Archaeology
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TABLE OF CONTENTS Preface........................................................................................................ 1 Chapter 1: The History of Archaeology ........................................................ 5 Ancient Archaeology ........................................................................................................ 5 Archaeology in the Middle Ages ...................................................................................... 6 Antiquarians..................................................................................................................... 6 Antiquarianism in Ancient Rome .................................................................................... 7 Antiquarianism in the 19th–21st Centuries .................................................................... 8 First Excavations .............................................................................................................. 9 Modern Archaeology ....................................................................................................... 11 History of Chinese Archaeology .................................................................................... 13 The Modern Era of Archaeology .................................................................................... 13 New Technology in Archaeology.................................................................................... 14 Key Points in This Chapter ............................................................................................ 16 Chapter 1 Questions ........................................................................................................17 Chapter 2: Branches and Specialties of Archaeology ................................. 19 Archaeometry ................................................................................................................. 19 How Dating Techniques Work....................................................................................... 20 Palynology ...................................................................................................................... 23 Zooarchaeology .............................................................................................................. 24 Geoarchaeology .............................................................................................................. 26 Bioarcheology ................................................................................................................. 27
Archaeogenetics ............................................................................................................. 29 Computational Archaeology .......................................................................................... 31 Ethnoarchaeology .......................................................................................................... 31 Taphonomy .................................................................................................................... 31 Aerial Archaeology ......................................................................................................... 33 Marine Archaeology ....................................................................................................... 35 Urban Archaeology ........................................................................................................ 36 Key Points in This Chapter ............................................................................................ 37 Chapter 2 Questions....................................................................................................... 38 Chapter 3: The Principles and Practice of Archaeology.............................. 40 Why Dig Anyway? .......................................................................................................... 40 Ethics in Archaeology .................................................................................................... 41 The Major Steps of an Archaeological Investigation ..................................................... 43 More on Site Selection ................................................................................................... 44 Once You Found the Site ............................................................................................... 45 Excavation of a Site ........................................................................................................ 46 Doing Your Research ..................................................................................................... 50 Cleaning and Cataloguing Your Artifacts ...................................................................... 51 Analysis and Interpretation of Data .............................................................................. 52 Reporting Your Results .................................................................................................. 52 Key Points in This Chapter ............................................................................................ 53 Chapter 3 Questions....................................................................................................... 54 Chapter 4: Fieldwork and Excavation in Archaeological Digs .................... 57 Methods of Site Selection............................................................................................... 57
Aerial Surveys ................................................................................................................ 59 Remote Sensing.............................................................................................................. 61 Types of Excavation Techniques.................................................................................... 62 Archaeological Tools ...................................................................................................... 65 Key Points from This Chapter........................................................................................ 68 Chapter 4 Questions....................................................................................................... 69 Chapter 5: Analyzing and Preserving Evidence .......................................... 72 Artifacts Versus Features ............................................................................................... 72 Different Types of Archaeological Materials ................................................................. 73 Curating your Materials ................................................................................................. 75 Ceramic Pot Analysis ..................................................................................................... 76 Lithic Analysis ................................................................................................................ 76 Osteological Analysis ..................................................................................................... 78 Flotation Analysis .......................................................................................................... 79 Key Points In This Chapter ............................................................................................ 81 Chapter Five Questions .................................................................................................. 82 Chapter 6: Building Chronology into Archaeological Finds ....................... 85 Relative Dating of your Site ........................................................................................... 85 Horizon Markers and TPQ Dating ................................................................................. 86 Absolute Dating of Artifacts........................................................................................... 87 Radiocarbon Dating Explained......................................................................................88 Obsidian Hydration Testing ..........................................................................................88 The Harris Matrix .......................................................................................................... 89 More on Thermoluminescence ...................................................................................... 89
