January 22, 2020 ● What is archaeology? ○ Muckle textbook - “the study of humans through their material remains” ■ Studying materiality ■ Timeframe: 1000’s of years or yesterday ■ Past and connection to contemporary world ■ Help address problems facing societies today

Reading: Introducing Archaeology Ch. 1 Situating Archaeology (p-23)

● Archaeology is everywhere in the 21st C. ○ Part of the heritage industry ○ Two sites that symbolize archaeology: Acropolis of Athens, Inka site in Peru ○ These two sites represent so many things archaeologists are interested in: politics and tourism ■ The acropolis is one of the most famous sites in the world, coming to symbolize western civilization as well as the beginnings of archaeology itself ● Archaeology roughly means “the study of ancient things or stories” but can be defined in other ways as well. ○ BUT there is no consensus definition of the term ○ Some definitions focus on the objects of interest (artifacts) or the study of ancient civilization itself ● Archaeology is focused on humans and remains of their physical activities ○ The study of humans through their material remains ○ Archaeology is situated in three basic models, both intellectually and administratively in colleges and universities ■ branch of anthropology is one model ■ archaeology as a stand-alone department ■ archaeology is recognized as neither a department nor a branch, but rather as specialized courses situated within any of several departments ● Archaeologists mostly concerned with political destruction of native american heritage sites (collateral damage and subsistence looting) ● Linked to global social movements ● Basic concepts in archaeology ○ Culture, deep tome, reasoning by analogy, etc. ○ Objectives include reconstructing past culture

■ Ethnographic analogy occurs when archaeologists use similarities with contemporary people, or with people whose culture has been documented in an ethnography, to make their own interpretations ■ Many archaeologists do experiments to provide a source of comparison (e., creating things that can be described as similar to archaeological finds), known as experimental archaeology. January 27, 2020 Archaeology Today - Why does the past matter? Who needs archaeology? Who are the archaeologists of the future?

● Exploring Muckle’s Definition ○ “Studying humans through their material remains” ○ 1. Material remains ○ 2. Humans ■ Dinosaurs is paleontology ■ Fundamental to archaeology ○ 3. Study ■ Systematic, organized structure to the analysis ■ A process with methods and theory that informs that practice ■ Based in world view and system of knowledge ■ Science is one way of systematic examination, humanities centered focus is another ■ Indigenous knowledge systems - ways of seeing and understanding the world ■ Other ways of understanding, studying and preserving/caring for the “past” ● Muckle Says: 4 types of archaeology ○ Academic ○ Cultural resource management (CRM) ○ Indinenous archaeology ○ Amateur archaeology ■ Really should only focus on the top 2 ■ Indigenous archaeology should be integrated for all archaeology ■ Amateur archaeology is more of treasure hunting and isn’t scientific ● Academic archaeology ○ In US - part of anthropology ○ Anthro subdisciplines ■ Cultural, linguistic, biological, archaeological ○ Variability in defining other disciplines

Instead, they tend to remain in the client’s or government’s offices and enter what has come to be known as the gray literature.” ● Indigenous Archaeology ○ Done by, with or for the indigenous peoples ○ Providing support for claims of indigenous rights & territory, archaeo-tourism, education for their communities, nation building ● Amateur Archaeology ○ Avocational archaeology - umbrella phrase for the work being done by people without educational credentials in the field ■ What makes this different from the other types? Is this not considered a real category of archaeology?

○ People who do this are known as pothunters ■ Dig up sites to find and sell objects of value ● Global governments recognize the value of tangible heritage ○ Have enacted legislation to protect it ● Ethics ○ “Most associations of archaeologists have codes of ethics that stipulate how archaeologists should conduct their work. Although the issues addressed for each organization vary, some generalizations can be made about the protection of the archaeological record, commercialization, and responsibilities to various groups”

Jan 29, 2020 Reading: Bigger than History & Ch. 1

● Archaeology embraces far more than just the iconic sites ○ Uncovers all aspects of the human past ○ Brings the entire human past to life; how we came to be and who we are today ○ Archaeology is more than excavations, surveys, museum artifacts ● Archaeologists aim to study, conserve and interpret all aspects of our human past ○ Results can help us face standing and new challenges ● The most distinctive quality of archaeology: ○ Timescale with which it deals ○ Archaeologists think in millennia, hundreds of thousands of years ● The greatest developments of archaeology have come since the 1960’s ○ Growing reliance on scientific approaches ○ Specialized archaeology ● Our human lineage split from the chimpanzees around 7 million years ago

