A brief archaeology
of Archaeology
“Moments in the prehistory of archaeology”





Thutmose IV, Pharaoh of Egypt,15th century BC,
excavates the Sphinx.
Nabonidus (last King of Babylon) excavates at
Babylon in 6th century BC [declares there were
earlier civilizations “before us”]
1492, “New World” discovery demands new
explanations in biblical interpretation in Europe
Ruins of Pompeii discovered 1594
Antiquarianism develops with basic attempts at
classification of relics by collectors





Interest in antiquities expands following invasion
of Egypt by Napoleon
Rosetta stone uncovered, 1799. (British
possession in 1801).
Hieroglyphics deciphered by
linguist/mathematician Jen Jacques
Champollion
1860s Schliemann excavates at Troy and
Mycenae
1880s: Discoveries of early hominid skeletons
spurs the science of paleo-anthropology
1900-1920 Arthur Evans excavates at
Knossos on Crete, reveals the Minoans.
 1920s Leonard Woolly excavates at Ur
(spurs Sumerimania)
 Howard Carter unearths the tomb of
Tutankhamen (spurs Egyptomania)

2a
Terms and jargon













Archaeological culture
Phase
Period
Tradition
Culture area
Horizon
Artifacts, ecofacts, features
Sites
Regional sampling
Area sampling
Chronologies: relative and
absolute
Stratigraphy
Experimental archaeology
Olmec jaguar-human infant
hybrid of carved jadite.
Artifacts



Any object made or modified
by humans
Includes, but is not limited to,
pottery; tools of stone, metal,
wood; glass; jewelry, ritual
objects; weapons of any type,
textiles and clothing; storage
containers, cooking
implements; writing; In
essence, all forms of portable
material culture.
May also include debitage:
refuse from tool manufacturing
and many forms of garbage.
Features

Any non-portable element of material culture on a site.
Includes any and all architecture, roads, footpaths, wells,
hearths (fire pits) post holes, trash dumps, modified
natural landscape, mines, canals, and earthworks. May
also include fixed art (cave paintings and petroglyphs.
Also includes foundations and platforms.

Cognitive-landscape attributes are considered features
by many archaeologists, such as sacred landscapes or
places “of power” and lines of sight.
Ecofacts

Any natural aspect of site
remains that indicates human
activities. Examples include
charcoal, seeds, gourds,
pollen, food remains, antler,
animal skins, bones with
evidence of butchering, ore,
slag, cultivated plants, and
much more, including
coprolites. These are clues to
foodways, agricultural and
food procurement practices
(subsistence patterns) and
social interaction.
Coprolite (fossil feces)
“little gifts from the past”
Material culture

Tangible products of human
behavior and interaction. A chair
or a knife is material culture; a
belief, a ceremony, a preferred
food is not.

Ceremonies, and other abstract
expressions of behavior and
cognition (culture) may have
tangible material accoutrement,
which offer archaeologists with
clues to cultural practices. We
may not observe a social process
or cultural practice, but we can
interpret or infer it from material
culture evidence.
Next: Origins of Humanity

The Neanderthal question.
Culture systems and processes



Invention
Diffusion
Migration

Bands
Tribes and clans
Chiefdoms
Proto-states
States

Exchange systems






Unilinear cultural
evolution
Multilinear cultural
evolution
A sampling of theoretical approaches to
archaeological study









Optimal foraging theory
Cultural ecology
Diffusionism
Evolutionary ecology
Culture history
“new archaeology”
Environmental
archaeology
Cultural processualism
Post-processualism