ARCHAEOLOGY A way to see and learn about past human cultures through the analysis of material remains
Jul 17, 2015
ARCHAEOLOGY
A way to see and learn about past human cultures through the analysis of material remains
Prehistoric archaeology• study of eras and societies for which
there is no written record
Historic archaeology• Studies societies for which written
records exist• Reaches beyond documents to try to
understand and recreate people’s day-to-day lives
Archaeologists study material remains (physical traces of human action in the world)
• Artifacts: things touched by humans
• Features: human modifications in landscape (houses, hearths, pits, fields, roads...)
• “Ecofacts”: objects of non-cultural origin (seeds, pollen, bones, shell…)
Material remains are byproducts of learned, shared, cognitively structured behavior
Patterning in material record reflects cultural behavior in a systematic way
– Archaeology aims to reconstruct these patterns and explain their meaning in telling stories about the past.
PotsherdPotsherds are historic or prehistoric fragments of pottery.
Value:
• diagnostic characteristics
• high resistance to natural destructive processes
To study potsherds is to study technology and resources
The grid systemMost commonly used plan for excavation and site study
• to excavate is to destroy
• grid: a network of uniformly spaced squares used to divide a site into units
• measures and records the position of artifacts and features across a site
Archaeologists do three things:
1. ReconstructHow did people live at some moment of the distant past?
2. ChronologizePut these moments in order: How did history/pre-history change over time?
3. HypothesizeExplain these changes over timeExhaustively test these hypotheses
How do artifacts become buried?
1. Nature buries
Water is the most common burial tool
(especially flooding)
Land slides
Wind moves dirt, sand
Organisms: plants, earthworms, small mammals
How do artifacts become buried?
What do archaeologists generally find?
Not much organic material– wood, cloth, leather,
basketry, paper: all will decay
Durable artifacts– stone construction
– stone or metal tools
– pottery
– patterns on the land
Preservation
Extremely dry environments inhibit growth of mold, bacteria
e.g. Egypt, Peruvian highlands
How are sites found?
Other methods:
Ancient writings
– Mt. Ararat, Eden?
Satellite images
– Egyptian cities; Road to Ubar
Oral traditions
Walls/foundations
Maps/documents
90% are discovered
accidentally.
How are sites destroyed?
4. “Progress” (Human development)Ten ancient tombs from the Six Dynasties (220-589) were destroyed to make way for this Nanjing IKEA in 2007
How are sites destroyed?
7. War and upheavalThe Buddhas of Bamiyan: Carved in the 6th Century C.E., they couldn’t survive the Taliban in 2001
How do we best preserve artifacts?
1. Use care and caution
2. Wear gloves
3. Limit exposure to deteriorating factors
- light, air, moisture, airborne pollutants, pests
4. Use suitable containers
5. Limit access
On a micro level:
Antiquities Act (1906)
Theodore Roosevelt and forward-looking legislators wrote federal legislation protecting archaeological sites
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That any person who shall appropriate, excavate, injure, or destroy any historic or prehistoric ruin or monument, or any object of antiquity, situated on lands owned or controlled by the Government of the United States…
National Historic Preservation Act (1966)
The Act establishes preservation as a national policy and directs the Federal government to provide leadership in preserving, restoring and maintaining the historic and cultural environment of the Nation.
Preservation is defined as the protection, rehabilitation, restoration, and reconstruction of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects significant in American history, architecture, archeology, or engineering.
Archaeological sites are non-renewable
Once destroyed, these sites and objects can never be recreated.
Archaeology is incomplete
WEAKNESSES:
The most interesting and informative components ofare not material culture.
– Politics, myth/religion,social structure can onlybe studied indirectly
– Overreliance on individuals’ interpretation
Archaeology is incomplete
STRENGTHS:
Material culture does not lie.
What we leave behind showshow we actually lived, notmerely how we want to be remembered.
Examining a living society often focuses too closely on ideal culture.
What can we learn from pottery?
Pottery is common
1. Dates to 6000 BCE
2. It broke easily
3. It wasn’t reused
4. It wasn’t looted
Pottery was common
1. Used in all parts of life
2. Technique/resources
Pottery’s style changed often
The grid systemMost commonly used plan for excavation and site study
• to excavate is to destroy
• grid: a network of uniformly spaced squares used to divide a site into units
• measures and records the position of artifacts and features across a site
3-D grids also allow digital recreation of excavation sites.
Digital photogrammetic recreation
Relative dating
Relative dating allows us to put things in chronological order.
Relative dating relies on context, and doesn’t give you an artifact or site’s exact age.
Also known as seriation.
Relative dating: Patination
Patina is the outermost surface of an artifact
Patina is the result of chemical, physical, and/or biological change in response to soil and environmental conditions
Patination is the measurement and analysis of this outer layer.
(It kind of pins down erosion.)
Relative dating: Law of superposition
Usually it means that what’s on top is youngest. Assists usin analyzing stratigraphy.
Relative dating: Rate of accumulation
Best described as a product of erosion. What we can learn from the gathering of sediment in layers of rock and soil.
Relative dating: Biostratigraphy
the use of fossils to relatively date the strata of rock in which they are found
Relative dating: Fluorine absorption
Fluorine exists in most groundwater.
Fluorine is absorbed into bones over time.
More fluorine = older bones.
This is a chemical test, but it’s still relative.
Relative dating: Pollen dating analysis
AKA archaeologicalpalynology
Pollen is remarkable in its resistance to decay
Scientists examine pollen concentrations across the strata to draw other assumptions about each layer
Absolute dating
Absolute dating allows us to get to (or near) an artifact or site’s specific age.
Also known as chronometric dating
Most common method: radioactivity
Absolute dating: Dendrochronology
Dendroarchaeology is the use of tree rings to date when timber has been transported, processed, felled or used in construction.
Absolute dating: Radiocarbon datingMeasures organic material like wood, charcoal, marine and fresh-water shell, bone, and antler.
Radiocarbon is absorbed by plants through the air
Animals eat plants and take C14 into their bodies.
When a living organism dies it quits absorbing C14 and starts to disintegrate.
Scientists measure the C14 that is left.
Absolute dating: ArchaeomagnetismRelies on measuring Geomagnetic polarity
Magnetic north changes slowly (but consistently)over time.
Any time ferromagnetic materials are melted and cool, they “point” to magnetic north.
Mainly applies to clay ovens and fire pits
Absolute dating: Potassium-Argon
Potassium-argon (K-Ar) dating is the measurement of the accumulation of argon in a mineral.
As potassium decays, argon is accumulated.
What to do with excavated data?
1. Collect
One hour in the field vs. appx. four hours in the lab
Identify and isolate artifacts
What to do with excavated data?
2. Integrate
How and where does this fit in with what we already know?
What to do with excavated data?
2. Integrate
How and where does this fit in with what we already know?
What to do with excavated data?
3. Data-driven inference
What new patterns of ancient behavior canwe distill?
Integrated data serves as an explanation of patterns in cultural terms
Processing and classification
Sorting into broad categories (tools, pottery, metal objects)
Typology: grouping artifacts with similar attributes
Example: point typology of arrowheads