arceholgy

cult archeology

 use of archaeology to justify and reinforce specific meanings, symbolism, identities, and confirmations of eccentric beliefs; described by John Cole

cult archeology characteristics

self importance, delusions of grandeur, paranoia, martyrdom, misuse of logic and evidence. misunderstanding of scientific method, internal contradictions

cult archeology examples

Nazca lines (can only seen from space so must be from aliens); Erich von Daniken’s gods from outerspace; psychic archeology (paranormal ideas infused into archeology; ley lines); Graham Hancock and arc of the covenant

folk archeology

unscientific hypotheses of untrained amateurs, pursued because of cultural reinforcements; described by Micheal Michlovic

folk archeology example

Kensington rune stone (discovered in 1898 and debunked in 1915) (inscription describes visit of Vinland Norse in 1362; they were probably attacked by native Indian groups.)

illicit archeology

destructive, market-driven theft and sale of antiquities; described by George Miller

illicit archeology example

auctioning of materials from the Geldermasan by Christie’s catalogue and Micheal Hatcher (Dutch East India Company Ship that sunk off coast of Indonesia in 1752)

archeology etymology

“old” + “body of knowledge”

true or false: archeology is primarily understood as fieldwork, but includes many more kinds of research

true

true or false: archeology is mostly a scientific study with some humanistic aspects

true

true or false: archeology is mostly a humanistic study with some scientific aspects

false

archeology is the only mean of studying the human past where _______

here were no written documents produced

true or false: archeology can be applied to recorded historic periods for information that was never recorded

true

archeology began as _____ but now incorporates _______

treasure hunting; precise methodology

true or false: archeology is the only way to study long-range trends in human cultural evolution

true

goals of archeology

1. establish culture history (began in antiquity)

2. reconstructing past lifeways (began in the 1950s)

3. explaining culture change (began in the 1960s)

1950s archeologists wanted to know

how people lived their lives

1950s needed to know about

ancient environments; economic pursuits based on plant and animal remains; tools used and ancient technologies that exploited raw materials to make things

diagenesis

the physical and chemical processes that affect sedimentary materials after deposition and before discovery.

pollen (and other natural material that inform about environment) can be recovered from _______

soil cores

recovery of animal bones shows _____

the species hunted or herded, the ages when killed,  the parts of the skeleton that were preferentially kept within the site, and markings on the bones indicating butchering patterns or wear from the use of the bones as tools.

interest in studying prehistory began in

antiquity

there was a revival in in classic antiquity during

the renaissance

interactions with non-European cultures during the age of exploration explained

stone tools

the age of reason came with

rise of secularism and science

dilettanti

led to the origins of art historical archeology and “traditional” archology studying great civilizations

pompeii and herculaneum discoveries

dilettanti; excavation in 1700

rosetta stone discovered in what year"?

1799

Joachim Winckelmann

dilettanti; had secret cabinet collection of art objects

Elgin marbles discovered what years?

1801-1804

Austin Henry Layard and Paul Emile Botta

excavation of Assyrian palaces; 19th century

 Jean-François Champollion le jeune

deciphered Egyptian in 1822

Henry Crewicke Rawlinson

deciphered Akkadian cuneiform in 1835

antiquarians

interest in curiosities; focus on objects of everyday past life

James Ussher

(1581-1656) 6000 year bible year chronology

John Frere

discovered flint weapons in Britain in 1797

George Cuvier

catastrophism/multiple creations (1816)

James Hutton

uniformitarian theory (1788, 1795)

Charles Lyell

Principles of Geology (1830-33)

Charles Darwin

(1809-1882)

influenced by Malthus and Lyell

species change over time due to gene pool shifts “descent with modification”

early ancestor finds not recognized as other human species

Gibraltar (1848); Neandrethal (1856)

first Neadrethals recognized

Spy (1886)

Lartet and Christy

(1861-65) excavations of French caves

Edward Tylor and Lewis Henry Morgan

19th century; unilineal evolutionary schemes

Gabriel de Mortillet

devised cultural sequences

unilineal cultural evolution order

savagery—>barbary—>civilization

Franz Boas

late 19th, early 20th centuries

importance of data gathering over theorizing

Franz Boas’ 4 categories of anthro

1. cultural anthro

2. archeology

3. bio anthro

4. linguistic anthro

V. Gordon Childe

20th century

systematic interpretation of cultural development using trait lists

Oasis Theory

William Duncan Strong

US 1920s

direct historical method

W.C. McKern

midwestern taxonomic system

midwestern taxonomic system

tally all sites of US Great Plains; connecting territories to time and culture; tree ring data

dendrochronology invented

1930

radiocarbon invented

1949

culutral ecology created in

1950s and 1960s

Julian Steward

cultural ecology

Lewis Binford

processual archeology or “new archology” (1960s-)

processual archology

Idea that culture change was a process and that its trajectory and causes could be gleaned from incomplete material remains using new tactics in evidence gathering; Use of statistics to test; emphasis on variability and discovery of patterns; Hypothetico-deductive methods; Cultural systems thinking and model building to look for general “rules” that cultures follow

nomological

used to suggest there were laws of cultural behavior (idea abandoned) (processual)

ethnoarchology was used by processualists to

control middle range theory (vs general theory)

post-processual

(1980s-)

focus on non-ecological and non-economic factors influencing human behavior; psychological, religous, symbolic, ethetic, etc agencies

multivocality

Ian Hodder

(1948-)

post-processualism

site formation process

what forces led to the creation of an archaeological deposit

matrix

processes leading to burial; nature of the enclosing soil; physical substance that surrounds the find

provenience

findspot

provenance

-lifespan of artifact

-where was it made

-where materials came from

-where it was used

deposition examples

disregard; recycling; heirlooms; renovation

organic materials do not preserve well except for:

in water logging (wetlands, wells, bogs)

aridity

freezing

volcanic ash

carbonizing

steps of doing archeological research

research design: lit review, figuring out problem to solve, apply for permit, scientific plan; staff and budget; obtain cooperation of specialists

data collection: equipment; preparedness for the unexpected; conservation capability; record keeping; survey and excavation components; sampling

analysis: coordinating specialized investigations on finds; synthesize and interpret results of analysis

publication

Nicolas Steno

Law of Superposition (1669)

Jens Worsaae

Law of Association (1843)

material culture

material remains of cultural behavior

cultural process

changes of cultural systems over time; sometimes over very long intervals

culture vs civilization

degree of complexity

findspot

in situ point of recovery

artifacts

objects made by or modified by humans

features

artifacts that cannot be moved (walls, pits)

structures

houses, buildings, temples, made up of artifacts

ecofacts

food remains like bones and seeds; other organic remains

taphonomy

refers to how something gets into the ground; comes from paleontology

subassmbledges

grouping of artifacts related in pattern

ex: bows + arrows

assembledges

number of subassembledges together

technocomplex

morphologically related artifacts

sites

locations where evidence of human activity is preserved

3 age system

stone, bronze, iron

stratigraphic dating

based on superposition; must be attentive to disturbances caused by pitting, use of excavated fill, fossorial organisms, environmental effects, erosion

2 kinds of seriation dating

context seriation: morphology

frequency seriation: frequency of artifacts over time/space

cross dating

use of trade objects (or other mobile entities) as time markers between distance find spots

terminus ante quem (TAQ)

deposition must be before a certain time marker

terminus post quem (TPQ)

deposition must be after a certain date

obsidian hydration

measuring the hydration rinds of freshly broken obsidian tools and debitage

dendrochronology

tree ring dating

geochronology

dating based on comparison of earth layers and their contents