Bule Hora University

College of Social Sciences and Humanities

Department of History and Heritage

Management

Course: Introduction to Archaeology

Course Code: Hihm 2441
By: Kefale Getnet
 Unit One
Introduction to Study Archaeology

• 1.1 Meaning of Archaeology: Archaeology is a

scientific study of the physical evidence of past human
societies, which is recovered through scientific methods of
excavation. Archaeology studies the past through the material
remains of human’s past.
• Archaeology is the collection of methods, techniques, and
analytical procedures that scholars use in their attempt to
understand the events that took place in the past.
• Others defined that archaeology is a science that studies every
thing that remains from the past with aim of reconstructing that
past as fully as possible. The word Archaeology derived from
two Greek words: “Archaeo`s”, which means ancient and
“Logia”, which means the study.
 Con’td
• According to Gumerman, the characteristics of
archaeological resources are the consistence of
physical evidence, scientific and research value,
aesthetic value, age and are nonrenewable.

• To study these remains, archaeologists make use of

ideas, methods, and techniques derived from geology,
biology, chemistry, physics, anthropology and other
fields of study. More often archaeologists develop
their own techniques and methods. Archaeologists not
only attempt to discover and describe past cultures,
but they are also interested to explain the development
of these cultures.
 1.2The Concerns of Archaeology and its origin

Historically, the goals of archaeologist in

researching and interpreting their materials
anchored on five pillars.These are:
1. Archaeologists are interested in building the
time and space framework for the past; which
includes answering the who, what, where and
how questions of the human prehistory.
2. Archaeologists try to understand how humans
lived in the past. This includes what kinds of
houses they built? What kinds of food they ate?
How did they make their living?
 Con’td
3. Archaeologists want to be able to answer the why
questions of human prehistory that is to explain change
takes place societies’ culture. More recently,
archaeologists had added two additional goals described
below
4. Archaeologists want to understand the nature of the
archaeological data itself. That is they try to work out the
relationship between the discovered material tools of the
past (like stone tool or pottery) and the human behaviour
that produced them
5. Finally, archaeologists are interested to preserve the
past to the future
 1.3 Origin of Archaeology
• the origin of archaeology goes far more than
2500 years. Nabonidus, the last king of
Babilon excavated the temples of gods at
Nippur, to try to find out who built the temple.
His daughter Ennigaldi- Nanna collected the
local antiquates displayed them in one of the
world`s first known museum in the city of Ur
which is located near Euphrates River.
• The Greek Historian Thucididus also
described how the Athenians excavated the
ancient graves in the island of Delos and
interpreted the artifacts in terms of the politics
 Con’td
• A new era in classical archaeology begun in
the 18th century with the first archaeological
excavation made to reveal the lost Italian cities
of Pompii, Aericulaneum and stabiae.
• In the subsequent centuries archaeological
interest and discoveries gradually continued.
The 20th century in particular was a turning
point for the development of archaeology,
because it was during the time that carbon
dating method was developed
 1.4 Nature and Scope of Archaeology
Archaeology is an interdisciplinary science which related to
other field of studies such as history anthropology, botany,
biology and linguists. When we specifically see the interface
between Archaeology and History both studies the human
past. It studies from the pre-history to modern history as well
as present culture.
Archaeology and Prehistory
• The study of archaeology is closely associated with the period
of prehistory. Prehistory is the period of human past where
writing in alphabetical manner did not develop. In other
words, prehistory is referred to the period before the advent of
writing.
• Thus, the study of archaeology before the advent of writing
system is known as prehistoric archaeology, while the study of
archaeology after the development of writing is known as
historic archaeology.
 1.5. Archaeology and Museum
• Conventionally speaking, the collection and
classification of archaeological materials started in
Denmark, Scandinavia, by the Danish National
Museum since 1800s. The first such museum curator
was Christian J. Thomson (1788 – 1865).
• Thomson had successfully collected and classified the
great human antiquities into three successive ages:
the Stone Age, the Bronze Age and the Iron Age. He
classified each group of age material chronologically
by using the materials’ stylistic similarity. This has
been termed as the Three Age System. Thomson was
assisted and later succeeded by Jens Worsaae (1821 -
1885), who is now recognized as one of the founders
of the discipline of archaeology.
 1.7. Types of Archaeology

