UNDERSTAND PREHISTORY ERA

COMPETENCIES:

Students have:1. Understanding about prehistoric science.2. Understanding how archeologist work?3. Understanding how analysis of spatial,

temporal, and ethnographic.

What Is Prehistory?

Prehistory, time before written records appeared, which occurred about 3000 BC. Prehistory includes

the Stone Age, the Bronze Age, and the Iron Age. Paul Tournal originally coined the term pré-

historique in describing the finds he had made in the caves of southern France. It came into use in france in the 1830s to describe the time before

writing, and the word "prehistoric" was introduced into English by Daniel Wilson in 1851.

The Urgencies of Prehistory

Societies without written records preserved their history through stories and myths passed orally from one generation to another. This remembered narrative disappeared when a society died out.

The nature and events of prehistory can be partially reconstructed through archaeology, which examines the material evidence left behind by the peoples of the past: their dwellings, tools, and everyday materials, as well as their great monuments and works of art.

How Prehistory are? For example, an archaeological excavation of a prehistoric site

may provide evidence indicates that the site was the tomb of a male person (by examination of the skeleton) and that he was of great importance (because of the presence of rich grave goods).

However, certain information, such as his language, his thoughts, and his conversations, cannot be known. For this reason, the study of prehistory tends to concentrate on broad issues, such as the evolution of peoples and cultures, and the development of technology and ideas as indicated by the artifacts left.

Archeology Archaeology, the scientific study of past human culture

and behavior, from the origins of humans to the present. Archaeology studies past human behavior through the examination of material remains of previous human societies.

These remains include the fossils (preserved bones) of humans, food remains, the ruins of buildings, and human artifacts—items such as tools, pottery, and jewelry. From their studies, archaeologists attempt to reconstruct past ways of life.

Archaeology is an important field of anthropology, which is the broad study of human culture and biology. Archaeologists concentrate their studies on past societies and changes in those societies over extremely long periods of time.Prehistoric archaeology is practiced by archaeologists known as prehistorians and deals with ancient cultures that did not have writing of any kind.

Archaeologists refer to the vast store of information about the human past as the archaeological record.

The archaeological record encompasses every area of the world that has ever been occupied by humans, as well as all of the material remains contained in those areas. Archaeologists study the archaeological record through field surveys and excavations and through the laboratory study of collected materials.

PREHISTORY? Natural sciences view that the human as part of mammals. The

different between human and mammals is culture. Human can be a creator in which create tools for life. Human culture can be viewed form two factors: materials (things produced by human) and immaterial (human minds and psychological aspect of human life). Indonesian prehistory include the age of the earlier times to Vth

(the East Kalimantan inscription). Ilmu Prasejarah: ilmu yang mempelajari manusia serta

peradabannya sejak zaman permulaan sampai zaman sejarah, dikenalnya tulisan (R. Soekmono, 1973: 21).

Perkembangan

• Prakemerdekaan: ahli dari luar negeri (Belanda) seperti: E Dubois, V Koenigswald, Van Heekeren, dan lain-lain. Merekabanyak melakukan penelitian untuk merekonstuksiprasejarah di Indonesia.

• Zaman kemerdekaan: berkembangnya perguruan tinggimenyebabkan banyak arkeolog dari Indonesia bermunculan. Tokoh Palaeontologi Indonesian: TeukuYacoeb (UGM). Namun ada juga ahli luar negeri yang meneliti prasejarah Indonesia: P Bellwood.

Archaeologists have divided the Stone Age into different stages, each characterized by different types of tools or tool-manufacturing techniques. The stages also imply broad time frames and are perceived as stages of human cultural development.

The most widely used designations for the successive stages are Paleolithic (Old Stone Age), Mesolithic (Middle Stone Age), and Neolithic (New Stone Age).

Definit ion (1)

British naturalist Sir John Lubbock in 1865 defined the Paleolithic stage as the period in which stone tools were chipped or flaked. He defined the Neolithic as the stage in which ground and polished stone axes became prevalent.

These two stages also were associated with different economic and subsistence strategies: Paleolithic peoples were hunter-gatherers while Neolithic peoples were farmers.

The Mesolithic (also known as the Epipaleolithic) extends from the end of the Pleistocene Ice Age, about 10,000 years ago, until the period when farming became central to a peoples’ livelihood, which occurred at different times around the world.

The term Mesolithic is generally applied to the period of post-Pleistocene hunting and gathering in Europe and, sometimes, parts of Africa and Asia.

