ANTH005: Introduction to Archaeology PDF

​ Going over the syllabus ​ What is science? Truth? Or Fact? “Theory” vs. “Belief” Reasons for Archaeology = Study of Ourselves ​ Scientific understanding ​ Critical evaluation of our perceptions ​ Who we are and where we are going ​ Human diversity Working in Archaeology ​ Univer...

​ Going over the syllabus ​ What is science? Truth? Or Fact? “Theory” vs. “Belief” Reasons for Archaeology = Study of Ourselves ​ Scientific understanding ​ Critical evaluation of our perceptions ​ Who we are and where we are going ​ Human diversity Working in Archaeology ​ Universities ​ Museums ​ Contract Archaeology (CRM) ​ Tourist Industry Cultural Resource Management (CRM) ​ About 80% of all professional archaeologists ​ Identification and evaluation of archaeological sites to protect them from disturbance or destruction ​ Investigation of those that cannot be saved Specializations ​ Region ​ Time period ​ Technical area ​ Theoretical position Archaeology ​ Universities in Europe and Asia ○​ History oriented discipline ​ Universities in the Americas ○​ Anthropology oriented discipline History ​ Document history ​ Oral history Origins of Archaeology in North America What is Anthropology? ​ The study of humans and human behaviors ○​ (Through the scientific method) ​ The scientific study of humankind ​ Four subfields ○​ Cultural anthropology ​ Studies present-day people - Culture defined as transmitted, learned behavior ○​ Archaeology ​ Studies past human societies - Focuses on material remains and the processes behind them ○​ Linguistic anthropology ​ Studies the construction and use of language by human societies - Language defined as a set of written or spoken symbols that refer to things ○​ Biological anthropology ​ Studies all aspects of present and past human biology - Deals with the evolution of and variation among human beings and their relatives What is Archaeology? ​ The study of the human past through material remains… ​ Archaeological Fieldwork: ○​ Survey ○​ Excavation ○​ Preservation of archaeological remains Refuse ​ Primary Refuse: discard at its location of use ​ Secondary Refuse: use and discard locations are different ​ Tertiary Refuse ​ Provisional Refuse: not discarded but stored ​ De facto Refuse Goals in Archaeology ​ Preserve cultural heritage ​ Understand the changes in the past ​ Make the past serve the present ​ Disseminate knowledge ​ Social justice NAGPRA ​ Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (enacted 1990) ​ Refers to Native Americans and Native Hawaiian Organizations  ​ Requires federal agencies to consult with Native American tribes prior to the excavation of Native American graves on federal land ​ Return Dangers Facing Material Culture ​ Natural processes (weathering, decay, erosion) ​ Cultural processes (modern development, looting, intentional erasure) Cultural Resource Management ​ Documentation and recovery of data in danger Understanding the Past ​ What happened: Culture-History ​ Why it happened ​ Lived experience of the past Modern Applications ​ How archaeological research can help us in the present Dissemination ​ Technical Reports ​ Academic publications ​ Public engagement Control of the Past ​ Politics and ideology ​ Research agendas ​ Media ​ Tourism Alternative Narratives ​ Archaeological narratives are not the only valid ways of constructing the past But…All Narratives? ​ Some narratives can be harmful ​ Who decides? Pseudoarchaeology ​ Non-scientific-based speculations of archaeological data Cardiff Giant ​ Hoax of a three meter tall stone giant in upstate Interest in the Past ​ Stretches back before recorded history Thutmose IV ​ Ordered excavations of the Sphinx in the 15th century B.C.E. Origins of a Profession ​ Renaissance of Europe (14th-17th centuries) ​ Scientific Revolution and the questioning of traditional ways of seeing the universe Western Worldviews in 1500 ​ Stasis - never changing world ​ Age of the Earth was consider to be young (around 6000 years old) Antiquarianism ​ An interest in the past, usually, involving collection, where individual facts it objects are discussed without reference to their broader context ​ Impacted by the Enlightenment (late 16th century) - privileged observation and reason over belief and tradition ​ Important for recognizing and asking questions about an unknown past ​ Speculative ​ Lack of systematic research Move Towards Systematic Work ​ Johann Winckelmann (1717 - 