ARCL1020 Course Notes PDF

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These notes cover the every area that the course does. They are neatly divided up and easy to use and are very comprehensive. ...

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Introduction to Archaeology ARCL1020 Mid Semester exam notes

Definitions Term

Definition

Artefact Biological anthropology

Objects made or modified by human hand The study of human biological or physical characteristics and how they evolved Analyses human culture and society Study at first hand of individual living cultures Sets out to compare cultures to derive general principles about human society Time unit, we always use that in archaeology Past tense of cultural anthropology Buildings, tools, other artefacts Interest in the processes of cultural change An exact dating technique- through radio carbon dating A way to tell whether an artefact is older or younger, does not give a precise calendar date Cold environment that will not trigger a chemical reaction An artefact in its original context, undisturbed by other factors- human or natural An artefact in which primary context has been disturbed by later activity- human or natural Dating that analyses that layer of oxidation, it doesn’t work because there are too many variables Stratification of rocks was due to processes still ongoing in seas, rivers and lakes

Cultural anthropology Ethnography (under cultural anthropology) Ethnology (under cultural anthropology) BP Archaeology Material culture Processual archaeology Absolute dating Relative dating Anarolic environment Primary context Secondary context Patina dating

Uniformitarianism

Culture History

putting artefacts in a row, lists. But this didn’t tell a story

What is Archaeology and what are the disciplines aims? What is Archaeology 

Cultural traits are learnt things, they are not genetic- for example, Australian accents

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Culture changes. Your opinion will be different from grandparents- their culture is not yours Adaptation- one of the greatest changes Archaeology is studied through material remains, it also studies past human actions Not about dinosaurs or collection Its about working out human behaviour in the past from the human object The study of the past by the systematic recovery and analysis of artefacts… and to link artefacts to past human behaviour The past: The study that studies past action and can even be as early as 5 minutes ago, or as far back as 10000 years ago We have lost too much info about the past to precisely know what happened, keep that in mind Gather as much data as possible to gather an interpretation Separates archaeologists from collectors A ‘mongrel’ discipline- multidisciplinary: Human bio, chem, physics, geology, law etc

 Anthropology and Archaeology o Anthropology is different, it is the broadest study of humanity o Anthropologists study the physical characteristics of animals, and non biological characteristics- called culture, it is somewhat broader than archaeology o Archaeology and Anthropology sometimes overlap o Anthropology and sociology also study culture

Archaeology

Anthropology

Archaeologists will study past human societies based on the material remains, also known as material culture left over from former societies Narrower

Anthropologists will base their conclusions off actually living contemporary human societies Broader- quite a broad discipline

 Archaeology and History o Archaeology is completely separate from history, but it uses the discipline of history in its suite of other disciplines to tell a story about the past o Conventional history sources are only available from about ~3000 BC o The first history sources are from Western Asia, it came later from other places o Archaeology has a different raw database: Archaeology = artefacts, history = the written word.

History

Prehistory

Using written evidence

Uses oral evidence, before the historical record Before written evidence

Sometimes determined to be more reliable some cultures may take offence to this, however

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 Archaeology is a rigorous, scientific discipline o Accurate recording, precise excavation, detail lavatory analysis and description o Data is gathered in a scientific way, analysed in an artistic way o The aim of archaeology is to understand human kind, it is therefore a scientific discipline o It is also a historical discipline- historical record make statements, offer opinions, pass judgements o Archaeological objects tell us nothing by themselves o Archaeology is very much a science- they collect data (evidence), conduct experiments, formulate a hypothesis, test it, then devise a conclusion o They also have to develop a story  Archaeology is a rigorous art o Interpreting the physical evidence using theory- it is also an imprecise science

What an archaeologist does  Constructs a version of events about the past o Not fact, this is impossible for too much information is missing o Critique everything, esp. the historical record o Uses material evidence- artefacts  

Straight lines are usually culturally implemented- excluding assault in Ireland Ambiguities lead to a research question- and a reason to explain it

