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| − | =''Bone from a Dry Sea'' Pages 24-32=
| + | Return to [[History 8 Environment Bone From a Dry Sea]] |
| − | ==Created by Max Blekhman==
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| − | Return to [[History 8 Archaeology Bone From a Dry Sea]] | + | |
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| | + | '''3. How to find fossils:''' |
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| − | == Fossils and Plate Techtonics ==
| + | Fossils are physical evidence from a time or time period prior to recorded human history. An example is in the book ''A Bone From a Dry Sea''on page 26 "On the table were what looked like flakes of stone arranged in rows on two trays. Most of them were smaller than a penny. Between the trays was a rounded blob of Plasticine, onto which a few flakes had been fitted together." This is an example on how to find fossils because they are using a model to help identify the fossil. |
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| − | ===Fossils===
| + | http://www.albertawow.com/fossils/Alberta%20Fossils%208651.JPG |
| − | Fossils are found in sedimentary rock. Sedimentary rock is formed from layers of material deposited and compressed into rock. As such sedimentary rock looks like layers stacked upon each other. As geologic forces move the rock layer, the layers may become tilted at angles, but will always show the layers from the side. Areas of exposed sedimentary rock are often easy to break apart and search for fossils. These areas of exposed rock should be the first place to look when searching for where to find fossils. Great places to find such outcroppings of rock are on river and creek banks and cuts made through hills for roads and railroad tracks. If you believe that you have found a unique and valuable fossil make extensive notes of where you find it. Information that is useful includes the surrounding rock layer from where it was collected in addition to its location.
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| | + | For more information go to: |
| | + | [[http://www.discoveringfossils.co.uk/whatisafossil.htm]] or |
| | + | ''A Bone From a Dry Sea'' |
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| − | [http://www.topnews.in/files/ancient-fish-fossils.jpg]
| + | '''4. Place changes: tectonics''' NOT IN CHAPTER RB |
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| − | For more interesting information about the formation and preservation of fossils, have a look at this video:
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| − | [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3rkGu0BItKM]]
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| − | If you are seriously considering going outside and embarking on you own personal hunt for fossils, be sure to be properly equipped. For all the hunters out there - here's the list [[http://www.ukfossils.co.uk/guides/equipment.htm]]
| + | '''5. Archaeology: Other steps in archaeology''' |
| − | ===Plate Techtonics===
| + | Archaeology is the study of ancient and recent human past through material remains |
| − | The Theory of Plate Techtonics states that Earth's outermost layer, the lithosphere, is broken into 7 large, rigid pieces called plates: the African, North American, South American, Eurasian, Australian, Antarctic, and Pacific plates. Several minor plates also exist, including the Arabian, Nazca, and Philippines plates.
| + | and example of this is in ''A Bone From a Dry Sea'' on page 26 "'Is it someone's skull?' she said 'Correct. A fellow called Homo Habilis, maybe. Maybe not. Looks like we've got about half a cranium, if we can fit it together.'" This is an example of a type of archaeology that is used to help Identify fossils. |
| − | The plates are all moving in different directions and at different speeds (from 2 cm to 10 cm per year - the speed at which your fingernails grow) in relationship to each other. The plates are moving around like cars in a demolition derby, which means they sometimes crash together, pull apart, or sideswipe each other. The place where the two plates meet is called a plate boundary. Boundaries have different names depending on how the two plates are moving in relationship to each other.
