History of Archaeology Pt. 2

James Hutton

James Hutton published an essay in 1785 entitled Theory of the Earth. In this work he outlined the theory of uniformitarianism He studied the stratigraphy of rocks and established that strata were laid down in an orderly manner Charthrough time.

Charles Lyell

Charles Lyell Published Principles of Geology 1830- 1833 in which he popularized the theory of uniformitarianism.

• Uniformitarianism is the geological principal that past geologic events can be explained by current geologic phenomena.

• In other words, the same things which occurred in the past are still occurring today : they are uniform

Why are Charles Lyell and James Hutton important to archaeology?

They demonstrated that we could learn about the non-historical past as we can infer what past environments were like based on what environments are like today.

Paradigms early scholars had to deal with

Garden of Eden

• If people came from the Garden of Eden how did they get to the New World?

• Biblical Framework for the past

  • Bishop Ussher – 4004 BC Creation of world:

  • Limited Duration for Antiquity

CJ Thomsen (1788-1865)

• Danish Scholar

• Systematically studied the museum collections at Copenhagen Museum and in doing so created the three age system.

• Established that chronologies could be built using artifacts.

• Three age system consists of:

  • Stone Age

  • Bronze Age

  • Iron Age

Thomsen VS Morgan

• How is Thomsen’s Three age system different from Morgan’s?

• How are they similar?

Thomas Jefferson: the First North American Archaeology

• Thomas Jefferson was the first individual to do a systematic excavation within North America.

• Excavated a burial mound on his property in an attempt to resolve the moundbuilders mystery.

Jefferson’s Lasting Legacy

• Discussed linguistic diversity and archaeological evidence within “Notes on Virginia”

• Was a key member in the American Philosophical Society.

• Sent Lewis and Clark to investigate the west

Myth of the Moundbuilders

• Thought that Native Americans were incapable of building such mounds and that another “race” of people must have built them.

• Squier and Davis were believers in this the whole time they mapped the mounds of Eastern North America.

Squier and Davis

• One of the first works supported by the Smithsonian Institute

• Went from state to state mapping mound structures found in Eastern North America

• Published their work entitled Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley.

• Remarkable description of mounds many of which no longer exist today.

Cyrus Thomas

• Sent out by John Wesley Powell from the Smithsonian’s Bureau of Ethnology in 1879

• Moved about the Midwest digging and destroying mounds in an effort to prove the mound builder myth

• Through his work he ceased to believe in the myth and realized that the ancestors of Native Americans had constructed the mounds

Albery Gallatin

• Founded the American Ethnological Society in 1842. Set research agenda in North America

• Assembled previous work of Bering and De Acosta and made a few theories about the prehistoric past of North America

  • Saw Linguistic affinities between Asians and Native Americans

  • Western Hemisphere was populated from North to South

  • Original occupants of the New World were Hunter-Gatherers who spread quickly

Myth of the Mound Builders: Racist Edition

This racist theory posited that anyone, and I mean anyone, but the Indigenous people of the New World (Native Americans) built the mounds that early European colonists found in Eastern North America. Possible options included, but are not limited to:

1. The Lost tribe of Isreal

2. A species of Giants

3. Europeans who landed

4. Peoples of Africa

Frank Cushing

• Worked with the Zuni Native Americans in the Southwest from 1879-1882.

• Was not an archaeologist but built up a lot of ethnographic knowledge about the Southwest and firmly believed that archaeologists should work from the ethnographic present back toward the past.

William Henry Holmes