1768) - stylistic typology of Greek sculpture that was chronologically ordered Pompeii and Herculaneum ​ Excavations commissioned by Charles of Bourbon after discover in 1738 European Colonial Expansion ​ Unknown lands, peoples, and ‘ruins’ sparked interest ​ Material culture to museums Rosetta Stone ​ Taken from Egypt during the Napoleonic wars ​ Jean-François Champollion used it to decipher the hieroglyphic script Thomas Jefferson ​ Excavated a mound structure in Virginia ​ Concluded that it was built by Native Americans Mound Builder Myths ​ Forgetting of Native American past Squire and Davis ​ Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley (1848) Explorations of Palenque, Mexico ​ Late 18th century, anticipating explorations of the Maya area by Stephens and Catherwoof in the 19th century James Hutton (1726 - 1797) ​ Uniformitarianism: the processes which form geological deposits today are the same as those that formed deposits in the past William Smith (1769 - 1839) ​ Stratigraphy - the study of the layers or strata of deposits Charles Lyell (1797 - 1875) ​ Principles of Geology (1830 - 1833) Contributions of Naturalists ​ Evolution - biological change in heritable traits in a population over time Georges-Louis Leclerc (1707 - 1788) ​ Argued for biological change and for an older world than biblical narratives accounted for Georges Cuvier (1769 - 1832) ​ Argued that extinctions had occurred ​ Series of creations followed by catastrophes Jean-Bapstiste Lamark (1744 - 1829) ​ Biological change must have occurred do to some sort of natural laws ​ Evolution happened at the level of the individual, not populations ​ Individuals could change themselves physically through necessity Charles Darwin (1809 -1882) ​ Did not invent the idea of evolution, but proposed a viable mechanism to explain it - Natural Selection (1859) ​ No knowledge of genetics at this time Natural Selection ​ Individuals in populations physically vary ​ These variations are hereditary ​ Populations produce more offspring than can survive ​ Individuals with more favorable variation are more prone to survive ​ The survival of these individuals leads to the population slowly changing Discovery of Neanderthals ​ First fossils found in Germany in 1856 Cultural Evolution ​ Application of evolutionary ideas to culture by Edward Tylor (1871) Henry Lewis Morgan ​ Three stage system - savagery, barbarism, civilization ​ Ethnocentric ​ Linear sequence of cultural stages Service & Fried ​ Mid-20th century systems ​ Still linear ​ Service ○​ Bands ○​ Tribes ○​ Chiefdoms ○​ States ​ Fried ○​ Egalitarian ○​ Rank ○​ Stratified ○​ State C.J. Thomsen (1788 - 1865) ​ Recorded stratigraphic provenience ​ Three Age System (stone, bronze, and iron Jens Worsaae (1821 - 1885) ​ First formally trained professional prehistoric archaeologist ​ Denmark’s Inspector for the Conservation of Ancient Monuments (1847) ​ First professor of Archeology at the University of Copenhagen (1855) Nationalism ​ After 1800 the material remains of the past became increasingly used to foment shared national identities Academie Celtique ​ Founded by Napoleon in 1804 as part of a program to promote a unified French identity Increase In Jobs  ​ Increase in museums, universities, and government interest in archaeology resulted in an increase number of jobs at the end of the 1800s The Era of Culture History ​ Descriptive ​ Typologies Typologies and Diffusionism ​ Focus on ordering data into categories ​ Tendency to explain culture change through external forces Spread if Professional Archaeology ​ Japan: late 19th century ​ China: early 20th century ​ Complex ties to western archaeology Glimmers of a Scientific Archaeology ​ Franz Boas ○​ Championed historical particularism ○​ Promoted cultural relativism ○​ Commitment to the scientific method Functionalism ​ A theoretical framework that focuses on how cultural traits or phenomenon fit into a systematic whole Processual Archaeology ​ Positivist ​ Functionalist ​ Systems approach ​ Focus on adaptations to the environment ​ Search for laws of behavior Evolutionary Ecology ​ Uses natural selection theory to study adaptation and biological design in an ecological setting ​ Optimal foraging theory Behavioral Archaeology ​ Focus on human-artifact relationships ​ Formation processes Middle Range Theory ​ Lewis Binford's version of formation processes Selectionist Archaeology ​ Using Darwinian theory to explain culture change Contemporary