An artefact: Objects modified or manufactured by humans    

Von Danican used his own culture to interpret what happened with the pyramids All of the pyramids are made from CaCO3 Society is fascinate with gold When we have a society with different values, it reminds us what our values are

Many sub-disciplines 

Generalist: Today archaeology is specialist, but it wasn’t always

 Prehistoric o Australia

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o Stone knapping, rock art, the Pleistocene, The Holocene o Explains aboriginals, also SA, NA, Africa o Australia: Isolated for being far, arid to semi arid is the majority of Australia. Flatno volcanoes or alike. Not much to see, but many humans o 25,000 years ago people were living in the Australia desert. It was probably not a desert at that point  The Ancient World o Roman, Greece, Egypt, Syria  Historical o The European diaspora, contact with indigenous groups  Maritime o Techniques & methological- interpretation can sometimes be odd due to the attention on method  The technical o Sometimes can be trained just to use technology  Archaeology is further divided o Old stone age- Palaeolithic- 10,000 years ago o Egyptologist; o North America & Australia – post colonial development o Environmental archaeology, under water archaeology

Context allows that construction of interpretation    

Coins are a great artefact Archaeology is 99% context Do not separate the context out Moving things destroys the context and therefore interpretation

Ethics of Archaeology and Construction  

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Commercial use of archaeology often raises questions of ethics Deliberate acts of destruction by terrorist groups, such as ISIS are purely evil acts, some examples of this may be: o Bamiyan Buddha’s in Afghanistan o Levelling of Mineven

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These have damaging consequences: such as the failure of the coalition that invaded Iraq to safeguard the archaeological treasure and site To what extent should archaeological sites prevent construction? Many archaeological sites are over visited and this causes damage to the site “Well trusted people” can often lead the destruction of artefacts The case Legacy Property Pty Ltd v Blacktown City Council [2016] NSWLEC 1206 demonstrates a case where the archaeology interfered with the construction of a site.

Archaeology: Summary 

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Learning about ourselves o Our behaviours subliminal mindset o Our culture changes very quickly o Our diverse world o Archaeology’s time depth The lessons of the past We also want to know why we lived the way we did, not just how we lived

The Early history of Archaeology Archaeology’s early history  

Accounts for why archaeology is what it is Prodeseccor with little similarity o Alchemy = chemistry

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Derived from people trying to make gold, such as turning a chair into gold In this process they learnt how to understand chemical makeup o Alklore = history o Myth = astronomy

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Four periods of archaeology: Ancient to 1797, 1798 to 1867, 1868 to 1914 and 1915 to 1939

Ancient to 1797 

At this point there was no systematic study of the past - Systematic faculty = science

 Heavy reliance/ use of the bible o Archbishop Ussher- ‘The night proceeding October 23, 4004 BC’ – this was about 6000 years ago o The biblical flood- they were searching for flood evidence

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o BC = before Christ. We refrain from using BC & AD in archaeology can apply to middle east, Europe & Aus  The Renaissance o The use of the past to re-establish architectural styles o Understanding the past, people collecting material evidence- todays ‘collectors’  Antiquarianism o Not scientific, excavation methodology o Antiquinism is not associated with very detailed recording of artefacts o There is also no maintenance of context

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Context: removing an object from a place, looses its meaning. Pompeii: polarised rock, 10-15m deep, sometimes 20m covered in ash. There were exposed bits from the surface. Herculaneum was completely covered Context was amazing, in a disaster everything can easily be left in situ, e.g. tables can still be left with food on the table. These sites are located at the foot of Mt Vesuvius

 The Earths formation by natural processes o Hutton and Lyall o Uniformitarianism: Everything you see has formed over millions of years. People could not accept something that may have formed over a shorter period of time o Geology is one of the oldest sciences  Artefacts found very deep o The first time that people started to excavate underground o Artefacts were dismissed as ‘Elf tears’ created by lightning strikes. People denied that it was human o The industrial revolution was happening- they were finding heaps of stuff as they were digging o They started to find objects that looked artificial