• Archaeology can be classified in to different categories based on two issues

• These are
• Based on time sequences
• Based on ways of study
•
• Based on time sequences archaeology classified in to three categories. These
are:
1.Pre historical archaeology: It is the types of archaeology which studies before
the beginning of writing system.
2. Historical archaeology: It is the type of archaeology which study after the
beginning of writing system and depending on documented historical accords
which transfer from one generation to next generation. E.g. Archival records ,
books and brochures.
3. Proto historical archaeology. It is also known as ethnoarchaeology which
focused on the present society. It studies the socio-cultural interaction of the
current society.
•
•
 Based on ways of study

• Archaeoastronomy
• It is generally defined as the study of beliefs
and practices concerning the sky in the past,
particularly in the absence of written records,
and the uses to which people’s understanding
of the sky was put.
• The term ‘archaeoastronomy’ came into use in
the 1970s, amid efforts to resolve a
long-running dispute between leading
archaeologists and professionals from other
disciplines, mostly astronomers.
 Con’td
B.Archaeogenetics: is may be defined as the study
of the human past using the techniques of molecular
genetics. This is a rapidly evolving field in which
some of the key ideas are
still being worked out.
C. Cognitive archaeology :is the study of past ways
of thought as inferred from the surviving material
remains. Although in the broad sense this initiative
might be regarded as including any attempt to
reconstruct
 Con’td

D. Environmental Archaeology

In the years that immediately followed the publication of Charles

Darwin’s Origin of
Species (see p. 70), a series of interconnected debates and discoveries laid
the foundation
for environmental archaeology.

E. Ethno archaeology: is the study of present-day lifestyles to enable

understanding of the processes that generate archaeological evidence, or
are responsible for its preservation or destruction.

Ethnoarchaeology usually involves fieldwork, which might be

complemented by archival research or the analysis of museum collections,
 Con’td
F. Experimental Archaeology: is the
investigation of archaeological issues using
experiments.
It has been part of archaeology from the very
beginning of the discipline. As artifacts
were identified and sorted into chronological
sequences, so assumptions were made about
their manufacture and use.
 Archaeology Vs History:
• Both archaeology and history are interrelated
discipline they focused on past culture. But there
are the following basic differences
 History is mainly dependent on written records and
therefore concerns itself with particular human
past that is recorded in the documents.
 Archaeology on the other hand studies the past in
terms of things that peoples made.

 History is dependent on documents which are

usually incomplete, may be biased or incomplete.
 Con’td

 On the other had archaeology reveals the details of

everyday life relatively balanced view of the past
 History deals with the literary society, which is the
tiny portion of man`s story. Archaeology on the other
hand can tell us the history of illiterate (primitive) and
less advanced society.
 Archaeology also takes in to account the study of the
learned society, which is the concern of history, it
deals only one percent of human past, that can be
studied through written documents while remaining
99 percent has left no written records and thus outside
the bounds of history and is the subject of
Archaeology.
 Con’td
• Even the portion of history`s one percent of
human past also belongs to archaeology. This
portion in which archaeology and history
overlaps is called Histrio- archaeology
• Archaeologists work is intimately found to the
material aspects of the culture, while historians
particularly focus on the non-material aspects
of the culture.
 Chapter Two
2. Theories in Archaeology
2.1 Early archaeological theories

A. Cultural-Historical Archaeology :In this part we

have two types concept. These are
• Diffusionism and Migration
• Diffusion is a concept that describes the transfer of
material traits from one culture to
another.
• It was linked to a ‘culture historical’ framework of
interpretation that identified archaeological
cultures with peoples or ethnic groups
 Con’td
• Diffusion covers a whole range of social,
economic and cultural transfers that may have
different impacts.
• Andrew Sherratt has in several studies traced the
diffusion of new technological innovations and
economic practices, such as plaguing and the
use of wheel, wagon and draft animals, which
spread from the Near East to Eurasia during the
later fourth millennium BC.
 Con’td

On the other hand migrations (population

movements) were thought to be the motor of
change.
Gordon Childe is often referred to as a
propagator of such a perspective,
especially in his major synthesis.
From the 1960s onwards this culture historical
research tradition was replaced by a new
theoretical framework that gave priority to
internal forces of social, economic and cultural
change.
 2.2 Processual Archaeology

