archaeology midterm2 lecture2

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The use of annual growth rings in trees to assign calendar ages to ancient wood samples: Tree-ring dating (dendochronology)
Tree-ring dating (dendochronology) developed by: Douglass
Douglass worked in...: SW/Arizona
trees are ____ in winter and ____ in spring: dormant, active
Dendochronology helped to date ____: Betatakin
____ collected more samples in Betatakin from building materials in various rooms: Dean
Age of the final ring: cutting date
Tree-ring width is a function of ______and _____: precipitation, temperature
Radiocarbon dating discovered by...: ...Libby
What carbon isotope is used in radiocarbon dating?: 14
What do you measure in radiocarbon dating?: Beta emissions
The time required for half of the carbon-14 available in an organic sample to decay: libby half-life
what is the standard libby half-life: 5568
When is the present?: AD 1950
what 2 things are hard to date?: bones, plants
The specific chemical process through which plants metabolize carbon; the three major pathways discriminate against carbon-13 in different ways, therefore similarly aged plants that use different pathways can produce different radiocarbon ages: photosynthetic pathways
When organisms take in carbon from a source that is depleted of or enriched in carbon-14 relative to the atmosphere; such samples may return ages that are considerably older or younger than they actually are: reservoir effect
____ was first to find fault in atmospheric assumption: De Vries
- Fluctuations in the calibration curve produced by variations in the atmosphereÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s carbon-14 content; these can cause radiocarbon dates to calibrate more than one calendar age: De Vries effects
why is only the part of the site needed to answer the research question excavated?: digging destroys data that we donÃ¢â‚¬â„¢t know yet to collect
A method of radiocarbon dating that counts the proportion of carbon isotopes directly (rather than using the indirect Geiger counter method), thereby dramatically reducing the quantity of datable material required: Accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS)
____ found four grains of domesticated barley and one grain of wheat in southern Egypt: Wendorf
Forms of dating that rely upon the fact that electrons become trapped in mineralsÃ¢â‚¬â„¢ crystal lattices as a function of background radiation; the age of the specimen is the total radiation received divided by the annual dose of radiation.: trapped charge dating
trapped charge dating identifies...: ... the last time a specimen had its electron traps emptied
A trapped charge dating technique used on ceramics and burnt stone artifacts- anything mineral that has been heated to more than 500 degrees C.: thermoluminescence
thermoluminescence doesn't work if...: ...artifact was accidentally burned years after manufacture
An early form of humans who lived in Europe and the Near East about 300,000 to 30,000 years ago: Neanderthals
3 ways to determing total radiation dose: thermoluminescence, optically stimulated luminescence, electron spin resonance
A trapped charge dating technique used to date sediments (dirt); the age is the time elapsed between the last time a few moments exposure to sunlight reset the clock to zero and the present.: optically stimulated luminescence
optically stimulated luminescence works best with...: ...eolian sands
A trapped charge technique used to date tooth enamel and buried stone tools; it can date teeth that are beyond the range of radiocarbon dating.: electron spin resonance
___ changed understanding of human evolution: electron spin resonance
A device to measure the amount of gamma radiation emitted by sediments (annual dose). It is normally buried in a stratum for a year to record the annual dose of radiation: dosimeter
what 2 methods are used to date the age of formation of a particular layer of rock?: potassium-argon and argon-argon
An absolute dating technique that monitors the decay of potassium into argon gas: potassium-argon dating
____ was used to estimate age of homo erectus: potassium-argon dating
a hominid who lived in Africa, Asia, and Europe between 2 million and 500,000 years ago. These hominids walked upright, made simple stone tools, and may have used fire: homo erectus
for potassium-argon dating to work,: there must have been no argon trapped at the time of formation
A high-precision method for estimating the relative quantities of argon-39 to argo-40 gas; used to date volcanic ashes that are between 500,000 and several million years old: argon-argon dating
A potential problem with radiocarbon (or tree-ring) dating in which old wood has been scavenged and reused in a later archaeological site; the resulting date is not a true age of the associated human activity.: old wood problem
____ and ____ dated the pyramids through radiocarbon dating on the mortar: Nakhla, Hawass
Nakhla and Hawass dated the pyramids through _____ on the mortar: radiocarbon dating
2 ways to date material remains: direct, indirect
Analysis of the artifact, ecofact, or feature itself to arrive at a chronological evaluation: direct dating
Analysis of material associated with the data under study to derive a chronological evaluation: indirect dating
Determining age or chronological sequence without reference to a fixed time scale: relative dating
Relies on comparisons with other forms of data to determine Ã¢â‚¬Å“older thanÃ¢â‚¬Â or Ã¢â‚¬Å“younger thanÃ¢â‚¬Â: relative dating
Determination of age on a specific time scale, as in years before present, or according to a fixed calendrical system: absolute dating
Example: A series of artifacts found in an excavation that stylistically represent different time periods (dates unspecified) are dated relative to one another: Direct Relative Dating
Example: An artifact is dated using a method like radiocarbon dating to specific year, or spread of years: Direct Absolute Dating
Example: A series of artifacts are extracted from different strata/levels (dates unspecified) of an excavation and are dated relative to one another: Indirect Relative Dating
Example: A series of artifacts are extracted from a strata/level/feature in an excavation that has been dated to a specific time period: Indirect Absolute dating
The date after which an artifact or feature must have been deposited: Terminus post quem
The date before which an artifact or feature must have been deposited: Terminus ante quem
Based on physical comparisons such as stratigraphic placement in relation to other remains: relative dating
Able to date individual items with or without comparisons to other remains: absolute dating
Useful in clearing up questions of duration of time periods in a chronology: absolute dating
Able to place archaeological sites in chronological context if they lack diagnostic information: absolute dating
5 relative dating methods: stratigraphic analysis/geochronology, biostratigraphy, temporal types, seriation, FUN dating
Stratigraphic analysis/geochronology governed by...: ...law of superposition
How to date materials found within soil or bedrock layers when they can be dated relative to materials in others: stratigraphic analysis/geochronology
Under what condition can geochronology be absolute?: if the layer of bedrock containing remains has been dated
Why is geochronology considered relative?: the range of dates can be extremely large
Archaeological association of cultural material with extinct animal or plant species: Index fossils (biostratigraphy)
What is comparable to geochronology for obtaining date ranges?: biostratigraphy
What is a problem with biostratigraphy?: Exact date ranges may not be known for the species
The association of particular remains with remains of a known type: Temporal typing
Techniques used to order materials in a sequence, in such a way that adjacent items in the series are more similar to each other than to items further apart in the series: seriation
how is seriation done most often?: by an examination of stylistic attributes
what are the three things that can be looked at for seriation?: stylistic, form, technological
what is seriation usually done in combination with? (2 things): stratigraphic and frequency analysis
A relative measure that examines the ratio of nitrogen to fluorine and uranium in bone: Flouride/Uranium/Nitrogen (FUN) dating
WHat means a younger date in FUN dating?: More nitrogen
What is FUN dating affected by?: climate
The study of tree ring patterns among trees both living and dead and linking them to develop a continuous chronology: dendochronology
The iron particles in certain materials that are heated to 700 degrees Celsius will reorient to the position of MNP at that time: archaeomagnitism
Requires that materials have been left in place since heating: archaeomagnitism
Measures the amount and rate of the absorption of water on the surface of a piece of obsidian: obsidian hydration
2 factors affecting absorption rate in obsidian hydration: source of obsidian, environmental conditions

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