○ The earliest traces of human cultural behavior (defined by the making of crude stone tools) date to 3 million years ago. ○ Human evolutionary models look more like a series of disjointed brush strokes ● So who are we now and how do we fit into the evolutionary picture? ○ “Wise-people” ○ Homo sapiens is the only hominin left standing, and we are the focus of most archaeological endeavors ● Building Cities ○ After 3000 bc, the compass of human existence widened beyond the confines of villages and towns ○ Expanded to “cities” but the population was still a lot lower than today’s cities ○ Tended to be dominated by a ruling class or religious authority ○ their people usually engaged in wide-ranging trading, strengthening ○ initiating political and social relationships with distant communities ● ** Today’s archaeology is detail obsessed, but this obsession is often ● necessary in order to record accurately the details of past cultures. Archaeologists strive to document the past as scientifically and meticulously as possible**

February 3, 2020 Looking at Archaeology’s Past - Formative Years through 1970’s

● Archaeology and 9/ ○ Ship beneath World Trade Center ■ Wooden, tree rings dated to 1773 ■ Found 22 feet below modern ground level ■ matched ring patterns from white oak timbers in Philadelphia's Independence Hall, where the Declaration of Independence and U. Constitution were signed ■ Ship used to expand land in Manhattan ○ Cuneiform tablets in basement ■ 302 cuneiform tablets recovered in 6 World Trade Center ■ 3rd dynasty of Ur (UR III), 4000 years old (2100-2000 BC) ■ confiscated by U. customs, smuggled into New Jersey from Dubai ■ Likely looted from site in Iraq ■ Translated then repatriated to Iraq in 2010 ○ Museum and Heritage work ■ Memorial museum as an archaeological site ■ Museum as artifact

○ Superposition ■ Youngest ■ Young ■ Older ■ Oldest ● War, Wealth & Treasure Hunting ○ Emergence of antiquarianism ■ Renewed interest in Ancient Greece & Roman Empire ■ Hobby of the wealthy to collect ○ Collection of materials via war and travel ○ Extreme ethnocentrism ○ Analogy was used to explain cultural differences ○ First systematic excavations ■ Herculaneum & Pompeii (eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in 79 AD) ■ Early excavation in 18th century (started in1748) ● Rosetta Stone ○ Napoleon Bonaparte’s invasion of Egypt (1798) ○ His general found the Rosetta Stone (1799) ○ Famous artifact ○ Large black basalt stone ○ Same text, 3 languages ■ Greek ■ Egyptian ■ Hieroglyphics ○ Led to renewed interest in ancient Egypt ● Archaeology Closely Tied to Colonization ○ Connection of archaeology to colonization was from the start ○ Exploration and "discovery" ○ Encounters with indigenous peoples ○ Find new lands and ‘resources’ ○ Curiosity about people and "prehistory" ● Thomas Jefferson ○ Mound explorations for curiosity ○ Myth of the Moundbuilders ○ Assumption that Native people were not capable of mounds/sophisticated math, engineering, astrological knowledge, even though Native people were using mounds ○ Jefferson excavated mounds in 1780’s ○ Showed that Native people built the mounds

○ Systematic excavation, problem solving, used stratigraphy ○ Relied on scientific methods ● Key Events of the 19th Century ○ Early (c. 1800–1835) ■ Popularization of three-age system (Stone, Bronze, Iron) ■ Deep time established ○ Mid (c. 1835–1865) ■ Archaeology emerges as a profession and scholarly discipline ■ People accept concept of biological evolution ○ Late (c. 1865–1899) ■ Development of unilinear theory of cultural evolution* ■ Development of systematic excavation and recording methods ● Racism Based in Science ○ Idea that based on their culture people/society could be classified as either: savages, barbarians or civilized ○ Highly ethnocentric view of culture ● Deeply Problematic Ethnocentric view of “Progress” ○ 5. Middle Status of Barbarism ■ Begins in the eastern hemisphere with the domestication of animals ■ Begins in the western hemisphere with the cultivation of maize and other plants ■ Ends with the process of smelting iron ○ 6. Upper Status of Barbarism ■ Begins with iron smelting ■ Ends with invention of alphabet/writing ○ 7. Civilization ■ Begins with invention of alphabet/writing ● “Prehistory” ○ Assumption based in science of the time that “civilization” required written records ○ Think about this: people caring for place in a traditional way facing explorers and governments, armed with the science of the day ● Knowledge System Informs View of Time ○ Indigenous ■ Diversity of views, with some similarities ■ Relationship based, interconnected view ■ Circular, cyclical view of time ■ Place-based w/connection to land (Wisdom Sits in Places) ○ Western