• Processual archaeology, also called the ‘New

Archaeology’,
• It has been a highly influential theoretical and
methodological approach in the discipline of
anthropological archaeology since the early 1960s.
• The major thrust of this approach has been the
contention that the understanding of the causes of
culture change (process) in varying environmental
and cultural settings should be the principal goal of
archaeology.
• Processual archaeology has been dynamic in its
development, and the approach has significantly
changed over the past four decades.
 Con’td
• Processual archaeology is a form of
archaeological theory that had its genesis in 1958
• The more advocators of this theory are
 Gordon Willey and Philip Phillips
 Colin Renfrew
 Lewis Binford
According to this theory goals of archaeology were,
in fact, the goals of anthropology, which were to
answer questions about humans and human society.
 Con’’td

• Processual archaeology originated in

American Archaeology, where analysing
historical change over time had proved difficult
with existing technology.

• The theoretical frame at the heart of processual

archaeology is cultural evolutionism.
• Processual archaeologists are, in almost all
cases, cultural evolutionists. It is from this
perspective that they believe they can
understand past cultural systems through the
remains they left behind.
 Con’td

• The new methodological approaches of the

processual research paradigm include
logical positivism (the idea that all aspects of
culture are accessible through the material record),
the use of quantitative data, and the hypothetico
-deductive model (scientific method of observation
and hypothesis testing).
• During the late 1960s and into the 1970s,
archaeologist Kent Flannery began championing the
idea that Systems theory could be used in
archaeology to attack questions of culture from an
unbiased perspective.
 Criticism of Processual Archaeology
• Processualism began to be critiqued soon after it
emerged, initiating a theoretical movement that
would come to be called post-processualism. Post-
processualist critics consider the main weaknesses
of processual archaeology to be:
 Environmental determinism
 Lack of human agency
 View of cultures as homeostatic, with cultural
change only resulting from outside stimuli
 Failure to take into account factors such as gender,
ethnicity, identity, social relations, etc.
 Supposed objectivity of interpretation
 Post-Processual archaeology
• Post-processual archaeology, which is sometimes
alternately referred to as the interpretative
archaeologies by its adherents.
• is a movement in archaeological theory that emphasizes
the subjectivity of archaeological interpretations.
• Post-processualism consists of "very diverse strands of
thought coalesced into a loose cluster of traditions". [3]
Within the post-processualist movement, a wide variety
of theoretical viewpoints have been embraced,
including structuralism and Neo-Marxism, as have a
variety of different archaeological techniques, such as
phenomenology.
 Con’td
• The post-processual movement originated in
the United Kingdom during the late 1970s and
early 1980s.
• The advocators of this theory include:
• pioneered by archaeologists such as :
• Ian Hodder, Daniel Miller, Christopher Tilley and
Peter Ucko.
• Initially post-processualism was primarily a
reaction to and critique of processual
archaeology, a paradigm developed in the 1960s
by 'New Archaeologists' such as Lewis Binford,
 Con’td

• Post-processualism was heavily critical of a key tenet of

processualism, namely its assertion that archaeological
interpretations could, if the scientific method was
applied, come to completely objective conclusions.
 Post-processualists also criticized previous
archaeological work for overemphasizing materialist
interpretations of the past and being ethically and
politically irresponsible.
• In the United States, archaeologists widely see post-
processualism as an accompaniment to the processual
movement, while in the United Kingdom, they remain
largely thought of as separate and opposing theoretical
movements.
 Approaches to Post Processual Archaeology

