Anthropology is the study of humankind throughout history. There are currently four subfields of anthropology (1) cultural anthropology which is the study of human behavior and cultural patterns within a society (2) physical anthropology is the study of humans as biological specimen (3) linguistics refers to the study of human language and how it has evolved throughout history. This includes the grammar and syntax used, and the relationship between culture and language (4) archaeology is the study of materials such animal and human remains, artifacts, and plants. This paper will be looking at Archaeology.
Archaeology looks at materials found from prehistory this is the time before written record. One section of Archeology is Paleoanthropology, this is the categorization and study of bones in order to identify the cultural and biological evolution of a species. Both Archaeologists and Paleoanthropologists study the history of an area by excavation an excavation is a dig that is conducted at a site, which are places that have been identified as having the potential of containing artifacts, these are items that were changed or made by humans. Many artifacts are representative of the material culture of prehistoric humans. These include art, structures and tools. The study of artifacts which is done in conjunction with the analysis of other ecological and biological remains, is known as ecofacts. One things that ecofacts looks at is fossils which are mineralized organism that have been preserved within the Earth’s crust. The study of fossils is referred to as taphonomy.
For humankind fossil evidence in scant prior to 100,000 years ago and only consists in fragments. This was because society had not yet begun the practice of burying its dead. There are even less fossilized remains of primates from this time period due to the climate in which they lived. Locations that may hold artifacts or fossilized evidence can be identified using a number of techniques. These include aerial photography, geographic information systems (GIS), Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) pedestrian survey, and remote sensing. One thing that archaeologists look for when it comes to identifying a possible site is soil marks these are stains on the top of soil that indicate fields that were recently plowed. Another way for an Archaeologist to identify a site is to look for Middens or garbage heaps.
Once a site has been identified the first thing that must be done is to clear the land and to use a grid system, which is a system that records data that is found during an excavation in three dimensions. This is also used to plot the ground that is to be excavated. The focal or reference point for a grid system is referred to as a datum point. The second thing that needs to be done is to determine whether or not the area is stratified or containing layers of remains. If so, each layer will be excavated individually. This is determined is by the use of stratigraphy, a dating system which dates remains according to the strata or layer that they are in. Some of the items that archeologists use to excavate are small trowels, screens, shovels and buckets. They also use a technique called flotation that involves the immersion soil in water. This allows them to save tiny archaeological evidence. Excavation is a painstakingly slow process that slows down even farther when fossils or human remains are discovered. This is because the Archaeologists want to remove the material with as little damage as possible. They do this by using tools such as pickaxes, enamel coating, dental tools and plaster.
Archaeologists keep extensive excavation records these include detailed maps of the excavation are which are marked with all of the features of the site including stratification notes and the exact location of where the artifacts, fossils and bones were found. They also take photographs and make scale drawings of the objects that are found. Once the Archaeologists return to the lab they proceed to analyze the materials that were discovered at the site. The first thing that they must do is to clean and catalog the items. Then they try to determine the function of the material by analyzing the way that it was made and the wear and tear of the item.
There are a number of things that can be determined about a society by looking at the evidence that has been left behind in fossils, for example in the video Seeds for the Soul: East/West Diffusion of Domesticated Grains it was determined what grains were eaten by people along the Silk Road during the Bronze Age. The video also talks about the domestication of goats and sheep in the area. This information was found by examining coprolites, which are fossilized feces in which can be determined the diet and general health of the people in an ancient culture. Information can also be determined by creating Endocasts, which are casts that are made of the inside of a skull that are used to tell that size and shape of our ancestor’s brain. The bones that are found can have their DNA removed using a process called Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR). The Archeologists use the information found using DNA, coprolites and endocasts to determine the age, sex, diet, which is determined also by the patterns of wear on the teeth, and ancestral line of a society. DNA can also be used according to Human Evolution: Tracing Our Origins with DNA to determine where human remains are from on the evolutionary scale. Archeologists also use techniques to determine when a person, plant or animal existed. This is known as dating. Relative dating is the act of assigning age based on rather an objected is younger or older than the objects around it, absolute or chronometric dating is dating based on an absolute unit of time. Other methods of dating are seriation, which is the dating of objects and remains by putting them in sequence in relation to each other, fluorine dating is analyzing the fluorine in bones to determine the age of a fossil, radiocarbon dating, which is the most popular way that Archaeologists determine the age of bones. In radiocarbon dating Archaeologists look at the levels of radioactive carbon that is left in the organic materials found at a site. Finally, another way of dating materials is potassium-argon dating, this is completed by measuring volcanic debris and determining the level of argon to radioactive potassium in a fossil.
Works Cited
Arizona. "Human Evolution: Tracing Our Origins with DNA." YouTube. YouTube, 13 Feb. 2008. Web. 11 June 2016.
Haviland, William A., and William A. Haviland. Cultural Anthropology: The Human Challenge. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth/Thomson Learning, 2008. Print.
Pennmuseum. "Seeds for the Soul: East/West Diffusion of Domesticated Grains." YouTube. YouTube, 23 May 2011. Web. 11 June 2016.