More on Dendrochronology........................................................................................... 90 Paleomagnetism ............................................................................................................. 91 Thermoremanent Magnetization................................................................................... 91 Mean Ceramic Dating .................................................................................................... 92 Key Points from This Chapter........................................................................................ 93 Chapter 6 Questions....................................................................................................... 94 Chapter 7: Getting Geological Information in Archaeology ........................ 97 The Science of Geoarchaeology ..................................................................................... 97 Geographical Information System (GIS) ....................................................................... 99 Petroglyphs .................................................................................................................. 100 Geoglyphs ..................................................................................................................... 102 Petrosomatoglyphs ...................................................................................................... 103 Stone Monuments ........................................................................................................ 103 Key Points in This Chapter .......................................................................................... 107 Chapter 7 Questions ..................................................................................................... 108 Chapter 8: Bioarchaeology and the Study of Mankind's Origins ............... 112 The Basics of Bioarchaeology ....................................................................................... 112 Humans as Primates ..................................................................................................... 114 Human Evolution and Migration ................................................................................. 115 Mankind Diverges ......................................................................................................... 116 A Study on Archaic Humans ........................................................................................ 120 Humans Begin to Disperse .......................................................................................... 122 Important Points from This Chapter ........................................................................... 126 Chapter 8 Questions .....................................................................................................127
Chapter 9: Reconstructing Social Systems and Cultures in Archaeology ............................................................................................. 131 The Different Types of Social Systems ......................................................................... 131 Hunter-Gatherer Societies Explained ......................................................................... 133 The Cradles of Civilization ........................................................................................... 135 That Dawn Of Historic Times ...................................................................................... 136 Mesopotamia .................................................................................................................137 Ancient Egypt ............................................................................................................... 138 Ancient India ................................................................................................................ 139 Ancient Chinese Culture .............................................................................................. 140 Ancient Andean Civilization ......................................................................................... 141 The Olmec Civilization ................................................................................................. 142 Key Points from This Chapter...................................................................................... 144 Chapter 9 Questions..................................................................................................... 145 Chapter 10: Environmental, Urban, and Maritime Archaeology .............. 148 Introduction to Environmental Archaeology .............................................................. 148 Paleobotany .................................................................................................................. 149 The Study of Zooarchaeology....................................................................................... 150 Urban Archaeology ...................................................................................................... 154 Maritime Archaeology ..................................................................................................155 The Mary Rose As an Example of Maritime Archaeology ........................................... 156 Other Maritime Projects .............................................................................................. 158 Important Points in This Chapter................................................................................ 159 Chapter 10 Questions ................................................................................................... 160 Chapter 11: Studying Disease in Archeology ............................................ 163
Introduction ................................................................................................................. 163 Analyzing the Black Death Plague ............................................................................... 164 Using Archaeology to Study Tuberculosis ................................................................... 169 Archaeological Studies on Syphilis .............................................................................. 170 Archaeological Examination of Leprosy ....................................................................... 171 Key Points from This Chapter...................................................................................... 174 Chapter 11 Questions ....................................................................................................175 Chapter 12: Studying Wars and Battlefields in the World ......................... 179 The Field of Study ........................................................................................................ 179 Studying World War I Battlefields Using Archaeology ............................................... 180 Studying North American Battlefield Sites ................................................................. 