• A. Subjectivism: Unlike processual, post processual

archaeology emphasized on archaeology was subjective
rather than objective, and that what truth could be
ascertained from the archaeological record .
• B. Interpretation: Due to the fact that they believe
archaeology to be inherently subjective, post-
processualists argue that "all archaeologists... whether
they overtly admit it or not", always impose their own
views and bias into their interpretations of the
archaeological data.
• C. Materialism and Idealism: the post-processualists
argued that past societies should be interpreted through
both materialist and idealist ideas.
 Con’td
D. Structuralism: itself was a theory developed by
the French anthropologist Claude Lévi-Strauss
(1908–2009), and held to the idea that "cultural
patterns need not be caused by anything outside
themselves… and that] underlying every culture was
a deep structure, or essence, governed by its own
laws.
 Within the post-processual movement, Ian Hodder
became "the leading exponent of a structuralism
approach.
E. Human agency: argue that humans are free
agents who in many cases act in their own interests
rather than simply following societal rules.
 Chapter -Three:
3. Archaeological Data and Methods of Data
Recovery
• 3.1 Meaning of site and Site Formation process:
Sites are a place were in which different
archaeological material are found togethers.This
area may contains different datas and materials
which prsereved for a long period of time. But The
material remains have not come down to us
unchanged.
• All of the ‘objects’ that archaeologists study—
artefacts, plant and animal remains, and architectural
spaces—have been altered in significant ways by
archaeological formation processes (also known as
‘site’ formation processes).
 Con’td
• Archaeological formation processes (also known as
‘site’ formation processes). refers to all of the
behavioural, mechanical and chemical processes that
have modified an object, from the time it was first
made or used by people until its remains are
recovered and studied.
• Formation processes can modify or obliterate
important evidence of past human activities.
• Some of the earliest examples of research into
archaeological formation processes date to the early
nineteenth century, when claims were made that
geological deposits of great age, in Europe
 Types of formation process
• In archaeology there are two types of formation process.
These are:
A. Natural formation process: It is a formation process
which created due to natural factors such as
volcanes,erosion and natural agenets.
Some processes alter objects physically, fragmenting or
eroding them. Others can move objects away from their
places of use in past activities; objects that were habitually
used together.
Archaeologists ascertain how formation processes have
modified the portion of the archaeological record because
these effects have implications for the kinds of questions
 Con’td

• B. Cultural formation process:human activities

that leave material traces on archaeological
remains. There is also a host of non-cultural or
environmental formation processes that the
archaeologist must contend with: forces of nature
(animals, chemical or physical processes) that act
upon objects.
• cultural formation processes in new directions,
making it possible to study aspects of past human
behaviour that were previously less accessible.
Sometimes cultural formation processes
themselves take centre-stage.
 3.2 Archaeological Data
What is Archaeological Data?
• Material objects or remains of the past, which are being
recovered through archaeological excavation, are
known as archaeological record or archaeological
data. Archaeological data can be classified into three
major forms: artefact, eco-fact and features:
• Artefacts: are any movable archaeological object made,
modified or utilized by human. A good example of
artefact includes stone tools, potteries, metals and
others. In archaeological excavation a group of artifacts
found and deposited together is called an assemblage.
•
 Con’td
• Eco-facts – ecofacts are any flora or fauna
archaeological remains left directly by the natural
environment, not intentionally produced by man.
Examples of ecofacts include food west materials,
animals’ bones or fossils, plant bodies and their
seeds.
• Features-features are on the other hand any
immovable product of human activity that is fixed to
the ground like ruins of buildings and monuments.
Examples of features include palaces, shrines, stales,
temples, churches, mosques and residential houses.
•
 3.3 Methods of Archaeological studies
• If you are the archaeologist, what will be your first
task? Your first task should be making your research
design. Research design includes, basically, setting the
plan of archaeological excavation - answering the
questions why you do the excavation, how you do it,
who will do it, where to do it and what you expect to
achieve.
• Your next task will be setting your representative
sample or quadrant area. This is followed by
archaeological dating, classification and conservation.
Finally, the finding will be usually accessible for
researchers and scientists for further explanations and
hypothesis
 Types of field Methods
• There are two basic types archaeological field
methods. These are:
1. Survey: It refers to try and employ a systematic
way of identifying a possible archaeological site.
This systematic way or process of identification of
an archaeological site is known as archaeological
reconnaissance.
Reconnaissance is used to discover sites, surface
survey is used to extract data from the surface of
sites, and to gain at least a preliminary assessment
of what lies beneath the surface.
 Signposts for Archaeological
Reconnaissance/Survey
i. Literatures, and Previous Researches and
Discoveries: Archaeological reconnaissance can
be performed by using some information derived
from previous researches collected in the area.
This information might be known through
previous archaeological investigation and
researches or oral information.
Eg Great East African Rift Valley.
ii. Surface Land and Vegetation Features :sites
are sometimes recognized through the
topographic and vegetation from.
 Con’td