ECOFACT

a biofact (or ecofact) is an object, found at an archaeolo-gical site and carrying archaeological significance, but previously unhanded by humans. A common type of biofact is a plant seed. A seed can be linked to the species of plant that produced it; if large numbers of seeds of an edible species are found at a site, it may be inferred that that species was being grown for food there.

Another type of biofact is an (uncarved) wooden roof beam. Dendrochronological analysis of some wood samples can help to determine the date during which a site was occupied. Yet another example of a biofact is a bone.

ECOFACT EXAMPLES

ARTIFACT

An artefact (from Latin arte factum) or artifact is any object made or modified by a human. "Artifact" is the usual spelling in the US and Canada, "artefact" in the UK, Europe and Australasia.

The term is most commonly used, an artefact is an object recovered by some archaeological endeavor, which may have a cultural interest.

Examples include stone tools such as projectile points, pottery vessels, metal objects such as guns, and items of personal adornment such as buttons, jewellery and clothing.

FEATURE Feature in archaeology and especially excavation has several different but

allied meanings. A feature is a collection of one or more contexts representing some human non-portable activity that generally has a vertical characteristic to it in relation to site stratigraphy.

Examples of features are pits, walls, and ditches. General horizontalelements in the stratigraphic sequence, such as layers, dumps, or surfaces are not referred to as features. Examples of surfaces include yards, roads, and floors.

Features tend to have an intrusive characteristic or associated cuts. This is not definitive as surfaces can be referred to as features of a building and free standing structures with no construction cut can still be features. Middens (dump deposits) are also referred to as features due to their discrete boundaries. This is seen in comparison to leveling dumps, which stretch out over a substantial portion of a site. The concept of a feature is, to a certain degree, fuzzy, as it will change depending on the scale of excavation.

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FEATURES

FOSSILS

Fossils (from Latin fossus, literally "having been dug up") are the preserved remains or traces of animals, plants, and other organisms from the remote past.

The totality of fossils, both discovered and undiscovered, and their placement in fossiliferous (fossil-containing) rock formations and sedimentary layers (strata) is known as the fossil record.

The study of fossils across geological time, how they were formed, and the evolutionary relationships between taxa (phylogeny) are some of the most important functions of the science of paleontology. Such a preserved specimen is called a "fossil" if it is older than some minimum age, most often the arbitrary date of 10,000 years ago.[1]

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FOSSILS EXAMPLES

Analysis: Temporal, Spatial

DATING: FOR TEMPORAL ANALYSIS

“How old is it?” While archaeologists seem to answer this question with ease, the answer is based on difficult science.

Accurately dating an archaeological site requires the application of two distinct methods of dating: relative and

absolute. Relative dating establishes the date of archaeological finds in relation to one another. Absolute dating is the often more difficult task of determining the

year in which an artifact, remain, or geological layer was deposited.

StratigraphyArchaeologists determine the age of artifacts and other remains in relation to each other and to the present through a technique called stratigraphy. This illustration depicts a cross-section into the ground in which many layers of soil, rock, and other materials can be seen. In most cases, objects buried in lower layers, such as the stonework, are older than those in higher layers, such as the skull.

Relative dating relies on the principle of superposition. This principle states that deeper layers in a stratified sequence of naturally or humanly deposited earth are older than shallower layers. In other words, the uppermost layer is the most recent, and each deeper layer is somewhat older.

Relative chronologies come from two sources: (1) careful stratigraphic excavation in the field, noting the precise location of every artifact and remain within layers of earth; and (2) close study of the characteristics of artifacts themselves.

Absolute DatingAbsolute dating, sometimes called chronometric dating, refers to the assignment of calendar year

dates to artifacts, fossils, and other remains. Obtaining such dates is one of archaeology’s

greatest challenges. Archaeologists who specialize in prehistoric periods use a variety of both well-

established and experimental methods for absolute dating of ancient cultures.

Dating to objects of known age: One of the simpler ways to determine the absolute age of an object is to find historical documents or objects of known age that confirm the date, or both.

Tree-ring Dating: Dendrochronology, or tree-ring dating, was originally developed in the Southwest United States using the annual growth rings on long-lived trees, such as bristlecone pine. These growth rings fluctuate in width from year to year, depending on annual rainfall. By studying the growth patterns of many ancient trees that lived for long periods of time, researchers can create so-called master tree-ring patterns. These master patterns can be compared with pieces of wood found in archaeological sites. Thus, archaeologists can use wooden objects, such as house posts, to determine the age of artifacts and other remains.

