Chapter 5: How were Societies Organized? Social Archaeology Flashcards
What has changed in the analysis of grave fields since the 1960s? Why since the 1960s?
Introduction of New Archaeology had archeologists look at the context of the grave fields and burials rather than just dating them or finding artifacts.
What 6 indicators are there (two general ones, four for individual graves) for analyzing a grave field?
DR GRAS
General Indicators:
1. Relation of grave field with other traces of habitation.
- Look at where graves are located.
2. Dispersion of graves within grave field.
Individual Indicators:
3. Grave form = shape (Pozzo/Fossa) and dimensions.
Pozzo = round, cremated, men.
Fossa = buried, rectangular, woman.
4. Rite (ritual) = cremation or inhumation.
5. Artefacts = pots, jewelry, weapons.
6. Skeleton Remains = sex and age group.
II’s can tell us 3 social aspects:
- Sex, Status, and Rite
What culture does the grave field of Quattro Fontanilli, Italy, belong to? What is the dating of the grave field (centuries)?
Villanova culture, 900-675 BCE (transition from bronze to iron age).
What does the analysis of 100 graves from Quattro Fontanilli say, in general, about the society the buried people belonged to?
Can tell us about the status of the people that lived there. Those more dispersed often were more important or had a higher status than those clumped together.
About which three social factors do the four individual indicators of grave fields say something?
Sex:
- Men had weapons, urns and chariots in their graves. Cremated in Pozzo graves. Men wore iron broches.
- Woman had weaving material, jewelry, pottery and bronze broches in their graves. Were buried in Fossa graves, sometimes with children. Woman had more jewelry, men paid for wives graves to be nice.
Status:
- Size only important in Fossa graves, more important tombs were free-lying, high quality metals (gold and silver) was a status indicator.
Qualitative Index = looks at quality over quantity of finds.
Rite:
- More Fossa graves, inhumation was more common.
- Rich people buried less in Pozzo graves.
- Pozzo graves had urns, Fossa graves had pottery.
- Bodies in Pozzo graves were burned in their grave.
Which change in ritual practices can be observed in this period? Why do you think this shift is better observable in women’s graves than in men’s graves?
Increase in inhumation burials over cremation burials. This is more observable in woman as men wanted to spend lots of money for artifacts and jewelry to buried with their wives.
