what are the advantages and disadvantages of using stratigraphy as an archaeological dating technique?

Answer 1

The advantage is that it is much faster and allows you to date everything found at a certain level. The disadvantage is that you have to know what layer you are at and the date the level was formed. Some layers form very slow so it could be a very rough estimate on the age.

Answer 2

Stratigraphy says that the deeper you dig the older the artifacts. When the artifacts were deposited, people then called it "garbage."

What people throw away tells much about them. Look into you own garbage can, then look at what goes into the recycle pile. Imagine what this can tell you about how you live. There in the garbage is a collection of the food you eat, the mail you get, the stuff you read, plus items that are broken and then thrown away.

All this today goes to a dump. Sorry, landfill. Were you to dig down through the levels of a 50 year old landfill you would see the changes in the way people lived. Take the recycling of aluminum cans. You would today find very few such cans in the trash. However, when you dig deeper you suddenly find many such cans. Going deeper still you find that the aluminum can is replaced with the steel can and then by the glass bottles.

This tells you that 50 years ago most drinks came in glass bottles. Over the years the drinks were packaged first in steel cans, then in aluminum. Finally recycling was introduced and you can see the effects. You can also look at the cans and see how the process of getting the drink out changed. First you had to punch a hole in the can. Then there was the "pull-tab" and finally the "poptop" Given time you would be able to date the cans based simply on how they were made. You might be able to go to the libraray and determine just when recycling went into effect. That would help you date the level of the landfill where the number of cans changed.

That's the process. The "however" is knowing what date to put on the artifact. The plastic bottle is younger then the glass one, but how much? In fact how old are they? Generally stratigraphy works been wen you can connect what you find to artifacts that have know ages.

The problems? I dug one site where the artifact layer of 6,000 years was only a few inches thick. It's hard to date such a thin strata

As the archeologist on that site pointed out there could be 10 gophers in the area, digging 10 hold a year times 6,000 years. Animals, roots, plowing all jumble the strata making new stuff end up under old.

A friend once dug a meter down, finding some stone points along the way. Then he dug up a beer can! The site had been used as a fill and really had no stratigraphy.

Advanatges: Cheap (when carbon 14 goes for several hundred dollars an test), Can connect various sites and date them. Fast. You find a Rose Springs point and then know the date range.

Disadvantages: Doesn't work when the artifacts are tumbled due to plows, roots or animals. The strata may be too thin to cull out each layer. Unless you can link the strata to know sites dating isn't possible

Answer 3

Stratigraphy Dating

Answer 4

Well the advantages are obvious when working on site, it's when you remove the specimens and clean them up, your rendition of where you found your missing link as it were, has to be taken at face value, and , there will always be someone who will accuse you of lying.

Answer 5

But not all artifacts were garbage, I've found a few that still had needle tips that suggest that to point was never used, but was misplaced