Introduction Flashcards
What are the two divisions of archaeology?
- prehistoric archaeology
- historical archaeology
What does prehistoric archaeology deal with? (2)
- people before writing
- most of humans’ existnece
What does historical archaeology deal with? (2)
- people with written texts
- a relatively short time period
When was the Mesopotamia symbol system invented?
8000 BCE
When were the earliest Egyptian hieroglyphs invented?
3400 BCE
When was Sumerian proto-writing fully adapted into pictographic writing, at the same time that the Indus script of India and Pakistan was developed?
3000 BCE
When was the first alphabet from Semitic workers in Egypt, as well as Linear A, developed?
1800 BCE
When was Chinese writing, as well as Linear B, developed?
1200 BCE
When was the Phoenician alphabet developed?
1050 BCE
When was the Cascajal Block created?
1000 BCE
When was the Greek alphabet developed?
770 BCE
When was the Latin alphabet developed?
450 BCE
When was Arabic script developed?
600 AD
When was the printing press invented, coinciding with the Western European Renaissance, and generally considered to be the beginning of “modern” history?
1440 AD
What is historical archaeology?
the archaeology of the spread of European culture throughout the world since the fifteenth century and its impact on indigenous peoples
What is the European equivalent to historical arcaheology?
post-medieval archaeology
What is the key element in historical archaeology?
written documents associated with time period in question, written by the people described
How is Native American culture incorporated into historical archaeology?
archaeology concerning Native American cultural materials are not typically thought of as “historical archaeology” unless they include obvious European artifacts or influence
What are ethnohistories?
accounts written about Native Americans by Europeans, dating to the earliest interactions between the two cultures
What do ethnohistories generally consist of? (2)
- generally consist of sources other than ethnographic accounts prepared by historians
- often concerned with how a culture changed over hundreds of years
What are oral histories? (3)
- often genealogies
- used by non-literate cultures
- generally extremely accurate
When does the historical archaeology period begin?
15th century
Why doesn’t historical archaeology start with the Norse settlements in Newfoundland? (3)
- they had texts
- they were the first Western Europeans in the New World
- but they arrived in ~1000 AD, almost 500 years before we typically identify the beginnings of “historical archaeology”
Where was the first site of European contact in North America?
L’Anse aux Meadows
When did the Norse arrive in Iceland?
870 AD
Why did the Norse go to Iceland?
migration was initiated by disgruntled chieftains and farmers
When did Iceland become a Norse settlement?
by 930 AD, Iceland was colonized by the Norse and became a Norse settlement
Why was Eirik the Red banished from Iceland?
“because of some killings”
Where did Eirik the Red go after being banished from Iceland?
Greenland
What did Eirik the Red do when he returned to Iceland?
convinced farmers to return with him to Greenland
How many people lived in the Greenland colony?
about 2000
How long did the Greenland colony last?
about 991-1450 AD
What sort of structures were in the Greenland colony?
400 farmsteads and 11 churches uncovered in archaeological excavations
Where were the two major settlements in Greenland?
one in the east and one in the west
Were the Vikings the first people in Greenland?
no, there were settlements prior to 991 AD but they were gone by the time the Vikings arrived
Who was the first person to see North America, and when?
Bjarni Herjolfsson in about 980 AD
When was North America’s existence common knowledge to the Vikings?
986 AD
When did Leif Erikson lead his expedition to North America?
about 1000 AD
Where did Erikson land on his voyage?
Helleland, Markland, and Vinland
Why did the Vikings eventually leave North America?
despite everything the land had to offer there, they would be under constant threat of attack from its prior inhabitants
Who discovered the Viking settlement in L’Anse aux Meadows?
Anne Stine and Helge Ingslad