○ Writings from ancient Greece speculate on previous technologies based on stone ○ Ancient Rome suggested something similar to our modern conception of the Stone, Bronze and Iron ages ● Other historians choose to see the origins of archaeology in the first examples of concentrated interest in the material remains of past human activities ○ These go back at least a few thousand years ○ Material remains were used in support of historical records in ancient China ○ Nabonidus (king of Babylonian Empire) is often credited with being the first archaeologist due to his “quest” to find the material remains of the people who preceded the Babylonians ● Public museums date back to the 5th Century BC in Greece and 1st Century AD in Rome ○ The oldest museum still in existence since 8th Century AD is in Japan ● During the Enlightenment and Renaissance, changes in Europe had important implications for archaeology ○ Rise of science as explanatory framework ○ Biblical explanations ○ The bible no longer the sole use of explanations for things ● The rise of science as explanatory framework was one of the most important developments in origins of archaeology ○ Others include renewed interest in speculations and material cultures of ancient Greece and Rome ○ Collecting art and antiquities from those classical eras became a hobby of the rich ■ antiquarians/collectors ○ Doing this inspired others to dig deep about the past of their cultures ○ William Camden, produced a bunch of archaeological sites in Britain and wrote about them ● Thomas Jefferson set out to investigate by excavation ○ Stratigraphy ○ Attention to problem solving (who created the mounds) ○ Credited to be the first to undertake scientific excavations ● The early part of the 19th Century witnessed further support for the ideas that had begun to form in the centuries prior ○ Great antiquity for the earth was widely accepted ○ Museums played an important role in the rise of archaeology during this time ■ Active in their pursuit of collections ○ Also played a role in solidifying thought on cultural evolution and popularizing the notion of the three age system ● Archaeology was becoming a profession involved in the collection of objects of the past and also considered a serious academic discipline

● **Categorization of any group of people based on its technology and subsistence strategy

February 5, 2020 Archaeology’s History - Processual, Post processual, Community Based, etc.

● Franz Boas (1858-1942) ○ Anthropologist, used all 4 fields ○ Cultural relativism ■ Progressive at the time ■ Each culture works in its own way ■ Critiques: should not be used to allow repressive regimes behind cloak of cultural difference ○ Debunked the prevailing belief that Western civilization is “superior” ○ Helped dispel idea of cultural evolution as being linear ● Processual Archaeology (1960-1970’s.. Now) ○ Aka “New Archaeology” (another name for Processual) ■ Critique on cultural relativism ○ Lewis Binford (grad student, father of this) ○ In direct response to Culture History ○ Archaeology as science, seperate from history ○ Focus on explanation rather than description for how things change over time!! ○ Looked for universal laws instead of specific culture histories ○ Linked to wider social concern with positivism and modernism ○ Research design, experimental and ethnoarchaeology (ANALOGY!) and site formation processes ● Processual Archaeology: Focus on Systems ○ Systems theory ○ Cultural processes & feedback loops was main focus ○ Complex interrelated cultural and environmental factors that contribute to cultural change ■ Not just one factor like “diffusion”, it was actually very complicated ○ Environmental studies within archaeology ■ Big important question at this time ○ Draws on hard sciences, specialists in archaeology (teams of experts) ○ Becomes mainstream throughout the US and the world ● Post-Processual Archaeology (1980’s - present) ○ Ian Hodder ○ First called “radical critique”, also “interpretive archaeology”

○ Applies broadly, can be practiced by anyone (indiginous and non) in any location (not just Native lane) ● Phenomonolody ● *Timeline of Archaeological Thought in textbook Reading: Ch. 2 of Community Based Archaeology: Research with, by and for Indigenous and Local Communities by Sonya Atalay (p. 29-54)