1798 to 1867  Major advancement- The age of Enlightenment o Everyone used the bible o There was a break away from religion at this time period o With science today, it has made us an atheist group of people  The discovery of human remains with extinct animals o Jacques Boucher de Perthes o Worked gravel quarries at Somme river o Discovered association of human artefacts and bones of extinct animals o These ^^ indicated human existence long before the biblical flood

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 The Neander valley, Germany, 1856 o First Neanderthal, he was misinterpreted o German word: thal- Neanderthal. English word: dal. o Frontal cortex- complicated cognitive stuff o Neanderthals are short and squat, they have mixed coordination and lots of muscle  1859 Charles Darwin: ‘On the origin of species’ o Massive stir o The development of humans- biologically and culturally  The three age system o Christian Jurgensen Thomson o The beginning of archaeological classification o Accessibility to materials can mean that different materials were used at different times around the world o For example, the Danes missed the bronze age o In Africa bronze was not used o Americas- bronze is less important, Fe was used before the European conquestwhich can make dating slightly harder o Worsaae realised its widespread validity o Ordering of artefacts by chronology, and a method of dating sites

Fe artefacts Longer ago/deeper

Bronze artefacts (Sn & Cu)

Stone

o -

Characterised by stone, brass and iron artefacts

Colt Houre in 1808 made this ‘discovery’

Stone age can be divided into two ages:  Palaeolithic (‘Old stone age’)  Neolithic (‘New Stone age’)

1868 to 1914

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1914 was WWI- Britain declared war on Germany Beginning of systematic study of the past Egypt- Sir William Matthew Flinders Petrie Crete- Sir Arthur Evans Mesopotamia- Sir Leonard Woolley o Doesn’t exist

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Meso = middle

Tamia = rivers/ water Pitt-Rivers o Section drawings recorded, context is everything

 Development of theories to account for the past (without case studies)  

Methodology: How you get the stuff out of the ground. Theory: Stuff that is in ones head. How am I going to account for that artefact? o Everyone has different theories - Feminist, Marxist etc.

o

Theory changes regarding interpretation- there is more than history for each find

 Development of Archaeological theory o Unilinear cultural evolution o All societies went through the phrase ‘Savages to… European civilization’ o All societies went through phrases- everyone starts off as hunter gathers, and works their way to European civilization. There is a pecking order here. o Evolution- Charles Darwin

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Charles Darwin- best explanation for the origin & development of plants and animals Natural selection is how the species changed, the weakest were ‘groomed’ out

 Diffusion- Egypt o o o o

Movement of people and ideas Vere Gordon Childe Believed that ‘everything good comes from Egypt’, pyramids etc. The further away from Egypt, the closer to being a savage

 Archaeology’s early history o o o o

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Archaeology from collectors The description of artefacts- culture history Little ‘calendar dating’ – stratigraphy The middle east and Egypt the centre of development- migration and diffusion of ideas into Europe

Archaeology after the war  Radio carbon dating in 1949- a HUGE development o Archaeology became more important at this time o Chemical and physical sciences started to contribute to archaeology o Libby at the university of Chicago o 5,730 +- 40 o 1 part per trillion o It changed archaeology completely- ‘greatest invention in archaeological theory’ o Humans are carbon based. C-14 stays around for a long time. This carbon is from food and reflects the chemical make from our atmosphere o When we die ^^ the C-14 converts back to N so the C-12:C-14 ratios will help you to carbon date o Gordon Childe: Middle East & Egypt diffused to the rest of the world. Carbon dating proved him wrong o It allowed for calendar dates for the first time- many pre war theories excluded

1950s/1960s- The first humans   

Mary Leaky at Diduvai Gorge Massive advancement in knowledge Stone artefacts dated to 2 mya o Hominid remains at 2.5 mya o People go to Africa to see the oldest remains o Horne of Africa- drifted off 7 million years ago