Processualism ​ Cognitive Archaeology ​ Complexity theory ​ Resilience theory Post Processualism ​ Started as a critique if processual archaeology ​ Focus on humanistic approaches to the past ​ Is a diverse group of theoretical frameworks The Critique of Processualism ​ It is functional and outdated ​ Does not contemplate individuals ​ Lack of focus on symbolic behavior ​ Complete objectivity is impossible Feminist Archaeology ​ At first rectified the lack of attention to women in the past ​ Soon developed into nuanced studies of gender (and other factors such as social class). Agency Theory ​ People know what they are doing ​ They know how to manipulate social rules ​ People are not rational ​ Social structure affects human action ​ Human action changed social structure Phenomenology ​ Using our experience to understand the experience of people in the past Choosing Theoretical Frameworks ​ Theory is like politics ​ Many archaeologists pick and choose that which best suits their immediate needs ​ Others are staunch defenders of their particular brand ​ Some, do not use much theory at all Research ​ Research always starts with a question ​ A theoretical framework often guides research from the beginning Previous Research ​ Knowing about previous research in fields such as archaeology, environmental science? Geology, and history guides the research question Oral History and Ethnohistory ​ Reviewing local histories is important Sampling Strategies ​ Need to design a strategy to sample data from a population pertinent to your question ​ Representative samples Data Types ​ Nominal: descriptive categories ​ Ordinal: ranked data ​ Interval: continuous data without true zero ​ Ratio: continuous data with true zero Spatial Units ​ Nonarbitrary ○​ Divisions of natural or cultural boundaries ​ Arbitrary ○​ Artificial boundaries that archaeologists determine based on a specific criterion like a grid system Sampling Methods ​ Probabilistic vs. non-probabilistic Nonprobabilistic Sampling ​ Using prior information to guide the selection process ​ Judgemental Sampling Probabilistic Sampling ​ Sampling based on statistical criteria that enable archaeologists to evaluate how close a sample represents the population Simple Random Sampling ​ Units selected randomly across the entire population with each unit having an equal chance of being selected Dangers Facing Material Culture ​ Natural processes (weathering, decay, erosion) ​ Cultural processes (modern development, looting, intentional erasure) Cultural Resource Management ​ Documentation and recovery of data in danger ​ To understand the past, we have to know what happened (culture history), why it happened, and the lived experience of the past Modern Applications ​ How archaeological research can help us in the present ○​ Dissemination ​ Technical reports ​ Academic publications ​ Public engagement ○​ Control of the Past ​ Politics and ideology ​ Research agendas ​ Media ​ Tourism ○​ Alternative Narratives ​ Archaeological narratives are not the only valid ways of constructing the past ​ But some narratives can be harmful. Who decides? Pseudoarchaeology ​ Non-scientific-based specifications of archaeological data ○​ Ex. Cardiff Giant ​ Hoax of a three meter tall stone giant in upstate New York in 1869 ○​ Ancient aliens ○​ Lost continents Nonprobabilistic Sampling ​ Using prior information to guide the selection process ​ Judgemental Sampling Probabilistic Sampling ​ Sampling based on statistical criteria that enable archeologists to evaluate how close a sample represents the population Simple Random Sampling ​ Units selected randomly across the entire population with each unit having an equal chance of being selected Systematic Sampling ​ A sampling strategy that is operationalized in a systematic way Stratified Random Sampling ​ The division of the population into two or more groups that are randomly samples Cluster Sampling ​ Clustering analyzed units around a smaller subset of randomly sampled units Adaptive Sampling ​ Judgmentally modifying sampling designs based on values obtained in units selected through random sampling Permissions ​ Local (landowners, indigenous groups) ​ Federal agencies Funding ​ Public ​ Private Building a Team ​ Project directors ​ Field directors ​ Field archaeologists ​ Technical experts ​ Students ​ Workers ​ Volunteers ​ Others (cooks and medics) Logistics ​ Where will you live? ​ What will you eat and drink? ​ Where will you go get supplies?