History 8 Archaeology Concepts

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Concepts

• What is and why is it important?

Geographic imagination is the way we view the rest of the world based on our culture, religion, and place of living. It is important because it helps us understand the views, beliefs, and cultures of different ares. [1]

Explain the four essential rules for an explanation to be considered scientific.

• Maximum Observations with Minimum Assumptions

• Compatible with Well-Established Body of Knowledge

• Tested

• Cannot explain all related observations

Read More: Criteria For Judging Interpretations

• Why can there be exceptions to the essential rules? Explain.
  • These are some of the reasons (but are not limited to) why the essential rules can have certain exceptions:
  • Laws can be contradicted by other laws and still be true.
• An example of this would be:

The law of density says that objects will sink down towards earth when dropped in water. If you put a ship in the water (Even if it is made of metal which is more dense than water), the ship will float.

• • It is possible to make errors in measurement,human or mechanical, that can affect the outcome.
    • An example of this would be :

a scientist is measuring a plank of wood. He uses the "inches" side of the yard stick. Unfortunately, when he puts the numbers into his computer, the measurements were in cm.

• • People may disagree about the outcome because of differing points of view.
  • An example of this would be:

An old bone is found in an earthquake-prone area. The strata layers are also mixed. When one archeologist looks at the bone, he thinks that it is about 600,000 years old while when a geologist looks at it, he thinks that the bone is 1,000,000 years old because of the strata layer.

• Know the funnel of certainty and be able to explain it.

The Funnel of Certainty is a process used to rate explanations, reach probable theories, and finally, determine laws.

• Give and define the characteristics of a good theory

Good theories are simple, powerful, and predictable.

• Define catastrophism

Catastrophism is the opposite of Uniformitarionism (what is excepted now today) and says that big catastrophes cause changes in the earth. It is based the biblical Noah's Flood and supported by actual recorded history. Earths sedimentary layers have fossils that suggest a maritime catastrophe on all of the continents except Antarctica. The moving water laid down layers of the sedimentary rock and the fossils found in these rocks seem to be from animals caught up in the water. Catastophism was used up until the nineteenth century when they then discovered otherwise and switched to Uniformitarionism. Catastrophism can't stand alone as its own theory today because it does not pass the powerful test, but it can work in conjunction with other theories. Catastophism is no longer its own theory because change can occur with out catastrophes.

http://www.catastrophism.net/*

ID James Hutton James Hutton (1726-1797) was a Scottish farmer who is known for his work on the theory of uniformitarianism.

• Charles Lyell Charles Lyell (1797-1875), also known as the father of modern geology, searched for principles that would help scientists unravel the geological history of the world. In the 1830s, Charles Lyell turned to the ideas of James Hutton, which stated that the Earth was not changed by unimaginable catastrophes, but by imperceptibly slow transformations, which we can see today. These ideas formulated the theory known as "uniformitarianism," named this because of Lyell's fierce insistence that the processes that alter the Earth are uniform through time. Using these ideas, he created and developed the "Law of Superposition," which says that, over time, new rock layers were deposited on top of older ones. Therefore, the deepest rock layer of the Earth's crust would be the oldest. The Law of Superposition and uniformitarianism also lead to the understanding of the "rock cycle" as we know it today. Charles Lyell was an influence on mathematicians and scientists alike, namely Charles Darwin. He influenced Darwin so deeply that Charles Darwin himself referred to his "Theory of Evolution," as a sort of biological uniformitarianism.

Sources: The Manual For Cultural Foundations of Ancient Civilizations (complied by Rosie Beniretto and Clay Elliot) & Uniformitarianism: Charles Lyell.

• Define, explain and give an example of each.
• *Uniformitariansim-

• • Superposition

The order of which layers of sediments are deposited above one another. The law of superposition is that the order of sediments is directly related to how old the sediment is. The bottom layer is the oldest, and the top layer would be the youngest. An example would be if you made a PB&J sandwich the slice of bread you placed on top would also be the most recent, therefore youngest, ingredient in the sandwich.

• • Three Age Theory

Developed in 1816 by Christian Thomsen, the Three Age Theory groups artifacts of stone together, artifacts of bronze together, and artifacts of iron together. It also states that every human civilization has gone through three ages: The Stone Age, The Bronze Age, and the Iron Age.

• • Plutarch: Great Men and their Character

Plutarch's Theory of Great Men and their Character was that the actual character of great men drives history. Remember that in this context, by great, it is meant powerful, not necessarily benevolent. For instance, Ivan the Terrible was great, but definitely not good.

**Toynbee:Challenge and Response

**Malthus: Theory of Population

**Darwin: Survival of the Fittest

**Marx: Material Dialectic

**Turner: Geography and the Frontier **Radicals: History is the Story of Who Won

**Boorstin: The Unexpected Daniel J. Boorstin's Theory of the Unexpected states that the future cannot be predicted. That is, ideas and practices simply come together in various places. Change cannot be managed, one can only remain open to change. An example is when Henry Ford created the automobile. He created it to be a more efficient way for people to travel from one place to another. Ford could not have predicted that his invention would trigger a new era of automobiles, and that the fossil fuels used to power them would become a major factor for climate change.

**Cultural Relativism

• Why is history considered to be an interpretation of facts and events?