Environmental Archaeology Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Environmental Archaeology - Essay Example There are two broad categories of dating used in assessing the age of archaeological remains these two broad categories are namely absolute methods, and relative methods. The absolute dating methods depend on using several physical properties of a sample or object to compute its age. Relative dating methods inform only on the relative difference in age between two samples (Branch, 2005). On the contrary, absolute dating methods give an actual date in terms of years. Several absolute dating methods make use of radioactive decay. This is whereby a radioactive structure of an element is transformed into a new non-radioactive product or radioactive isotope at a standard rate (Wilkinson and Stevens, 2003). Others like cation-ratio dating and amino acid racimization are founded on chemical transforms in the inorganic or organic composition of a model. In contemporary years, a number of these techniques have experienced continual improvement as scientists endeavor to develop the perfect dat ing methods possible (O'Connor and Evans, 2008). Examples of absolute methods include: a) Dendrochronology. b) Radiocarbon dating. c) Optical dating or optically motivated luminescence. d) Thermoluminescence dating. e) Potassium-argon dating. f) Archaeomagnetic dating. g) Numismatics. h) Magnetic Properties of Lead. i) Obsidian hydration dating j) Amino acid dating. k) Rehydroxylation dating Relative Techniques Indirect or relative methods tend to utilize associations assembled from archaeological bodies of data. An illustration is seriation. Fundamentally, relative dating depends on attaching into absolute dating with regard to the present. One case in point of this is dendrochronology which employs a method of attaching floating chronologies of tree rings collectively through cross referencing a work body (Albarella, 2001). In practice a number of diverse dating techniques ought to be applied in various circumstances, consequently dating evidence for a large amount of an archaeolo gical sequence documented in the course of an excavation necessitates matching data from identified absolute or a number of related steps, with a vigilant study of stratigraphic interactions. What Is Paleoethnobotany and What Types of Evidence (Data Sources) Does This Research Specialization Use to Examine These Relationships? What are some of the Strengths and Limitations of This Specialization? Paleoethnobotany, also referred to as archaeobotany, is the study of human-plant correlations. Paleoethnobotany is a vital constituent of a wide-ranging study of every archaeological site, as well as lithic,  ceramic or faunal analysis. Classification,  analysis, as well as interpretation  of the plants obtained from an archaeological site  may present insight into  historical subsistence, environment, and economy (Branch, 2005). There are several types of data sources that are employed in this research specialization in order to examine these relationships. Types of Data Sources The central bodies of conjecture for the life sciences encompass evolution and genetics in a broad sense. Taxonomy which is the presumption of formal categorization and systematics is fundamental to identification and