182 Subarctic Regions......................................................................................................... 183 Northwestern Coastline ............................................................................................... 184 California ...................................................................................................................... 185 Southwestern Region ................................................................................................... 185 Warfare in the Great Plains ......................................................................................... 187 Eastern Woodland Region ........................................................................................... 187 Archaeology of The Thirty Years War In Germany ..................................................... 188 Important Points from This Chapter ........................................................................... 193 Chapter 12 Questions ................................................................................................... 195 Chapter 13: Studying Art, Religion, and Language in Archeology ............ 198 Studying Ancient Art.................................................................................................... 198 Mesopotamia ................................................................................................................ 198 Bactrian Culture ........................................................................................................... 201
Phoenician Artwork .....................................................................................................202 Pre-Islamic Arabian art ...............................................................................................202 Egyptian Artwork .........................................................................................................202 Minoan and Mycenaean Artwork ................................................................................204 Etruscan and Roman Artwork .....................................................................................206 Ancient Asian Art ......................................................................................................... 207 Paleography................................................................................................................. 208 Religion and Ritual ......................................................................................................209 Important Points in This Chapter................................................................................. 211 Chapter 13 Questions ................................................................................................... 212 Chapter 14: Case Studies of Archeological Digs ....................................... 216 Pompei ......................................................................................................................... 216 Terra-Cotta Warriors Tomb ......................................................................................... 219 Teotihuacán.................................................................................................................. 222 Stonehenge ................................................................................................................... 224 Important Points from This Chapter ........................................................................... 227 Chapter 14 Questions ................................................................................................... 228 Summary ................................................................................................ 231 Course Questions and Answers ............................................................... 235 Answers to Questions.............................................................................. 278 Answers to Chapter 1 Questions .................................................................................. 278 Answers to Chapter 2 Questions.................................................................................. 279 Answers to Chapter 3 Questions ................................................................................. 280 Answers to Chapter 4 Questions.................................................................................. 282
Answers to Chapter 5 Questions .................................................................................. 283 Answers to Chapter 6 Questions.................................................................................. 284 Answers to Chapter 7 Questions .................................................................................. 286 Answers to Chapter 8 Questions .................................................................................288 Answers to Chapter 9 Questions..................................................................................290 Answers to Chapter 10 Questions ................................................................................ 292 Answers to Chapter 11 Questions ................................................................................ 294 Answers to Chapter 12 Questions ................................................................................ 296 Answers to Chapter 13 Questions ................................................................................ 298 Answers to Chapter 14 Questions ............................................................................... 300 Answers to Course Questions ...................................................................................... 301
PREFACE Archaeology is the theory and practice of understanding past civilizations. When we think of this branch of study, we often look to the exploits of the different Egyptian archaeologists who have unearthed the Great Pyramids of Giza or the Sphinx. While these were amazing discoveries, the real goal of archaeology is to understand how people lived. As a few researchers study the great monuments, many more are looking at the lives of those who built them. In this course, you will learn the trade or practice of archaeology and the different areas of study different archaeological researchers focus on. As it turns out, there are several branches of this field of study you could become involved in. You can study issues as commonplace as dietary habits in a population or as cataclysmic as the abrupt changes occurring during a natural disaster or war. At the end of the course, you should feel as though you understand why the work that archaeologists do is so important. In the first chapter of this course, we will look at the origins of this field of study. While we often think that archaeology is a relatively recent science, it actually has its origins in the years before the common era. It is probably true that individuals have studied past human lives in past civilizations for much longer than we know of. You will learn that archaeology as a science has existed in China, Greece, Egypt, and Rome for many years, although some of the time it wasn't a true science but was essentially artifact gathering. You will also study how archaeology has evolved over the past few centuries, as we know more about this period of time. In chapter 2, we look carefully at the different subspecialties and branches of archaeology. You will learn about the science of geology as well as the different areas of study such as maritime archaeology, urban archaeology, and ethnoarchaeology. You'll see how archaeology extends into many other fields of study, including history, anthropology, and the physical sciences.
