T. Douglas Price (tdprice@facstaff.wisc.edu)
James H Burton (jhburton@facstaff.wisc.edu)
INTRODUCTION:
This is a course in chemical and physical methods in archaeology, usually referred to as archaeometry. The course is intended for graduate and undergraduate students with a strong interest in archaeology and some background in the physical sciences. Course size is limited by space available in our laboratory and by requirements for one-on-one instruction in the course.
In the future, most of the major discoveries in archaeology will be made in the laboratory. There is an exciting array of new technologies and procedures for learning about human behavior and activity in the past. It is rapidly becoming possible to use elemental and isotopic traces in both organic and inorganic remains to identify a variety of materials preserved from the past, to say where they came from, and to discuss how they were produced. It is also becoming possible to measure a variety of signals in prehistoric human bone to investigate questions such as past diet, changes in residence, kinship, and genetic relationships.
This course covers a variety of analytical laboratory methods used in prehistoric archaeology for dating, identification, characterization, and investigation of bone, pottery, stone, soil, and other materials. The course will include both lecture and lab activities. Approximately one-third of the course will be lecture and the remainder will involve hand-on lab work. One of our goals in this course is to familiarize you with some of the laboratory techniques and instrumentation in use in archaeology.
Topics to be covered are indicated on the syllabus below along with readings and planned laboratory exercises. The reader required for this course will be available in the Social Sciences Copy Center. You will need a lab notebook, available at local bookstores, to record all of your lab activities. Your performance in this course will be evaluated on the basis of three written laboratory assignments and a final project; each assignment will count approximately 20%; the final project is approximately 40% of your grade.
Sept 8 Introduction/Organization Trigger
Principles/Instrumentation Zurer
Sept 15 Archaeometry: definitions and domains Harbottle
Sept 22 Dating methods/Dating quiz Taylor 1987
David McJunkin, Director of Radiocarbon Laboratory
Sept 29 Dating methods: tour of C14 lab
Oct 6 Bone chemistry Price, et al.; Schoeninger & Moore
Oct 13 Bone chemistry/Bone quiz Chisholm, et al., Sillen & Cavanaugh, Antoine, et al.
Oct 20 Soil analysis/Bone lab due Proudfoot
Oct 27 Soil analysis/Soils quiz Middleton & Price
Nov 3 Ceramics/Soils lab due Bishop, et al., Kempe & Templeman, Peacock, Rice
Nov 10 Ceramics/Ceramics quiz Burton & Simon
Nov 17 Organic analyses/Ceramics lab due Deal Heron, et al.
Nov 24 Thanksgiving
Dec 1 Final projects
Dec 8 Final projects/Presentations
Dec 15 Final projects/Presentations
Antoine, S.E., A.M. Child, R.A. Nicholson, and A.M. Pollard (1992) "The Biochemistry and Microbiology of Buried Human Bone in Relation to Dietary Reconstruction," Circaea 9: 65-79.
Bishop, R.L., R.L. Rands, and G.R. Holley (1982), "Ceramic Compositional Analysis in Archaeological Perspective," Advances in Method and Theory 5: 275-330.
Burton, J.H. and T.D. Price (1991), "Paleodietary Applications of Barium Values in Bone," in E. Pernicka and G.A. Wagner (eds.), Archaeometry `90 (Basel: Birkha user Verlag Basel), pp. 787-795.
Burton, J.H. and A.W. Simon (1996), "A Pot is not a Rock: a Reply to Neff, Glascock, Bishop, and Blackman," American Antiquity 61.2: 405-413.
Butzer, K.W. (1982), Archaeology as Human Ecology, Cambridge University Press.
Chisholm, B., D.E. Nelson, K.A. Hobson, H.P. Schwarcz, and M. Knyf (1983), "Carbon Isotope Measurement Techniques for Bone Collagen: Notes for the Archaeologist," J. Archaeological Science 10: 355-360.
Deal, M. (1990), "Exploratory Analyses of Food Residues from Prehistoric Pottery and Other Artifacts from Eastern Canada," SAS Bulletin 13: 6-11.
Harbottle, G. (1982), "Chemical Characterization in Archaeology," in J.E. Ericson and T.K. Earle (eds.), Contexts for Prehistoric Exchange (New York: Academic Press), pp. 13-51.
Heron, C., R.P. Evershed, L.G. Goad, and V. Denham (1991), "New Approaches to the Analysis of Organic Residues from Archaeological Remains," in P. Budd (ed.), Archaeological Science (New York: Academic Press), pp. 325-331.
