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The range of raw materials that humans use for food, construction, valuables, transportation, and other purposes is enormous. Many materials are found at archaeological sites. The Black Earth site in southern Illinois, a settlement of hunters dating from 4000 to 3000 bc provides an example. It is an enormous site, more than a city block in size, and the cultural layer is up to 1.5 m (5 ft) deep. The...
This chapter deals with two important and related topics in archaeological investigations: the environment in which people lived, and the foods that they ate. The environment plays a major role in the diet that is available to human groups. This relationship is seen both in terms of the specific kinds of plants and animals that are available and in terms of changes in climate and resources over time...
This volume on the emergence of inequality brings a renewed perspective, through varied lenses, at questions surrounding the origins of modern human social organization. In 1995 we edited a volume entitled Foundations of Social Inequality, concerned with many of these same issues. Here we return to this fascinating subject, to unanswered questions, new ideas, and new directions of study and explanation.
A book on archaeological chemistry must cover a lot of ground. Both subjects, archaeology and chemistry, are large, rich, and dense. At the same time the two are very different. Archaeology belongs to the humanities or social sciences; some would call it an historical science. Archaeology is usually associated with the outdoors, ruins, excavations, piles of dirt, and artifacts of stone, ceramic, or...
A previous chapter (Chap. 2) focused on some of the more important and general questions that archaeologists ask about the past – what our ancestors were like, how they lived, what they ate, what sort of environment they inhabited, what kinds of things did they do, their relationships with other people, religious beliefs and ceremonies, and many others. There are many ways that archaeologists try...
In this chapter, we look at archaeological chemistry from another angle, specifically in terms of the kinds of analyzes that are common in the field and the kinds of tools – the instruments – that are normally used. We discuss specific kinds of analyses that are done involving magnification, elemental analysis, isotopic analysis, organic analysis, and mineral/compound analysis. This chapter is intended...
An essential term in archaeology is provenience. Provenience has two meanings: the place of discovery and the place of origin. The provenience of an artifact can be the place where it was found in excavations – that is a very important piece of information. Artifacts and other archaeological objects with an unknown provenience provide very little information for learning about the past. Provenience...
Some thoughts and ideas concerning the close relationship between the origins of agriculture and the emergence of social inequality were previously expressed by one of us (Price 1995) in the volume Foundations of Social Inequality. Since then a wealth of evidence has accumulated in investigations of Neolithic sites in the Near East as reported by the other author (Bar-Yosef 2001a, 2002b). We thought...
This chapter focuses on the research questions that lie at the heart of archaeology and archaeological chemistry. The questions we ask – what we want to know – determine where and how we look for answers. Archaeologists want to know about people in the past – what our ancestors were like, how they lived, what they ate, what sort of environment they inhabited, what kinds of things they did, their relationships...
This chapter combines three major areas of investigation in archaeological chemistry – technology, function, and human activity. Technology refers to the means that humans use to obtain resources and modify the world around them. Function, related to technology, refers to how tools, equipment, and facilities were used by humans in the past. Human activity is a generic term for the study of the function...
We have reached the last chapter of this book on archaeological chemistry, a large and complex subject. The path through these pages has been a long and demanding journey. To conclude we have chosen to do several different things. In one sense, this chapter ties up loose ends and provides a place to cover a few subjects that we only touched upon in the preceding pages. In addition, we want to flaunt...
There are few questions more central to understanding the prehistory of our species than those regarding the institutionalization of social inequality. Social inequality is manifested in unequal access to goods, information, decision-making, and power. This structure is essential to higher orders of social organization and basic to the operation of more complex societies. An understanding of the transformation...
Archaeological chemistry is a subject of great importance to the study and methodology of archaeology. This comprehensive text covers the subject with a full range of case studies, materials, and research methods. With twenty years of experience teaching the subject, the authors offer straightforward coverage of archaeological chemistry, a subject that can be intimidating for many archaeologists who...
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