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In chapter three of the course, you get to look into how archaeological questions are approached. The excavation piece is what you might think of most of when you think of archaeology, but it's really just a fraction of the entire picture. You may be surprised to see how much is involved in the whole process, such as asking the right questions first, selecting a site, digging, analyzing, cataloging, and reporting the information. We will also talk about ethics in archaeology and why they are important. In chapter four, we will talk about fieldwork in archaeology. Some archaeologists use the term to describe their outdoor excavation work only, while others describe either their site selection process only or both of these as being fieldwork. In a sense, fieldwork means the parts of an archaeological research project you need to do in the early and middle stages before you actually begin to analyze information and make your conclusions. Tools are important in archaeology, so we will discuss these too. In chapter five of the course, you will learn about the evidence you gather at an archaeological dig. There are two main types of evidence, which are artifacts and features. Artifacts are the things you gather and take home, while features are the roads, buildings, and other structures you leave behind. Each of these must be analyzed and preserved. We will talk later about certain types of analysis, such as dating your artifacts; however, this chapter covers many of the basics you need to know and will describe what the different artifacts are called. Chapter six teaches you about how you establish chronology when you are doing an archaeological dig. There is very little you can do to understand the culture and people you are dealing with until you determine when this culture lived and flourished. There is a concept called relative chronology, which dates things by comparing them with other known dates. Absolute chronology involves more sophisticated testing to try and determine the actual date of your finds without any relative information to go on. You will learn about both of these types of analyses. In chapter seven of the course, you will learn about how geology and archaeology intersect. There is a field of archaeology called geoarchaeology that looks specifically at geological processes and the effects of these on the buried sites you will be excavating. You will learn about the science of geoarchaeology and how it aids archaeological
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investigations. In addition, you can learn about petroglyphs, geoglyphs, and related human activities that are associated with rocks and geology. In chapter eight, you get to learn more about how archaeologists study skeletons in specific ways that help us understand past cultures and their people. Bioarchaeology is a subspecialty of archaeology that looks specifically at what we can learn from human skeletons. You will also learn the fascinating subject of human evolution and what we know so far about the origin of humankind and ancient migration patterns that have led to the entire world being populated. In the ninth chapter of this course, you will learn about social systems and early human civilizations and cultures. Humans had advanced social systems that originated thousands of years ago when the first civilizations were created. In this chapter, we will talk about the hunter-gatherer society and how this evolved to more advanced cultures like the ones we have today. Much of what archaeology has been about in the last several centuries has been related to uncovering and understanding the different cradles of civilization that began our modern lives today. You will also learn about the cradles of civilization in this chapter. The tenth chapter looks at several subfields of archaeology. Environmental archaeology involves primarily the study of plants and animals at archaeological sites. There are specialized techniques used to study these features. The second topic will be the study of urban archaeology, which is the study of the different layers of life beneath larger cities that have been occupied for a long period of time. Maritime archaeology looks at shipwrecks and other underwater archaeological sites. You will learn about this field as well. The eleventh chapter of the course is another that introduces a specific concept in archaeology but augments it with some cases about how archaeology has been able to solve a historical problem. In this case, it is the study of diseases in our world's past. The area of archaeology involved in this is called paleopathology. You will learn about diseases that existed in ancient times and even in prehistoric times. You will see how these projects have helped us understand how and when some diseases we may even deal with today once originated.
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In chapter twelve, you will study battlefield and war-related archaeology. These are subtypes of archaeology that look exclusively at battlefield sites and study areas of the world where there have been possible conflicts, including the torture of citizens and other atrocities in the past. Unfortunately, amateurs often destroy these sites by taking artifacts they find interesting, ruining the landscape for legitimate archaeologists. Even so, a great deal of information can be gotten about battlefields when the sites are not so disturbed. Chapter 13 finally allows you to break away from some of the more rigorous parts of archaeology. Instead, you will descend upon a chapter you probably recognize as being some of the fun parts of archaeology. In this chapter, we will talk about the things that have been uncovered regarding ancient artworks. As you will see, most of this is artwork that has been recovered from archaeological sites all over the world. We will also talk about ancient writing that has also come from artifacts gathered at archaeological sites. Finally, while you wouldn't think archaeology is related to religion, you will see that rituals and religious thought are generally a fairly large part of ancient life. This makes it important to archaeology as well. Chapter fourteen is the final chapter of the course. In this section, you will see archaeology brought to life by looking at some of the major archaeological findings and archaeological sites throughout the world. Not all archaeological sites are suddenly discovered in modern times, but a few have. We will talk about places like Pompeii and the tomb of the terra-cotta army, which were relatively recently discovered after being lost to history for many centuries. In this chapter, archaeological sites from different corners of the world shed light on how the people lived and why the archaeological site exists today at all.
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CHAPTER 1: THE HISTORY OF ARCHAEOLOGY In this first chapter on archaeology, we look at the origins of this field of study. While we often think that archaeology is a relatively recent science, it actually has its origins in the years before the common era. Most likely, people have studied past human lives in past civilizations for much longer than me know of. Archaeological digs have existed in China, Greece, Egypt, and Rome for many years, although some of the time it wasn't a true science with but was essentially artifact gathering. You will learn about how archaeology has evolved over the past few centuries, as we know more about this period of time.