● “In contemporary archaeology, heritage management, community and joint stewardship, cultural tourism, and accessibility of archaeological knowledge combine with more traditional areas of archaeological excavation and survey work to form new and exciting directions of inquiry” ○ Collaborative appeoaches are not limited to newer topics of archaeological inquiry BUT are also having an impact on more established areas of archaeological research ● Not practical or helpful to have a single defenition of “collaboration” in the context of archaeology ○ Currently using the term in different ways ○ “Collaboration continuum” ○ Collaboration means different things to different people ○ In modern day, the concepts have evolved ● Both internal and external influeces led to community based participatory approaches in archaeology ○ In US, primary external influence was Natice American activism (red power mvt) ○ Multiple internal influences also drove/drive archaeology toward an increased focus on collaboration ○ Pressures from outside the academic world combined with new intellectual directions within archaeology to move the dicipline to our current position ■ Community based research ● Native American activist groups (American Indian Mvt) and activist scholars raised awareness of issues within the academic context and the public eye ● The American Indian Movement (AIM) actively engaged in protests against the excavation and display of Native American human remains ○ Activism of this period not limited to native american intellectuals such as this group though ○ Flint, Michigan is another example ● Native American critiques of archaeological and anthropological research goals and practices had a second important impact ○ caused some scholars to consider alternative approaches to research and how archaeological practice might change to become more inclusive

● During the early part of the new millennium, new relationships grew, more collaborations developed and the literature about these collaborations blossomed ○ Partnership approach!!

February 10, 2020 Archaeological Sites - How they are Defined and Formed

● What constitutes the archaeological record? ○ Sites ○ Artifcacts - portable, made my human ○ Features - not portable, not made by humans ○ Ecofacts - animal bones, plant remains, soils ○ Cultural landscapes ● Archaeological site: place where there is physical evidence of human activity/history of human activity ● Site Formation Process ○ 1. Natural formation process ■ Water is a common burial tool (especially flooding) ■ Land slides ■ Wind (moves dirt, sand) Organisms (plants, earthworms, small mammals) ■ Soil formation ○ Cultural formation process ■ People bury their dead ■ People bury their garbage ■ People bury votive offerings ■ People bury monetary items/valuables ■ People lose or abandon items/valuables ● Cultural disturbance process ○ Reusing ○ Recycling ○ Trampling ○ Construction ○ Looting ○ Collateral damage during war

○ Archaeological sites invariably have sediments in them that are brought in by nature, and the processes responsible for this are generally called natural or non-cultural formation processes. ○ Some artifacts enter through accidental burial (losing something) but many were intentional burial

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Anthro 102 spring 2020 - Lecture notes 1-9

Course: Archaeology: Humans Past and Present (102)

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University: University of Massachusetts Amherst

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January 22, 2020

●What is archaeology?

○Muckle textbook - “the study of humans through their material remains”

■Studying materiality

■Timeframe: 1000’s of years or yesterday

■Past and connection to contemporary world

■Help address problems facing societies today

Reading: Introducing Archaeology Ch. 1 Situating Archaeology (p.1-23)

●Archaeology is everywhere in the 21st C.

○Part of the heritage industry

○Two sites that symbolize archaeology: Acropolis of Athens, Inka site in Peru

○These two sites represent so many things archaeologists are interested in: politics

and tourism

■The acropolis is one of the most famous sites in the world, coming to

symbolize western civilization as well as the beginnings of archaeology

itself

●Archaeology roughly means “the study of ancient things or stories” but can be defined in

other ways as well.

○BUT there is no consensus definition of the term

○Some definitions focus on the objects of interest (artifacts) or the study of ancient

civilization itself

●Archaeology is focused on humans and remains of their physical activities

○The study of humans through their material remains

○Archaeology is situated in three basic models, both intellectually and

administratively in colleges and universities

■branch of anthropology is one model

■archaeology as a stand-alone department

■archaeology is recognized as neither a department nor a branch, but rather

as specialized courses situated within any of several departments

●Archaeologists mostly concerned with political destruction of native american heritage

sites (collateral damage and subsistence looting)

●Linked to global social movements

●Basic concepts in archaeology

○Culture, deep tome, reasoning by analogy, etc.

○Objectives include reconstructing past culture

Anthro 102 spring 2020 - Lecture notes 1-9

Archaeology: Humans Past and Present (102)

University of Massachusetts Amherst

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Anthro 102 spring 2020 - Lecture notes 1-9

Course: Archaeology: Humans Past and Present (102)

University: University of Massachusetts Amherst

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