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| − | [[http://www.cotf.edu/ete/images/modules/msese/earthsysflr/EFPlateP1.gif]]
| + | http://f.tqn.com/y/archaeology/1/W/M/j/knowth.jpg |
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| | + | Peter Cannon |
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| − | ====Bibliography====
| + | For More information go to: |
| | + | [[http://www.saa.org/ForthePublic/Resources/EducationalResources/ForEducators/ArchaeologyforEducators/WhatisArchaeology/tabid/1346/Default.aspx]] or |
| | + | ''A Bone From a Dry Sea'' by Peter Dickinson |
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| − | [[http://voices.yahoo.com/how-find-fossils-prehistoric-plant-animal-1453979.html]] (How to find fossils)
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| − | [[http://www.topnews.in/files/ancient-fish-fossils.jpg]] (Picture of fossilized fish)
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| − | http://www.cotf.edu/ete/modules/msese/earthsysflr/plates1.html (The Theory of Plate Techtonics)
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| − | [[http://www.cotf.edu/ete/images/modules/msese/earthsysflr/EFPlateP1.gif]] (A picture of the Techtonic Plates)
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| − | http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3rkGu0BItKM (Fossils video. Property of YouTube)
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| − | http://www.ukfossils.co.uk/guides/equipment.htm (Equipment needed to go fossil hunting)
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| | + | Archaeology is the study of past cultures and the way people lived based on material remains. Archaeology consists of more than just discovering and uncovering material remains and is a process that takes many steps. For example, in the book, "A Bone from a Dry Sea", other steps in archaeology is shown after fossil fragments were found and "flakes of stone [were] arranged in rows on two trays...a few flakes had been fitted together to form irregular patches" (26). Even after these archaeologists discovered the fossil fragments, they had to try to put the pieces together. Identifying fossils is another step in the archaeological process besides the discovery of material remains. Without this step, there would be no complete fossil to use as evidence in future studies. Also, it is important to share your finds with the scientific community and the general public so everyone benefits. The sharing of information can be done through magazines, exhibits in museums, web sites, and many more ways. "A Bone from a Dry Sea" portrays the important step of sharing information through the quote, "What he really liked was still fossils...when he died he set up the Craig Museum back in Denver...he put it into his will that it's got to have a paleontology department" (30). In the book, they show the step of sharing information by having a person set up an exhibit in a museum. When scientists share their findings, it helps the whole scientific community to advance further and discover new material remains. |
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| | + | http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/mesozoic/bluenile/gallery/turtle10.jpg |
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| − | ==Sophie Clayton==
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| | + | Sources: |
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| − | ===Archaeology Steps:===
| + | ''Origins Manual page 10'' |
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| | + | "A Bone from a Dry Sea" by Peter Dickinson page 26 and 30 |
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| | + | http://www.saa.org/ForthePublic/Resources/EducationalResources/ForEducators/ArchaeologyforEducators/ArchaeologyandthePublic/tabid/1349/Default.aspx |
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| − | ====1.====
| + | Photo: [http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/mesozoic/bluenile/gallery/turtle10.jpg Fossil Fragments] |
| − | First, pinpoint any archaeological sites in the area by scanning the ground for artifacts or fossils. Another way is to dig holes ~30 cm in diameter, attempting to catch any artifacts. Clusters of artifacts are a sure way to identify a site.
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| − | ====2.====
| + | -Yukiko Chevray |
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| − | After finding an archaeological site, the archaeologist must fill out a site form including:
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| − | -a map showing the location of the site | + | |
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| − | -the geographic location of the site; on a river, on top of a hill, underwater, etc.
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| − | -the recovered artifacts
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| − | -the geological period in which the site was occupied; Archaic, Mississippian, Historic, etc.
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| − | -if the site should be preserved
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| − | Not all sites should be preserved; their areas may have been eroded or washed away by a flood to torrential rains. Sometimes, when sites have few artifacts, the visit to the site may be very short. Another reason is that people collecting artifacts may have damaged the site.
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| − | ====3.====
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| − | Once an archaeologist has decided to perform additional work on a site, they will study the arrangment of artifacts based on earlier surveys and decide where to place larger test units. Test units, or excavation units, are set up by establishing a grid that uses a transit and measuring tape to set stakes in the ground at a set distance, such as every two meters. String is tied to each stake forming a series of squares, or units that form a checkerboard effect over the site. These excavation units are each given a name based on their location on the site map. Every artifact is then labeled with the reference number of the unit in which it was found. This helps us remember its location, or context, once it has been removed from the ground. This also enables the archaeologists to refer to each unit by a specific name. Square holes are more accurate and easier to dig in a pattern, by levels, in order to determine what the stratigraphy of the site looks like. Archaeologists excavate these layers one at a time, trying not to mix them up. This is another way of making sure the context of the artifacts remains intact.
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| − | ====4.====
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| − | Once the grid has been established, the archaeologists can begin excavating. The archaeologists will be careful to excavate only within the excavation unit and to excavate within levels in order to determine the stratigraphy of the site.
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| − | Archaeologists use many different types of tools. Much of the digging is done with shovels and trowels. Occasionally they use large earthmoving equipment, like a backhoe or a bulldozer, when a large amount of dirt has to be moved. When small, delicate things are found, archaeologists may use paint brushes and dental picks. Other items found in an archaeologists tool kit include string, a measuring tape, a plumb bob, camera, recording forms, bags for storing artifacts, flagging tape, bug spray, and sunscreen.
