INTRODUCTION TO ARCHAEOLOGY Nancy White - Touro Institute

What is the difference between direct and indirect dating? Direct methods date the artifact itself,
while indirect methods date something it is associated with. It is seldom possible to date a stone
tool or a clay potsherd, for example; radiocarbon dating requires something with carbon in it. But
we might date the charcoal next to the stone tool or sherd under the assumption that they are the
same age.
What is the difference between relative dating and absolute dating? Relative methods give an
age only in relationship to something else, while absolute methods give a calendrical date. An
easy relative method to understand relates to the law of superposition; deeper things are older
than shallower things, but we do not know absolute ages.
What are some types of relative dating? Artifact seriation is done by arranging artifact types
according to their stylistic similarities and/or frequencies of occurrence. See the nice figures in
your text showing both twentieth-century automobile designs (p. 149) and Sir Flinders Petrie’s
stylistic seriation of ancient Egyptian pot types (p. 151). We may not know the absolute dates,
but we can arrange the styles that look most similar closest to each other on the chart. What is the
disadvantage of this method? First, it assumes gradual change through time and would not work
with everything (look at the radical shift from slide rule to pocket calculator, or from pocket
notebook to PalmPilot—those artifacts do not look anything alike!). Second, you can see gradual
change through time, but you don’t know which end is up! Which is the earliest and which the
latest?
Frequency seriation arranges artifacts based on frequencies, assuming that types gradually come
into popularity and gradually fade out. The very nice chart of New England tombstone types on
p. 152 shows how a frequency seriation can produce battleship shaped curves. The tombstones
have the dates on them, but you could also do this with artifact types arranged by vertical
stratum. The curves look like battleships in plan view, or portions of battleships; hence the name.
The tombstone study of Deetz and Dethlefson cited in your text is a famous one because it shows
stylistic change through time that can be correlated with social and ideological trends. Look at
the three kinds of tombstone motifs in the chart: the death’s head, cherub, and urn-and-willow
pattern. All three fit nicely in the half-circle of the top of the tombstone, so in terms of design,
we have the constraints of shape to consider. Within that shape, however, the winged, skull-like
death’s head gives way to the happy little winged angel, then the asymmetrical design of an urn
with the flowing, still wing-like fronds of the willow. What does this say about the living people
commemorating their dead loved ones? They are going from a more harsh, New England-style
Protestant view of hellfire and damnation to a more benign view of heavenly bliss, then to a
totally secular decorative motif that suggests waning power of religious beliefs!
What is fluorine dating? It is a relative dating method described in your book along with other
bone chemistry relative methods on p.158. It is based on the principle that two bones buried
together at the same time will take up the same amount of fluorine (and other elements) from the
soil. It is famous because it is the method used to expose the hoax of the notorious “Piltdown
man” fossil. Many textbooks in the 1970s and 1980s removed the story of Piltdown, which was
too bad because it is fun and also packed with social and scientific meaning. It has been put it
back in again since the 1990s, but needs more explanation because it says so much about the
influences of world politics and intellectual arrogance in anthropology. The Piltdown skull and