iii). Legends or Oral Information: – sometimes

were written document is so rare or nonexistent,
which is more common in third world, using
legends as a signpost of archaeological survey
becomes so essential.
IV). Luck or Chance: – in many parts of the world
archaeological sites were discovered by chance or
accident. This happens while the archaeological site
is continuously eroded by natural factors like water
and wind or human factors like construction of
buliding , roads , railway and hydraulics' works.
• For instance, site of Melka Kunture
 Two Basic Methods Archaeological
Reconnaissance and Surface survey
A. Direct Observation – direct observation is the oldest and
most common method of searching a study area is by
visual inspection at ground level. For the direct
observation process a well-defined square meter, sample
areas, will be made using rope, which is traditionally
known as squad.
B. Remote Sensing – this involves the technique of
identifying previously unknown archaeological sites or in
many cases identifying the archaeological content of a
particular site already known. The observer who is using
the method has no direct contact with the archaeological
remains.It may perform from Air or ground
 2. Excavation
• Excavation is the most important source of new
information in archaeology. If reliable data are to be
recovered, excavation techniques must be sound.
• Although major modern excavations involve complex
technical equipment under the control of virtuoso
directors, the basic principles are comparatively simple
and have changed little since their importance was first
recognized.
• The process of excavation incorporates two approaches
that are frequently in conflict: the exposure of vertical
sequences of layers, and the definition of horizontal plans
of occupation level
•
 Excavation Techniques and Instruments
• When archaeologist to excavate sites the may
have the following instruments/materials
 Shovels
 Vechiels
 Gps(Geographic position system )
 Radiometeric
 Rope and capes
 The Principle of Archaeological Stratigraphy during
Excavation

• Stratification can be defined as any number of relatable

deposits of archaeological strata (layer) which are the result
of ‘successive operations of either nature or mankind’. On the
other hand, Stratigraphy is the study of archaeological
strata, with a view to arranging them in a chronological
sequence.
• The principle of superposition of strata holds that layers of
soil (or any other material) are deposited in chronological
order, with the oldest at the bottom. With distinct horizontal
layers, the lowest is clearly the oldest. In practice,
stratification rarely consists of horizontal layers, but is
complicated by disturbances by human and natural activity –
which is called archaeological disturbance.
 Chapter - Four: Analysis and Interpretation of Archaeological Data

4.1 Data processing and Classification:

Data processing refers to the way of collecting from the field
up to brining it for stores up to putting in to museums.
In the field archaeologists may discover, identify, collect and
record the data. But identifying the have to study and
interprate in their level of understanding.
Data processing also include studing the collections in the
form of Experiential activities.
Classification of Data

• The principle of typological sequence can be

applied also to artifact assemblages. The
technique called serration. This technique dates a
site based on the relative frequency of types of
artifacts whose dates of use or manufacture are
known.
• The basic assumption underlying serration is that
the popularity of culturally produced items [such
as clay pipes or obelisk gravestone markers in
America] varies through time.
 Con’td

• Certain types of artifacts have been identified as

particularly useful temporal markers, for example,
gravestones, projectile points, lamps, pottery shreds.
• Serration can be classified in to two
• I. Contextual serration: This consists making a
typological inventory of the artifacts from the single
assembledge and listing the artifact types on the
separate silp of the paper
• II. Frequency serration: It is usually applied to
ceramic assemblages by measuring the change in the
proportional abundance of the ceramic style
•
 Analysis and Interpretation of Data

• When we interpret the archaeological data we

have to take in to account style.
• Style: understanding the social condition of the
production and its pattering.
• Typology: It differs fundamentally from
classification of objects. It studies classes of
artifacts from the point view of develoments and
changes that may allow placed them hypothetical
chronological order.
• Until recently typology is associated with three
age system i.e Stone age, Iron age and Bronze age.
 Con’ td