Holliday, V.T. (1992), "Soil Formation, Time, and Archaeology," in V.T. Holiday (ed.), Soils in Archaeology (Washington DC: Smithsonian Press), pp. 101-117.
Kempe, D.R.C. and J.A. Templeman (1983), "Techniques," in D.R.C. Kempe and A.P. Harvey (eds.), The Petrology of Archaeological Artifacts (Oxford: Clarendon Press), pp. 26-52.
Konrad, V.A., R. Bonnichsen, and V. Clay (1983), "Soil Chemical Identification of Ten Thousand Years of Prehistoric Human Activity at the Munsungun Lake Thoroughfare, Maine," J. Archaeological Science 10: 13-28.
Middleton, W.D. and T.D. Price (1996), "Identification of Activity Areas by Multi-element Characterization of Sediments from Modern and Archaeological House Floors using Inductively Coupled Plasma-Atomic Emission Spectroscopy," J. Archaeological Science 23: 673-687.
Peacock, D.P.S. (1970), "The Scientific Analysis of Ancient Ceramics: a Review," World Archaeology 1: 375-388.
Price, T.D., C.M. Johnson, J.A. Ezzo, E. Ericson, and J.H. Burton (1994), "Residential Mobility in the Prehistoric Southwest United States: a Preliminary Study using Strontium Isotope Analysis," J. Archaeological Science 21: 315-330.
Proudfoot, B. (1976), "The Analysis and Interpretation of Soil Phosphorus in Archaeological Contexts," in D.A. Davidson and M.L. Shackley (eds.), Geoarchaeology (London: Duckworth and Co.), pp. 94-113.
Rice, P.M. (1987), Pottery Analysis: a Sourcebook (Chicago: University of Chicago Press).
Schoeninger, M.J. and K.M. (1992), "Bone Stable Isotope Studies in Archaeology," J. World Prehistory 6: 247-296.
Shackley, M. (1981), Environmental Archaeology (London: George Allen and Unwin).
Shepard, A.O. (1966), "Problems in Pottery Analysis," American Antiquity 31: 870-871.
Sillen, A. and M. Cavanaugh (1982), "Strontium and Paleodietary Research: a Review," Yearbook of Physical Anthropology 25: 67-90.
Taylor, R.E. (1976), "Science in Contemporary Archaeology," in R.E. Taylor (ed.), Advances in Obsidian Glass Studies: Archaeological and Chemical Perspectives (Park Ridge, N.J.: Noyes Press), pp. 1-21.
Taylor, R.E. (1987), Radiocarbon Dating (Orlando: Academic Press).
Trigger, B.G. (1989), "Archaeology's Relations with the Physical and Biological Sciences," in Archaeometry Proceedings (Toronto), pp. 1-9.
Zurer, P.S. (1983), "Archaeological Chemistry: Physical Science Helps to Unravel Human History," Chemical and Engineering News 61: 26-44.
LABORATORY ASSIGNMENTS:
There are three lab assignments and a final project due as requirements for this course. Each lab assignment will count as 20% of your grade and the final project as 40%. These assignments and projects should be turned in on time and points will be deducted if unexcused delays occur.
A few pointers for preparing lab assignments. The assignments should have two parts: one a written narrative discussing the project , and two, the pages of your lab notes and calculations from the actual lab activities.
The written narrative should be no more than three pages. This narrative should describe in order: (1) Problem: the goal of the assignment, what principles were involved with the assignment, and any useful background; (2) Methods: the methods used in the assignment. This should be a brief summary of the procedures you were given and include any deviations or problems encountered in the methods; (3) Data and Results: a discussion of the data you obtained from the analyses and any calculations you made. The actual calculations you made will appear in your lab notes, but the formulas or information you used for the calculations should be described; (4) Summary: the conclusions you derived from the data and results and the interpretation you would make of that information; (5) Additional Comments: any additional information you would like to add to the narrative concerning other aspects of such studies, problems encountered, and the like.
Please remember to use citations in your written narrative, referencing the publications that you read and used in preparing the assignment. Proper citation places the name of the author and year of publication in the body of the narrative and provides a full citation with full name, year, title of paper (followed by name of journal, volume number, page numbers) or book (followed by city and name of publisher). If you have any questions on preparing your assignments, please see either Burton or Price.
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