Early Development of Archaeology Flashcards
History
Unique events; no change in culture or technology, only decay
What are notions of time?
Night and day (i.e. humans and animals can distinguish between day and night)
-Past, present, and future (concepts of time)
Thunderstones
Prehistoric hand axes found in plowed fields
- Sold to goldsmiths during Middle Ages
- Burials were looted disregarding past, no understanding
James Ussher
Published Annles of Old Testiment (1650)
-Creation happened 4004 B.C. on the nightfall before Sunday, October 23rd (earth is only 6,013 years old)
What does the expansion of scales of time and space (1600-1700s) mean?
The realization of astronomical distances
- Earth is a very small place in a very large universe
- Vast scales of spaced allowed acceptance of vast scales of time
James Hutton
Published the Theory of Earth (1795)
- Discovered formation of sedimentary rock, suggests ancient earth
- The Principle of “Uniformitarianism”
Uniformtarianism
Laws of nature are constant
- Gravity and speed of light doesn’t change with time
- Sediment in the Ocean changes at a very slow rate (few kilometers per 100 years)
Christopher Lyell
“Father of modern day geology” (influenced ideas of Darwin)
-Published Principles of Geology (1737); advanced study of stratigraphy
What are stratigraphy and fossils?
Provides chronological framework for the earth; “superposition”
What are the principles of Superposition?
In any undisturbed sequence of layers, the bottom layer is the oldest and the upper layer is the youngest
Charles Darwin
Published the Origin of Species (1859)
- Gradual evolutionary change in plants and animals (*humans)
- The theory of Natural Selection or “survival of the fittest”
Jacques Boucfier
Human antiquity
- Recovered stone tools with extinct animals in France (1847)
- Deep (ancient) stratigraphy estimated to be >5,000,000 years old
John Lubbock
Human antiquity
- Coined the terms “Paleolithic” and “Neolithic”
- Applied Darwin’s concept to archaeological records
- Moral and technological progress (inevitable and unilinear)
Paleolithic
Old Stone Age
Neolithic
New Stone Age
19th century Paleolithic archaeology
The first scientific discipline of the study of human antiquity
-Assumed all ancient human societies went through same process; primitive -> sophisticated humans
19th century view of Social Evolution
Change = simple -> complex
- Savages, barbarians, and civilized
- Progress = increased intelligence, beauty, and goodness
- Western civilization’s role was to “lead” less advanced humans
Savages
Starving, ignorant, supersticious, and violent
Barbarians
Less starving, ignorant, superstitious, and violent
Civilized
Not starving, moral, wealthy, sophisticated, and reasonable
Rethinking progress
The end of European Imperialism
-Increased understanding of evolutionary process
“Processual” archaeology
Evolutionary and scientific perspective
- Universal laws of social change
- Societies as systems with environment and technologies as significant variables
Post-“Processual” archaeology
Post-Modernism
- More particular and less universal in scope
- Explicit recognition of political context of archaeology
- Focused on roles of individuals instead of systems of past
Archaeology today
Expansion of multiple perspectives
-Darwinian and evolutionary theories continue to develop
Post-“Processual” archaeology
Dating methods using “pre-history”
-Establishes sequences of change; pace of change is NOT linear
Absolute Dating
Provides a secure date in which an event or fossil was discovered
- Can be very expensive (not used as much)
- Documented through historical text
Relative Dating
Provides an approximate time period in which and event or fossil was discovered
-Doesn’t show pace of change
Christian Jurgensen
“Three Age system”; Stone Age, Bronze Age, and Iron Age
-Doesn’t apply to the America’s
