The Stone Age Meets the Information Age:
an introduction to archaeology
IFS 1998
Professor Jeanne Sept
Anthropology Department
Student Building 038 (office)
855-5395; sept@indiana.edu
Lisa Maiorino (intern)
Teter Hall room xxx
Monday August 4:
Principles of interpreting artifacts and assemblages of trash.
Key terms:
- assemblage
- typology
- ethnoarchaeology
- science
- sampling
- stratigraphy
- attribute
- correlation
Yesterday we talked about artifacts we're familiar with... and the process of describing them and classifying them. I heard the lament "It's impossible to classify hats!" Agree or disagree? Why?
Why would archaeologists want to classify artifacts? How can we judge the "correctness" of a classification? How can we develop systematic classification schemes? Can classification be scientific (in an epistemological sense?).
Potsherd sorting to develop a typology... what criteria to use? Can you predict which attributes potentially contain useful information?
To learn more about studying ceramics and classifying them, visit my web page:
Prehistoric Puzzles Ceramics (all the graphics can be clicked on).
How did the principle of sorting into categories help the garbology project? What were the goals and results of this project? How could the garbology researchers identify the time period of their garbage?
Interested in garbage? Here are some fun links:
Garbage in Gotham: the anthropology of trash
Searching for more? Try Alta Vista WWW search engine.
Jeanne Sept does field research related to the archaeology of human origins in East Africa,
and teaches in the Anthropology Department at Indiana University, Bloomington.
visit her main web page Human Origins and Evolution in Africa or the following topical pages:
Africa | Primates | Human Evolution | Paleoecology | Archaeology
IU Anthropology | Sept teaching interests | Sept research | Sept Personal Home PageLast updated: 3 August, 1998
URL: http://www.indiana.edu/~origins/index.html
Comments: sept@indiana.edu
Copyright 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998 Jeanne Sept