become narrower with the increasing age of the tree. Second, the amount a tree grows each year is affected by fluctuations in climate. In arid regions, above-average rainfall in one year produces a particularly thick annual ring. In more temperate regions, sunlight and temperature may be more critical than rainfall in a tree’s growth. In this case, a sharp cold spell in spring may produce a narrow growth ring.Dendrochronologists measure and plot the rings to produce a diagram indicating the thickness of successive rings in each individual tree. Trees of the same species growing in the same area will generally show the same pattern of rings, so the growth sequences can be matched between successively older timbers to build up a longer chronology for an area.
What are long master sequences used for in tree ring dating?
Calibrating radiocarbon dates
What are limitations to tree ring dating? Why can’t it work globally?
it applies only to trees in regions outside the tropics, where pronounced differences in the seasons produce clearly defined annual rings;
for a direct tree-ring date, archaeologists are restricted to wood from species (a) that have yielded a master sequence back from the present; (b) that people actually used in the past; and (c) where the sample affords a sufficiently long record to give a unique match.f most, or all, of the sapwood is missing, the felling date cannot be identified (Tree rings refer to felling)- and also we can’t know exactly how old structures are by the age of the materials used to build them
Radioactive clocks
Give a date based on the rate of radioactive decay (EG radiocarbon dating, potassium Argon, uranium series, fission track dating)
Most useful method of dating
Radiocarbon dating
