Course Description
The archaeological record is made up of the materials that can be seen by the naked eye, and the embedded structures and molecules within these materials that can only be “seen” with the help of instrumentation. This course integrates the macroscopic record and the microscopic record, which we refer to as “microarchaeology” (described in a textbook entitled Microarchaeology by Steve Weiner 2010).
After two introductory lectures, we will visit an historic archaeological site and discuss the microarchaeological discoveries made at that site. The lectures will be devoted to topics that include archaeological dating (chronology), reconstructing high temperature activities (pyrotechnology) and insights into the use of plants and animals (archaeobotany and archaeozoology). The approach to these topics will be through case studies of archaeological sites.
The course is designed both for archaeological science students at the Weizmann Institute and elsewhere, as well as natural science students (chemists, biologists and physicists) at the Weizmann Institute who are interested in learning about archaeology at length scales from tens of meters to nanometers.
30/10 Introduction: what is archaeology, the archaeological record, microarchaeology, chronology and diagenesis? How to extract the signals from the noise of time.
6/11 Hour 1:Integrated case study in preparation for the field trip to an archaeological site. Hour 2: Chronology and atmospheric physics
13/11 Field trip to archaeological site to see macro- and microarchaeology.
20/11. Hands on on microarchaeology: FTIR, SEM, AMS+stable isotopes + prep lab.
27/11 Chronology – the time dimension. Different methods for dating, the timeline of major events in the archaeological record and the integrated approach to the research field of chronology.
4/12 Pyrotechnology – the history of the use of fire and the development of high temperature materials (eg. plaster).
11/12 Etnoarchaeology
Hour 1: the use of plants, plant minerals and ethnoarchaeological study in northern Greece.
Hour 2: Ethnoarchaeological study in Uzbekistan. The climate record embedded in wood.
18/12 Archaeobotany
Hour 1: Transformation of mineral in plants from biomineralization to the archaeological record
Hour 2: Archeobotany new questions
25/12 Archaeozoology – bones and teeth in the archaeological record.
1/1 Hour 1: Molecular archaeology. Ancient DNA and the human genome evolution.
Hour 2: Paleoproteomics:
8/1 Revealing water sources in archaeological record
Hour 1: Water reservoirs and climate (Jerusalem).
Hour 2: Revealing water sources in archaeology (Boker A and Tel Shimron).
15/1 Students present 15 minute talks each on a topic of their choice.
22/1 Students present 15 minute talks each on a topic of their choice.
Discussion of Microarchaeology