Material culture encompasses all human traditions, and spans the gamut of all forms of cultural adaptation predicated on the creation of tools, technologies, and artifact traditions. Examples range from stone tools to housing and monumental works, and their associated residues, middens, and byproducts.
Archaeology Methods
Archaeology Methods encompass both field and laboratory survey and analysis, and while traditional approaches have relied heavily on field excavation and artifact identification and typology, revolutionary new approaches make use of emerging technologies and non-invasive approaches to visualizing archaeological sites and data.
Materials Analysis
Materials Analysis has as its objective the characterization of those artifactual, biological and other natural materials recovered from archaeological contexts. Such studies span the gamut of materials, and draw on technologies and applications from the natural sciences, including imaging, chemical, and radiological approaches.
Experimental Archaeology
Experimental archaeology seeks to test assumptions about human behavior and material culture by virtue of experiments that replicate ancient tools, technologies, and cultural behaviors. Examples include flintknapping, cut mark replication and analysis, and modern material culture studies.
Visualizing Archaeology
Visualizing Archaeology in practice, principle, and instruction prompted the development of this online resource for a practice-based approach to lab and field Methods in historical archaeology. To that end, this website was funded by a CSU Monterey Bay Innovation Grant devoted to instructional technologies applications.
