Unit 1
Introduction to Anthropology and Archaeology

Modern archaeology is viewed as the study of past cultures, through examination of their material remains, in an attempt to discover how people adapted to their world, and why cultures functioned and changed in particular ways. In this unit, we introduce and discuss the goals and basic concepts of modern scientific archaeology.

If you have already taken an introductory archaeology course, the first two units of this course will serve as a review, and you will be able to cover the material fairly quickly. However, if this is your first archaeology course, you will want to read these units carefully, making sure that you understand and can retain the material before proceeding to the third unit.

Objectives

After completing this unit, you should be able to

1. describe the relationship between anthropology and archaeology.
2. describe how the Age of Discovery changed European views about the rest of the world.
3. describe and discuss the goals of anthropological archaeology.
4. explain why context is important to archaeologists, and describe the three kinds of context.
5. define the following terms:
   activity area
   artifact
   assemblage
   attribute
   component
   ecofact
   feature
   horizon
   industry
   settlement system
   site
6. define “cultural ecology,” and explain how archaeologists apply this concept.