Problem
PART I: CHRONOLOGY
You and your team unearth the following artifacts at an archaeological site - a wooden beam, an obsidian projectile point, and piece of painted, fired pottery. For each item list one relative and one absolute dating technique that you can use to determine a chronological date and describe the advantages and limitations of each method. (You should have 6 techniques total)
In October 2009, Science published a series of articles in a special issue describing a new hominid species, Ardipithecus ramidus, that took many years and an international team of scientists to analyze. Read the one page overview description (p.65) and reference the subsequent article about the archaeological context of this fossil and its environment. Explain the concept of marker beds, index fossils, potassium-argon and argon-argon dating using examples from African site.
PART II: TYPOLOGY/TIME & SPACE
• Visit the New England Projectile Point Typology Links to an external site page from Bridgewater State College. After viewing the illustrations, create an attribute list describing the characteristics of the points for both the Late Archaic and Middle Woodland Periods. In paragraph or two, compare and contrast the characteristics of these points from these two periods and explain how physical characteristics of each determine their typology.