ANCIENT ARCHAEOLOGY It is unlikely we will ever know who the first true archaeologist was. Credit, however, has been given to King Nabonidus, who lived in 550 BCE. There is evidence that he unearthed and analyzed the foundation deposits belonging to an ancient Mesopotamian ruler who lived in 2200 BCE called Naran Sin. Foundation deposits involve the ritual burial of materials used to build temples and other structures in the belief that burying these materials will prevent the destruction of the building. The king was able to analyze the temples of the Sun God and the warrior goddess Anunitu in Sippar, as well as the temple of the moon god found in Harran. The city of Sippar was located in modern-day Iraq, while the city of Harran is located in modernday Turkey. Not only did King Nabonidus unearth foundation deposits, but he restored the temples after nearly 1500 years from this time they were first built. The king attempted to date his findings but was off by more than a millennium. In addition, the son of the Egyptian Pharaoh Ramses the 2nd was also interested in archaeology, particularly as it related to his home country of Egypt. He was famous for restoring old Egyptian monuments and was called the first Egyptologist.
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The Greek historian Herodotus who lived an approximate 450 BCE is considered the first western scholar to collect artifacts systematically and to test the accuracy of their dates in an attempt to tell a story of how people lived in the past. He is famous for writing a series of books called The Histories, where he wrote down all of the information he knew about the different regions of the world. He was an active Explorer of the regions around Egypt and the Middle East.
ARCHAEOLOGY IN THE MIDDLE AGES Archaeology was also seen in the middle ages during the time of humanism, when it was popular to collect ancient artifacts. Artifacts were collected by the elite in the Renaissance era from the ancient Greek and Roman areas of the world; these were considered to be artistic pieces rather than actual artifacts.
ANTIQUARIANS At the same time that classical archaeology began to form, there was the development of the antiquarianism movement. The antiquarians were individuals in the 1600s and 1700s who were interested in history, but mostly as it related to old books, manuscripts, and artifacts. They visited historical sites in order to collect artifacts and other things of interest. They were often wealthy and had large displays of "curios" they kept in cabinets to show others. They were not particularly interested in keeping detailed records of their collections. There was an antiquarian movement in China as well in the time period between 960 AD and 1279 AD, which was considered to be the Song Dynasty Period. Again, wealthy Chinese individuals were similar to those in Europe in that they were interested in collecting artifacts as pieces of art. There were those who argued that this was not a good way to handle these kinds of artifacts, however, these types of people were in the minority. There were also others who studied ancient transcripts more studiously, gaining information from past civilizations in China. Antiquarianism persisted until the early 20th century, never gaining the status of true archaeology as a discipline.
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In the late Middle Ages, people became interested in the Greco-Roman civilizations and in classical cultures. At least one individual, Flavio Biondo, was able to categorize and organize the ruins of ancient Rome during the 15th century, leading to him being called one of the early founders of archaeology in Europe. There was also a scholar, Ciriaco de Pizzicolli, who traveled throughout Greece looking for ancient ruins and recording what he found. He wrote six volumes of his findings that extended to his travels all around the Eastern Mediterranean areas. Other antiquarians in England, such as William Camden and John Leland, were able to describe local artifacts and monuments, commonly looking to prominent religious men to help them understand the monuments. Again, the significance of their findings were not appreciated by anyone at the time. Another antiquarian was William Stukeley, who actually aided real archaeologists in understanding some of the monuments in England such as the monuments of Avebury and Stonehenge. He went as far as attempting to date these large monuments. He felt that these were monuments of the druidic religion in the pre-Roman era. Things got interesting in the 1700s and 1800s, when countries and nations began collecting their own curiosities, turning the collections into large national museums. Many people were hired to collect these artifacts in order to make large displays in areas such as Great Britain and Mexico. This was considered a time of nationalism when countries were interested in their own history.