Radiocarbon Dating: Radiocarbon dating was developed by American chemist Willard Libby and his colleagues in 1949, and it quickly became one of the most widely used tools in archaeology. Radiation from space produces neutrons that enter the earth’s atmosphere and react with nitrogen to produce the carbon isotope C-14 (carbon 14). All living organisms accumulate this isotope through their metabolism until it is in balance with levels in the atmosphere, but when they die they absorb no more. Because the nucleus of C-14 decays at a known rate, scientists can determine the age of organic substances such as bones, plant matter, shells, and charcoal by measuring the amount on C-14 that remains in them.

Radiocarbon (C-14) Dating All living organisms absorb radiocarbon, an unstable form of carbon that has a half-life of about 5,730 years. During its lifetime, an organism continually replenishes its supply of radiocarbon by breathing and eating. After the organism dies and becomes a fossil, C-14 continues to decay without being replaced. To measure the amount of radiocarbon left in a fossil, scientists burn a small piece to convert it into carbon dioxide gas. Radiation counters are used to detect the electrons given off by decaying C-14 as it turns into nitrogen. The amount of C-14 is compared to the amount of C-12, the stable form of carbon, to determine how much radiocarbon has decayed and to date the fossil.

Potassium-argon Dating:Potassium-argon dating provides approximate dates for sites in early prehistory. Geologists use this method to date volcanic rocks that may be as much as 4 billion to 5 billion years old. Potassium is one of the most abundant elements in the Earth’s crust. Many minerals contain radioactive K-40 (potassium 40) isotopes, which decay at a known rate into Ar-40 (argon 40) gas. Scientists use a device called a spectrometer to measure the accumulation of Ar-40 in relation to amounts of K-40. The ratio of these elements can indicate the age of a geologic layer, generally since it last underwent a metamorphosis, such as melting under the heat of molten lava from a volcanic eruption. Thus, geologic layers rich in volcanic deposits lend themselves to potassium-argon dating.

Archaeologists also use more experimental methods of absolute dating. Electron spin resonance (ESR) measures the electrons captured in bone or shell samples up to 2 million years old.

Uranium series dating measures the radioactive decay of uranium isotopes in rocks made up of calcium carbonates, such as limestone and calcite. This technique may be used to date bones and tools embedded in these rocks.

For instance, in 1994 archaeologists Allison Brooks and John Yellen used uranium series dating to determine the age of early African fish spears made of animal bone.

Thermoluminescence is a technique that measures electron emissions from once-heated materials, such as pottery or rocks that were once exposed to solar or volcanic heat.

Many thermoluminescence tests have produced unreliable results. Archaeologists are attempting to refine the technique.

The objects that archaeologists study were all once classified in similar ways by the people who originally made or interacted with those objects. Thus, archaeologists classify their finds to help them understand past cultures.

In archaeology, classification is a research tool that is used to distinguish among different artifacts and other material objects. Archaeologists use various systems of classifying artifacts to organize data into understandable units.

Archaeological classifications describe artifact types, such as different forms of pottery, as well as relationships among different objects of a common type, such as clay vessels. Archaeologists call this system typology—a hierarchical classification based on artifact types and groupings.

After grouping the artifacts from an excavation into specific types, archaeologists determine the sequence in which those artifact types existed in the past. The process of determining this sequence is called seriation. Archaeologists believe that sequences of artifact types, or seriations, illustrate how past cultures changed over long periods of time.

Archaeologists often analyze artifact type sequences from many sites covering large areas of land. The comparison of multiple type sequences can show how particular types of artifacts spread from one group of people to another in the past.

Mexican Pottery Styles Over Time American archaeologist Richard MacNeish used seriation to trace the ancient development of pottery styles in the Tehuacán Valley of Mexico. This illustration depicts a sequence of pottery styles from about 2850 BC to about AD 1500.

For example, during a period of over 1000 years beginning in about 1500 BC, a distinctive shell-ornamented pottery known to archaeologists as Lapita ceramics spread widely from one island to another in the southwestern Pacific.

The continual evolution of Lapita pottery and other items across islands shows that the people maintained an extensive canoe trade in volcanic glass and other materials.

Understand Prehistory EraCompetencies:What Is Prehistory?The Urgencies of Prehistory How Prehistory are?ArcheologyWhat Is Archeology?How archeologist work?Indonesian PrehistoryPrehistory?PerkembanganPembagian Zaman Definition (1)Definition (2)Sources for Indonesian PrehistoryEcofactSlide Number 17ArtifactFeaturefeaturesfossilsFossils examplesSlide Number 23Dating: for Temporal analysisSlide Number 25Relative DatingAbsolute DatingSome Ways for Absolute DatingcontinuingSlide Number 30Slide Number 31Other MethodslanjutanClassificationSeriationSlide Number 36continuingSlide Number 38