Virtual Exploration 1. Chronological Methods
http://id-archserve.ucsb.edu/Anth3/Courseware/Chronology/01_Contents.html
Professors George H. Michaels and Brian M. Fagan (The University of California) offer on their Anthropology 3 Courseware site an excellent introduction to archaeological methods.
Note: To view the videos within the exercises, you will need to have Quick Time version 4.0 or later. You can install this program free at the Quick Time website:
http://www.apple.com/quicktime/download/win.html
Be sure to select the QuickTime only version.
Look over the drop down menu and select ‘Chronological Methods 2—Introduction'
http://id-archserve.ucsb.edu/Anth3/Courseware/Chronology/02_Introduction.html
This exercise will help to familiarize you with fundamental methods in archaeology—Relative and Absolute Dating.- Use the ‘next' button to navigate through this section.
- Read each section in order and view the brief videos accompanying each section. The graphics will help reinforce your understanding of how paleoanthropologists are able to establish time sequence for archaeological remains and fossils.
- Select Superposition, Stratigraphy, Cross-Dating, and Artifacts of Known Age first.
- Move on to Dendrochronology, Radiocarbon Dating, Potassium-Argon Dating, Obsidian Hydration Dating, Paleomagnetic and Archaeomagnetic Dating, Luminescence Dating, and Other Isotopic Dating Methods.
Virtual Exploration 2 Electron Spin Resonance
http://physicsweb.org/articles/world/13/5/10
'Physics and Archaeology'—th is physicsweb May 2000 article discusses how other sciences (in this case, physics) assist paleoanthrolologists in dating objects and in the discovery of new archaeological sites.- Read over the section on Radiocarbon dating and how this technology was successfully used in 1989 determining the real age of the Turin Shroud.
- How effective would radiocarbon dating be in determining the age of most fossil hominin remains? What are its limitations?
- The 'Luminescence, Spin and Magnetism' section discussed some other practical applications of radioactivity is used in different materials: crystal structure and tooth enamel.
- What other practical applications does this technique offer in reconstructing hominin origins?
- Ground-penetrating radar, used to produce a 3D model of an archaeological site (and used in a scene in the Hollywood movie Jurassic Park ), is also discussed.
- What type of archaeological site might this technique prove most helpful?
Virtual Exploration 3. Taphonomy & Preservation
http://paleo.cortland.edu/tutorial/Taphonomy&Pres/taphonomy.htm
This SUNY (State University of New York) Cortland website provides an excellent tutorial on taphonomy and preservation. Taphonomy examines what happens to an organism after its death and fossilization, until it is discovered. The site explores the process of decomposition, post-mortem transport, burial, compaction, and other forces and their effect on an organism.- Paleoanthropologists can better understand and reconstruct paleoenvironments through the use taphonomy. In doing so, they are able to describe the behavior of early hominins and gain insights on their living habits, population and other organisms that may have lived around them.
- What are three taphonic features that can affect a fossil?
- What causes fragmentation?
- What types of degradation are involved in bioerosion?
- How might an untrained field worker misinterpret orientation?
Now click on to the ‘Forms Of Preservation' link: http://paleo.cortland.edu/tutorial/Taphonomy&Pres/preservation.htmlThis page describes the various ways in which fossils (hominin and non-hominin) are preserved: unaltered, molds and casts, replacement and recrystallization, carbonization, and premineralization. Figure 2 on the site provides a helpful graphic illustrating the various forms. - Which form(s) might you imagine most often preserve hominin remains?
- How does a specific paleoenvironment affect the type of preservation condition the type of preservation of a fossil?
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