ANTIQUARIANISM IN ANCIENT ROME The Romans have always been interested in studying their many monuments. There are many books on antiquarian issues related to Roman customs, rituals, genealogy, etymology, and even their political institutions. Researchers like Livy and Tacitus wrote a great deal of Roman history using their interpretation of chronology and their own interpretation of events that happened. Many antiquarian topics were written in Latin, some of which survive to this day. You can read about the works of Pliny the Eder, Macrobius, and Varro in their translated form. Some that did not survive include the works of Cicero and the Roman Emperor 7
Claudius. These antiquarian writers were big on writing their interpretation of events in order to arrive at a conclusion at what had happened during their time, without a large regard to the actual truth. Many built their work on the works of even more ancient antiquarians. This would be similar to playing telephone tag, so that the truth might not be at all accurate. Also in Rome, many medieval antiquarians had large collections of records and inscriptions, many of which were gathered haphazardly and without context. This continued into the Renaissance time period, when there were those who collected coins, archaeological artifacts, documents, and inscriptions. Again, these were often in cabinets of curiosities and kept as memorabilia. Antiquarianism was related to genealogy at the time, with many using these objects to track their own genealogy. Genealogy was believed at the time to be a scientific discipline needing the evidence of artifacts and inscriptions to show lineage. In that sense, the artifacts were used to show the relationship between the people of that time and their families of the past.
ANTIQUARIANISM IN THE 19TH–21ST CENTURIES In the late 1800s, antiquarianism had actually split into several different disciplines in academia. Some of these splits included art history, philology (which is the study of the development of languages), sigillography (which is the study of ancient seals), diplomatics (which is the study of old documents), and literary studies. In many cases, the term antiquarianism was negatively seen, even though there were many practicing antiquarians at the time. In the present time, this term is not used, but many of the other terms related to it are used and have less derogatory meanings. There was a break between people who studied antiquarianism and those who considered themselves historians between the 1500s and 1900s. Antiquarians or antiquaries concerned themselves with relics and artifacts, while historians were much more interested in narratives that might come out of such artifacts. In other words, historians were interested in stories and narratives and much less interested in relics. In
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the late 1800s, this split was less significant and it was recognized that the work of antiquarians could be helpful in understanding history.
FIRST EXCAVATIONS Some of the first true archaeological rations happened in the early 1600s, when Gilbert North and William Harvey excavated Stonehenge. There were other early archaeologists who followed, such as John Aubrey. Aubrey was considered one of the first archaeologists of the time. He is best known for recording information about Stonehenge and similar monuments in southern England. While he was considered an antiquarian, he was mostly interested in documenting the things he found at some of these large monuments. He actually wrote a book on a survey he did of the Avebury henge monument. Figure 1 shows the Avebury monuments.
Figure 1: Avebury monuments. There were other major excavations in the regions of Herculaneum and Pompeii. These had been completely covered by ashes when Mount Vesuvius erupted in seventy-nine A.D. The first excavations of Pompeii began in 1748 in the first and Herculaneum began to be excavated in 1738. King Charles VII of Naples was king at the time and authorized these excavations. Several areas of Herculaneum were uncovered, including things like utensils, human shapes, and many structures. These were seen throughout all of Europe during that time. Johann Joachim Winkelmann was one of the founders of true scientific archaeology. He was a German archaeologist in the mid-1700s who was able to study Greek and Roman art. He was the first to differentiate between Greek, Greco-Roman, and true Roman art 9
and architecture. He was able to draw upon many artifacts in order to create his conclusions about these pieces of art and the people who created them. Thomas Jefferson was very famous for many things, including his interest in archaeology. While he was raised in Europe, he began to understand archaeology and its importance while in the US. In America, he supervised the excavation of one particular burial mound that was created by Native Americans and that happened to be on his land. He had very advanced excavation methods for his time. Around 1800, Napoleon's army became interested in archaeology in Europe. They spent time in Egypt, taking with them a small army of civilian scientists and other specialists so that they could have a full study of Egypt and Egyptian artifacts. It was during this time that Jean-François Champollion was able to decipher the meaning of the Rosetta Stone. This opened the field of archaeology to a much greater degree. The Rosetta Stone was famous for having a decree that was first issued in Memphis, Egypt at approximately 196 BC, when King Ptolemy V Epiphanes was in power. The text was done using ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics, demotic script, and ancient Greek. In actuality, it was not very important at the time it was inscribed, so much so that it was used as building material later in time. This was where it was discovered in 1799. There was great interest in the stone at the time, and when British defeated the French, they were able to take the stone back to London where it has been displayed since 1802 at the British Museum. Again, its importance was that it was a stone that could help researchers decode ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics using texts they already knew. Since then, other decrees have been found, which further indicates that the Rosetta Stone, while famous, was not unique at the time. You need to remember that these were times where modern techniques now used in archaeology were unknown. You will learn about stratification later; for now, you need to know that none of these things were done in many early excavations. Thomas Bruce, for example, unearthed the Elgin marbles of the Parthenon located in Athens in 1803. He was criticized for doing this without proper archaeological technique. At the time, however, the sculptures themselves were considered more important than what they could say about ancient Greek civilization.