• The benfits of careful designed sampling stratage

for sites, dating evidence and soil type are
apparent when the result interprated.
• Furthermore, sites of all periods could be related
to the agricultural potential of the soil type on
which they were located.
• No trace of occupation by late Stone Age
(mesolithic) hunter-gatherers was encountered,
possibly because coastal sites disappeared when
sea levels rose after the Ice Age, while inland sites
were buried by later soil erosion.
 Con’td
• The first settled farmers of the Neolithic period
lived in small sites dispersed over the highest
quality soils.
• In the Bronze Age, settlement was wider (but still
dispersed) and included monuments such as stone
cairns and boundaries situated on stonier ground.
• In the Iron Age all available types of soil were
used for the first time, and large defended centres
appeared amongst the scattered settlements.
• The final publication of the Dalmatian survey will
contain many more hypotheses and tests.
 Analysis
• It is one thing to collect and quantify survey
data, but quite another to interpret it in human
terms, when the only information available is
whatever happened to show up on the surface
during a seasonof fieldwork.
• The finds will also have been affected by
numerous ‘transforms’ over the years, of course.
However, archaeologists only make progress by
testing ideas against data, for without the
demand made by the process of interpretation
there would be no reason to improve methods of
data collection.
 Chapter - Five: Dating in Archaeology
5.1 Dating Archaeological materials
• There are two types of dating in archaeology:
These are:
A. Relative Dating:Relative dating is the science
of determining the relative order of past events (i.e.,
the age of an object in comparison to another),
without necessarily determining their absolute age.
Archaeologists and Geologists used this technique
to determine ages of materials.
In Archaeology Relative dating refers to a technique
of placing assemblages of artifacts in time,
 Con’td
• Relative chronology includes: To put in to sequence
archaeological strata, in stratigraphic excavation, to put
artifacts in to typological sequences, and in to
environmental sequence.
• Dating techniques used by Archaeologists to establish
a Relative chronology.
• 1. Stratigraphy or the Law of Superposition
• Stratigraphy is the starting point for developing time
sequences at the site and determining the relative ages
of artifacts within the site.
• This technique helps the archaeologist arrange the site
in a vertical temporal sequence, which may then be
compared to sites of similar age or type.
 Con’td

• Stratigraphic sequences in the field, however, are

sometimes unreliable. Suppose the inhabitants of a
previous site dug a large hole.
• Stratigraphic levels can be horizontal as well as vertical.
• On beaches, where the configuration of the shoreline has
changed through time, the earliest site may be inland, the
later site closest to shore.
• Stratigraphic interpretation is based on the key concept of
association. Association refers to that when two or more
artifacts, features and structures along with ecofacts were
found in association with the same archaeological
stratum, they became buried at the same time.
• Generally, when we study the stratigraphy it is crucial to
understand the sequence of the different strata and the
relationship among them.

Fig 1 It show strata (the assumption is that the bottom is older

than the top)
 2. Relative dating through typology

• It is based on the following principle

• The product of the given period and place have a
recognizable style,charctestics of the society that produce
them
• Change in style that means i.e. shape and decoration of
artifact is often is quite gradual or evolutionary.
• Serration can be classified in to two
• I. Contextual serration: This consists making a typological
inventory of the artifacts from the single assembledge and
listing the artifact types on the separate silp of the paper
• II. Frequency serration: It is usually applied to ceramic
assemblages by measuring the change in the proportional
abundance of the ceramic style
 3.Enivrirnomental sequences;

• This type of dating system reflecting climate

fluctuation at local, regional and global scale as
well to provide a relative dating.
• They are based of Geological, Gemorphological,
sedimontological and faunal evidence.
• When we construct the environmental situation of
a certain region we can know the relative date of
the associated material.
 Absolute Dating
• The proper meaning of absolute dating is that it is
independent of any other chronology or dating
technique, that it is based only on currently
measurable quantities.
• We have seen that, by 1950, a number of dating
techniques had emerged that could offer
chronological frameworks for the study of
prehistory at least as reliable
• Absolute dating consists of a verity of physical
and chemical method to get an absolute calendar
date on the finding.
 Con’td
• . Some of the examples of absolute dating
methods include
 Radiometric clocks,
 potassium-argon dating, and
 fission-track dating and geomagnetic
reversals.
 Radioactive decay
• One of the successful developments in the
early twentieth century dating method is
radiometric methods relying upon radioactive
decay for dating geological periods.
Radioactive Decay
• Several scientific dating techniques exploit the phenomenon of
radioactive decay, including those first used to date the age of the
Earth in the early years of the twentieth century
• The speed of decay is expressed as the half-life, the time taken for
half of the total radioactivity to decay; this may vary from seconds
to millions of years by emitting large quantities of acidic ash.
Radiocarbon ating|
• Amongst the numerous peaceful by-products of accelerated
wartime research into atomic physics
• and radioactivity in the 1940s was radiocarbon dating. The rate
of decay of carbon-14, which has a half-life of 5730 years, is long
enough to allow samples of carbon as old as 70,000 years to
contain detectable levels of radioactive emissions,