Foundations of Archaeology

 Week one and two of the Spring Semester of Archaeology is in the bag, and we have learned what archaeologists are and how they got their start.  First we learned what archaeologist are not: they are not dinosaur diggers, Indiana Jones, and definitely not Angelina Jolie squeezed into a very un-proportional Lara Croft outfit.  They study all human cultures through the recovery and analysis of material remains and environmental data from all places and times, basically they have more of a chance of digging though a midden than through the tomb of an ancient Babylonian king. Archaeology is very destructive, as in the site can never be reconstructed again, but it also extremely tedious as small layers of the stratigraphy are removed to create a timeline of the sight.  Everything is documented in detail and any artifacts or ecofacts are cataloged.  The profession has progressed from the Antiquarians that only cared about the artifacts and objects to modern archaeologists that are looking for knowledge of the cultures and people that came before us, being able to see in real time that history can in fact repeat itself.  I am excited about the rest of the semester and am looking forward to the hands on section of the course in the lab and most definitely in the field. 

These are the two articles that I reviewed for this assignment:   

What Do Archaeologists Do?

Peter, N. and Gonzalez, S. (2023, February 9) What Do Archaeologists Do?   https://www.sapiens.org/archaeology/what-do-archaeologists-do/

 This article explores what archaeologists actually do and some of the challenges they face trying to learn from the past while at the same time protecting the peoples and cultures they study.  In a nutshell, archeologists study everything that man has left behind to better understand our history: structures, objects, and landscapes. As a child of the 80's, my first experiences with archaeology revolved around a man in a fedora with a bull whip dodging traps in some ancient temple and beating up Nazis.  While this is a far cry from actual archeology, if I do decide to pursue a career in the field of archeology I will wear a fedora in Indy's memory.  Indy is actually mentioned in the article for his famous line that artifacts "belong in a museum".  This sounds like a great idea and was the norm for a long time: the artifact is protected, it can be studied, and people can come see and see it.  But what about the culture or the people that it came from?  Their history has essentially been stolen from them.  Several laws have been passed, especially in the US, to protect future studies and to repatriate artifacts back to the proper cultures. I found it interesting that many in the field believed these laws were going to be the end of archeology. But through respect and cooperation with indigenous communities, it has allowed everyone to benefit from the findings.  While a career in forensic anthropology was my original goal, due to constraints of available study locally, I may look into archaeology as a career path.      

Is War Inevitable? Consider the Ancient Maya

Hernández, C. and Bracken, J. (2023, January 3) Is War Inevitable? Consider the Ancient Maya. https://www.sapiens.org/archaeology/tactics-war-archaeology/ 

This article explores two different theories "Have we become more peaceful over the course of our history?" or "Have we become more violent?" Prior to 1500 A.D. there is very little data available throughout the world showing the number of battlefield deaths. Archaeologists have a hard time distinguishing ancient battle injuries from basic accidents, a skeletal broken arm from a battle looks exactly like a broken arm sustained by accidentally falling of a horse. Even though there was no Mesoamerican Tacitus to chronicle events, and no text has been found that matched Tacitus' ethnographic detail, new technology and findings could be the answer to questions about ancient warfare.  I found it interesting that LIDAR can be used to identified previously unknown structures or features in cities and settlements that could have been fortifications for the community, dispelling the previous belief that the Maya were mostly peaceful. Since the beginning there have always been "the haves" and "the have nots", and until mankind can eventually create universal equality and equity throughout the world, we will have warfare and combat. 

 

Coincidentally, I am also taking an art appreciation class this semester and one of the pieces we have discussed is the Standard of Ur.  Created around 2500 B.C. in the ancient Sumerian City of Ur, the standard depicts how the king of Ur conquers and enslaves his adversaries.  Even before written history, we still have evidence of how violent we can be as a species.