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The early 1800s was a time of many archaeological digs in places like Egypt, the ruins of Babylon, and other areas of the Middle East. The aim during that time was just to get artifacts. These were similar to antiquarians in that the artifacts were important but not anything related to context. Nowadays, the artifacts are still important but so is the context in which they are found as well as many other details overlooked in the initial excavations of that time.
MODERN ARCHAEOLOGY William Cunnington is considered the father of modern archaeological excavations. He undertook many excavations around 1800 in the area of Wiltshire England, which is the place where many ancient monuments have been located. He needed to be funded by wealthy patrons who often took credit for the work. Cunnington was quite meticulous in recording his findings and categorizing what he was able to collect. Some of his terms used in categorizing artifacts are still used today. Stratigraphy was developed in the 1800s as one of the more modern archaeological techniques. This is something you will learn about in the next chapter. The idea is to have overlapping strata in order to date the things found in the excavation site. Many scholars and archaeologists used this technique in order to unearth sites from the bronze age. Other archaeologists were able to put their findings in chronological order, which obviously helped understand the uses of these objects in past times. This was the first period of time where the idea of deep time was first developed. You need to remember that most people believe the Old Testament and fell for the idea that the earth was born on a Sunday on October 23, 4004 BC. This belief lasted until approximately 1850 when archaeologists began to understand that the earth was much older than this. At that time, in about 1850, archaeology was not a science of any kind. People thought it was much like an amateur pastime and in fact many amateurs went about unearthing all sorts of antiquities without regard to where they came from or their historical significance. In the years that followed, a man named Augustus Pitt Rivers started to transform archaeology into a much more rigorous scientific field.
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Rivers owned a great deal of land that he inherited in Great Britain. This area had numerous important archaeological findings that he started to unearth. Many came from the Roman or Saxon periods. It took him seventeen seasons to fully excavate these areas, mostly in the late 1880s. He was meticulous about his excavations and felt others should to do the same. For his work, he has been regarded as the father of British archaeology and many consider him the first true scientific archaeologist. Rivers was strongly influenced by the work of Charles Darwin and the work of Herbert Spencer. Both of these men were very interested in categorizing things in certain ways. Rivers began organizing his artifacts according to their chronology and type. Using this method, he was able to see various trends in how tools evolved over time. His work also helped others trying to date their own artifacts. He insisted on collecting all artefacts and considered everything important, not only those that were different or particularly beautiful. He had a strong focus on everyday objects, which furthered the understanding of how people lived in past times. Another major player of that time in archaeology was William Flinders Petrie. He is also a strong consideration to be called the father of archaeology. He studied and excavated the great pyramid in Egypt during his travels there in the 1880s. Before this, many have wondered how these great structures were created. William Flinders Petrie was able to disprove the current theories and find data used today to study the pyramids. He was also meticulous in recording the artifacts he found and was able to develop strategies used in modern times when it comes to recording archaeological information. He believed that no small detail should be left out and that everything should be recorded. He was able to date pottery using layered technology. He was also a great teacher who taught many of the later Egyptologists who worked in the 1900s in Egypt. The concept of stratigraphy in archaeology was made more popular by the work of Heinrich Schliemann, who excavated the ancient city of Troy along with several others. It's quite fascinating to understand that they were able to unearth nine different cities on that same site that dated from prehistoric times to approximately the Hellenistic period. He did receive quite a bit of criticism in doing what he did, partly because it was felt that they basically leveled the entire city during the excavation process.
