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Lecture 1 — What Is Archaeology? Core Concepts, the Archaeological Record

Big idea: Archaeology is a subfield of anthropology that reconstructs past human behavior and cultural change through material remains—with careful attention to context, time, and site formation processes.

Core definitions

  • Culture: the set of technologies, languages, social systems, and ideologies that distinguish one social group from another (including subcultures).
  • Archaeology: the systematic, scientific study of material remains to understand human behavior and cultural patterns through time and space.

Units of archaeological analysis

  • Artifact: portable object made or modified by humans.
  • Ecofact: natural material that gains meaning through association with humans.
  • Feature: non‑portable remains altered/destroyed upon removal (must be recorded in situ).
  • Site: spatial cluster of artifacts, ecofacts, and features.
  • (Often) Region: group of sites sharing cultural attributes (e.g., ceramic styles, cuisine, architecture).

The archaeological record and site formation

  • Archaeological record = Past human behavior + taphonomy
  • Taphonomy: natural + anthropogenic processes that affect remains after behavioral processes are complete (e.g., looting, construction, reuse, erosion).
  • Primary context: undisturbed (in situ).
  • Secondary context: moved/altered provenience or association.

Research design and sampling

Because the record is effectively an infinite data universe, archaeology depends on: 1. Research questions 2. Hypotheses 3. Sampling strategy (what/where/how much) 4. Field + lab methods 5. Interpretation + publication

Sampling vocabulary

  • Data universe: all archaeological data in a bounded area.
  • Sampling units: smaller gridded areas of investigation.
  • Population: aggregate of sampling units actually under investigation (≪ data universe).

Common sampling strategies

  • Judgmental (non‑probabilistic): expert‑driven, but biased / non‑representative.
  • Random: unbiased, but may miss key features.
  • Stratified: allocate sampling effort by known variation (e.g., more near a monument, less farther away).

Survey → excavation (pipeline overview)

  • Survey (aerial/surface/subsurface) is usually the first step to locate sites and define the sampling frame.
  • Excavation removes matrix in controlled layers; interpretation relies on associations among artifacts/features and the environment.