NEW TOPIC: HISTORICAL ARCHAEOLOGY
NO ANNOTATED REFERENCES DUE
STRUCTURE OP HISTORICAL ARCHAEOLOGY--WHAT’S THE CONCEPTURAL STRUCTURE OF THIS
SPECIALITY
IS HISTORICAL ARCHAEOLOGY SCIENCE OR POST-MODERN
OR BOTH?
RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN PREHISTORIC AND HISTORICAL
ARCHAEOLOGY.
1)
Definitions: historical Archaeology
Historical Archaeology as archaeology with the
addition of textural descriptions
In Europe, this means that historical archaeology is preRoman. In the Middle East, it dates to Sumer, 3000 B. C.
Slave Castle, Ghana
Temple, Sumer
Sumerian writing—
Cuneiform
2) Historical Archaeology, in the Americas, is the archaeology of
Europeans. It covers the last 600 years of time and begins with
European conquest/invasion
San Marcos, St Augustine FL
Colonial Williamsburg, Va.
Monticello, VA.
If Historical Archaeology is the Archaeology of
Europeans, how do these two disciplines work together?
Ivor Noel Hume: founder, developer of Colonial Williamsburg:
“Archaeology is the stepchild of History” .
In essence, in relation to history, archaeology will always
lose and is a weaker contributor… A lot of history and a
little archaeology
Initially, then history was the intellectual home of historical
archaeology.
Why is this Slave
the case?
Castle, Ghana
1. We are a literate society and value the written word
above other kinds of artifacts
2. The historical record is written by individuals; the
archaeological record is collective--- the results of many
individual actions
3. The temporal resolution of the historical versus the
archaeological record.
Some Consequences of this position
1) Historical archaeologists develop specialties, e.g., bottle
shapes, European ceramics
European Artifacts are used , as all artifacts
are used:
temporal diagnostics
differences in access to goods
( status; elites). Ex: Changing
status of “hookers” in 18th C. in
Washington D. C.
2) This Specialization results in an artificial Separation
between Prehistory and History in the Americas.
Prehistory is Native American; History is
European
Why this separation makes no sense:
• Native record does not terminate with Europeans.
• The nature of contemporary American society is a product of what
of the long trajectory of change that goes back 12,000 years.
• Cuts the past off from the Present
• There is no “pure European” or “pure Indian”…
– This is myth
Historical Archaeology within Anthropology
• Several Directions, all of which, utilize an anthropological
framework :
– Historical Anthropology
– Archaeology of the Historic Record
• May be either post modern of science
– Challenging the Hegemony of History
Historical Anthropology: Then and now
• Acculturation: The study of the process of change that occurs
when two societies with different traditions come into direct contact
Pocahontas
M. Herskovits
Pros and Cons of Classic Acculturation
• Pros
– Introduced the use of texts to understand the process of
change.
– Cultural traditions are not static…
• Cons:
– Direction of Change from Europeans to native
populations.
• Native Populations as passive recipients of goods,
ideas, and institutions. (This is obviously not the
case.)
– European goods, ceramics for instance, as “superior”
to native manufacture. Is this the case?
New Historical Anthropology
• Pluralistic anthropology--– The goal is to understand the
nature of change
– Change has multiple directions:
• All people directly involved
in the context are changed.
The structures that emerge
are tied to the past but are
new “hyrid”
– Uses all available evidence to
examine change as ongoing
• Texts, archives, oral history
and artifacts
Fort Ross
Archaeology of the Historic Record/ Challenging the
Hegemony of History
(consider these together because both put archaeology
in the driver’s seat or treat archaeology independently)
Archaeological investigations as an independent research domain
of the historic period. Use history but don’t put archaeology in the
service of history. When examine each discipline independently,
we build a more integrated knowledge of the process of change
that occurred with European conquest
Kathleen Deagan
Ron Towner
R
r
Taino Disappearance: Haiti
•
•
Earliest hispanic colony:
History: Taino disppear with
20 years of Columbus.
Destroyed by disease and
enslavement in the mining of
placer gold. So Why Study:
En Bas Saline:
– Separation of pre and
post-1492.
– Continuation of Taino
Tradition even as they
decline.
Abandonment of the Chama by Native
Peoples:
History says: natives gone
by 1600 when Onate
establishes San Gabriel at
San Juan Pueblo
Archaeological Time: Tree
Ring Dates, ceramic crossdates, and luminescence
dates to evaluate when
Lower Chama is
abandoned.
Results: They are still there
in the 17th C.; in fact until
the Pueblo Revolt.
Summary
1. Archaeology and history have different understandings of the
past.
2. The tying of archaeology to history renders archaeological
understanding invisible.
3. Separating the two disciplines and independently investigating a
topic leads to a more fulsome understanding, explanation,
interpretation.