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More interesting work was done by Sir Arthur Evans in Crete, where he was able to find evidence of a vast ancient civilization in the area. Evans found numerous artifacts and brought them back to Oxford, where they were studied for quite some time by classicists. They attempted to re-create the original site out of these artifacts and were largely successful, considering that their work was primitive by modern standards.
HISTORY OF CHINESE ARCHAEOLOGY Much less is known about the archaeology in China, even though there have been great works of archaeology discovered in this country. China is very old and has a number of wonderful archaeological digs in the country, such as the site recently excavated known as the terra-cotta warriors site. In the era of the Song Dynasty between 960 and 1279 A.D., there were those who started preserving and excavating sites that had ancient bronze inscriptions dating back from the Shang and Zhou periods. There are other artifacts, such as bronze vessels, which were studied during this era, however, there were disagreements among those who were largely antiquarians and those who were genuinely interested in Chinese history. Antiquarianism was alive and well in China through the seventeenth century.
THE MODERN ERA OF ARCHAEOLOGY Archaeology became a discipline field of science in the early 1900s. One of the earliest professional archaeologists was Sir Mortimer Wheeler, who had a systematic approach to excavation in 1920s and 1930s. This moved the process of archaeology to a new level. His work was improved upon and expanded by one of his students, Kathleen Kenyon. The goal of this research was to be extremely systematic about any type of excavation and to maintain strict control over stratigraphy at all times. An additional goal was to publish any excavation records as soon as possible. Archaeology finally became a true field of study that one could go to college and learn about. It took until the end of the twentieth century until there were graduates in the field of archaeology and until there were many more innovations that made archaeology a huge field. It expanded beyond ancient ruins to things like maritime archaeology and 13
the archaeology of urban places. Rescue archaeology was developed, which helped commercial developers get their building sites excavated before potentially damaging important areas of history by building on them. Interestingly, the bombed out cities of World War II allowed archaeologists to have a unique chance to take a closer look at these European cities and their pasts prior to rebuilding the city. This branch of archaeology was called urban archaeology, which focuses on areas of large populations that live for long periods of time in smaller areas, such as cities. When these were excavated, a large amount of information was gotten about life in these European cities years ago.
NEW TECHNOLOGY IN ARCHAEOLOGY As technology expanded everywhere, it also expanded into the world of archaeology. Archaeologists began using radiocarbon dating or carbon-14 dating in order to date artifacts. You need to understand that carbon dating can only be done on carbon based organic matter. It can't be done on anything. It also is limited to being able to date things existing from 10,000 years ago to the present time. Even so, carbon dating became important in archaeology all over the world. A good example of the usage of this technique was in carbon dating the shroud of Turin, which actually came from the Middle Ages. The ability to do remote-sensing in geophysical surveys as well as the ability to use satellite imagery and aerial photography helped expand archaeology to a much greater degree. Landscapes could be measured with LIDAR, which is a type of Doppler radar using sound to measure landscapes. Magnetometry and things like ground penetrating radar allowed archaeologists to actually see beneath the earth before they even started excavating. Large Roman villages like Viroconium were completely excavated using this type of technology. Archaeologists were actually able to see the town before they did any digging. The term archaeometry refers to using these types of technology in archaeology. Finally, genetics and genome sequencing have been used more recently in some cases where living human tissue has been found. In the Alps in 1991, for example, a frozen
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man was found with living human tissue that was able to be sequenced. Interestingly, he did not belong to any known population of humans existing today.
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KEY POINTS IN THIS CHAPTER •
Archaeology existed in some form even in times we consider ancient now.
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Early relics were found to be interesting and were kept by antiquarians in curio cabinets without a real excavation of their history or context.
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Archaeology has evolved greatly over the last 150 years to be a true science people can study in college today.
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New technology, such as carbon dating and ground penetrating radar are now used routinely in archaeological digs.
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There were many prominent figures in archaeology who developed the science of things like stratigraphy and careful collection of artifacts in order to understand their history in the context in which they existed.
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