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| − | The dirt that is removed from the ground is screened to make sure artifacts aren’t missed. Screens are usually shallow wood boxes with a wire mesh, like a window screen, on the bottom. Sometimes water is used with the screening, and this is called water screening. The dirt falls through the holes in the wire and the artifacts are left behind. The artifacts are then picked out of the screen and bagged for analysis at the lab.
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| − | http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_yoZVx644Jak/THX4rdxDhXI/AAAAAAAAAWc/XpN6CgOkfyA/s1600/1.jpg
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| − | ====5.====
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| − | Archaeologists working in the field are not only searching for artifacts. They are also looking for soil changes which are known as features. A feature is a disturbance in the ground. Features are often seen as dark stains that were created when the dirt there was previously dug or disturbed in any way. Prehistoric and historic sites often have a large number of features which could include postholes, storage pits, hearths, clay floors, etc. Features provide valuable clues as to how people lived at a site.
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| − | When archaeologists find features they excavate the features before excavating the rest of the unit. Archaeologists try to excavate the most recent soil first. According to the law of superposition, features are more recent intrusions into older soils. When archaeologists excavate features first, they are insuring that not only are they collecting the more recent information first, they are also preventing the feature fill from contaminating the non-feature fill.
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| − | One type of feature is a midden. A midden is an area that was used to dispose of trash and shows up in the stratigraphy as a dark layer of soil with a highly concentrated number of artifacts. Middens are actually exciting for archaeologists to excavate because they can provide much information. Archaeologists sift through other people's trash in order to understand what life was like for the culture they are studying.
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| − | ====6.====
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| − | Archaeology is a very destructive way to understand past events and people. Because of this, archaeologists attempt to document all that they see in the field. Whenever archaeologists find a feature, or a particularly exciting artifact, such as a group of artifacts or a diagnostic artifact, drawings, photographs, and/or maps showing the location of the find are usually taken.
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| − | Additional photographs and maps are taken to document the stratigraphy, with particular emphasis placed on the various colors of the soil which are identified and named based on a standard, the Munsell Soil Color Charts. This provides not only a visual documentation for other archaeologists, who were not in the field, to see what the conditions were like, it also provides a framework for future interpretations to be made.
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| − | Archaeologists try to always have a directional arrow (usually pointing to the North) in order to provide a frame of reference. They also always have a scale in their photographs and drawings.
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| − | Finally, profile drawings are taken of features and test units to depict their size and shape.
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| − | ====7.====
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| − | The final step for archaeologists conducting an excavation is to refill the units or holes that they excavated. Not only does this prevent people or animals from accidently stepping in holes, it also prevents people or animals from destroying or looting sites. For these reasons, this may be the most essential step in an archaeological excavation.
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| − | ===Video:===
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| − | This video is 6 minutes long, but contains a great amount of information about the life of an archaeologist. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vj-Oq8vk3N4
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| − | ===Citations:===
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| − | http://bama.ua.edu/~alaarch/excavationsteps/exstep07.htm Owned by the University of Alabama
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| − | http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vj-Oq8vk3N4 Owned by YouTube
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Fossils are physical evidence from a time or time period prior to recorded human history. An example is in the book A Bone From a Dry Seaon page 26 "On the table were what looked like flakes of stone arranged in rows on two trays. Most of them were smaller than a penny. Between the trays was a rounded blob of Plasticine, onto which a few flakes had been fitted together." This is an example on how to find fossils because they are using a model to help identify the fossil.
Archaeology is the study of past cultures and the way people lived based on material remains. Archaeology consists of more than just discovering and uncovering material remains and is a process that takes many steps. For example, in the book, "A Bone from a Dry Sea", other steps in archaeology is shown after fossil fragments were found and "flakes of stone [were] arranged in rows on two trays...a few flakes had been fitted together to form irregular patches" (26). Even after these archaeologists discovered the fossil fragments, they had to try to put the pieces together. Identifying fossils is another step in the archaeological process besides the discovery of material remains. Without this step, there would be no complete fossil to use as evidence in future studies. Also, it is important to share your finds with the scientific community and the general public so everyone benefits. The sharing of information can be done through magazines, exhibits in museums, web sites, and many more ways. "A Bone from a Dry Sea" portrays the important step of sharing information through the quote, "What he really liked was still fossils...when he died he set up the Craig Museum back in Denver...he put it into his will that it's got to have a paleontology department" (30). In the book, they show the step of sharing information by having a person set up an exhibit in a museum. When scientists share their findings, it helps the whole scientific community to advance further and discover new material remains.