 Explaining the archaeological record o Culture history

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Lots of information- but just described Used archaeology- look at something and compare with something else Lewis Binford was an anthropologist, he is ‘the grandfather of archaeologists’

 The ‘New Archaeology’ o Bridging the gap between ‘the stuff’ in the archaeological record and the behaviour in the past that caused it o Binford combined anthropology and archaeology o We took a lot from England o Americans had strong theory and interpretation  Archaeology in the 1960’s o o o o

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Use of analogy to infer past human behaviour 30,000 dates Go to places in the world where people are living old lifestyles Went to Australia- to see Indigenous Australians living a ‘traditional lifestyle’

o They could compare this society to static stuff on the ground. The problem was that they actually changed a lot.  Use of contempory ethnographic data - Edward Taylor & Lewis Henry Morgan recognise processes of human evolution, socially. The ‘structure’ was influenced by Karl Marx 1. Savagery: Human societies had to evolve from this. Primitive humanity 2. Barbarism: Simple farming, 3. Colonisation. Highest form of society, 1877. o Use of rigorous scientific procedures and middle range theory

Superposition, Stratigraphy, Association, Context and Provenance Provenience Superposition Association

Stratigraphy

Context

Matrix Eolian processes

The precise three-dimensional position of an artefact with the matrix One artefacts above another- relative dating The co-occurrence of an artefact with other archaeological remains, usually in the same matrix. The analysis of the vertical, time dimension, of a series of layers in the horizontal, space dimension. One layer on the next. An artefacts context usually consists of its immediate matrix, its provenance, and association with other artefacts. The material surrounding an artefact Refer to activity of the winds. Erosion, deposition of sediments. Common on coast.

How to tell the best story about the past  

We can never tell a precise story, so we aim to tell the best story that we can Stratigraphy allows for observation of superimposed layers

Stratigraphy   

Stratigraphy comes from geology Limestone: Indicative of a cave existing below ground ND42’s excavation revealed: Limestone, residue of a house first being built

Superposition

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    

Principles stem from geology The layers of the earth are stratified one upon the other Old at the bottom, and progressively younger to the top Therefore, this is a dating method. ^^ however, it is only a relative dating method in that years are not provided/ specific dates The basis of all scientific archaeological excavation is an accurately observed and carefully recorded stratigraphic profile

 Superposition & Stratigraphy: Hengistbury Head o Archaeologists have developed methods of checking artefacts at a layer o This site was from the British Mesolithic (Middle Stone Age) o Two groups of flint flakes that were found in different layers could be refitted o This demolished the original argument that the flint was deposited by two different groups of people

Association  

The close relationship between objects- doesn’t always mean physical relationship ‘Close’ does not necessarily mean ‘nearby’ Two things may have been deposited at the same time, and therefore in the same layer I.e. a coffin. The coffin will rarely be in association with the environment as they are not in the same layer

DIAGRAM (English Channel):

Provenience   

The precise three dimensional position of an artefact with the matrix 3 dimensions: length, breath, height We can accurately measure distance, but humans are not good at accurately measuring height

Matrix   

Its effect on the artefact can be profound- changes each matrix Absolutely essential to understand the matrixes characteristics Air: Freezing or hot and humid, either will make a difference to the artefact and the preservation of it

Good preservation Denmark, Egypt, cold places, dry places

Bad preservation Scavengers, high Ph., hot & humid

Good Preservation: A man put to death in

Bad Preservation: A Noongar man walking

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Denmark. Body very well preserved. Skin all in tact, and most bones. Corpse have been deflated however.  When farmers cam to Europe, they removed many of the trees causing the water level to rise  A marshy soil remains. Because it is cold nothing more happens with the water. The trees remaining supply leaves to the swamp, and these leaves supply tannic acid  Tannic acid creates an antiseptic environment meaning that the corpse was surrounded by antiseptic  He was in an anabolic environmentcold environments will usually not trigger chemical reactions  This guy had become ‘tannered’ turned into leather  Things thrown on top of the corpse explaining why he is flattened

down High street, gets struck by lightening and dies. No corps...