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Ant 293: Lecture One A: Introduction to Archaeology

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Title: Ant 293: Lecture One A: Introduction to Archaeology


1
Ant 293 Lecture One A Introduction to
Archaeology
2
  • Archaeology
  • modern archaeology is the systematic study of
    humanity in the past, including
  • ancient technology
  • human behaviour
  • social organization
  • religious beliefs
  • every aspect of human culture

3
  • Archaeology is also a facet of anthropology
  • Physical anthropology
  • studies human evolution and the variations
    between different living populations

4
  • Cultural anthropology
  • deals with the analysis of human social life,
    both past and present

5
  • Ethnography
  • describes the culture, technology, and
    economics of living and extinct societies

6
  • ethnology
  • engages in comparative studies of societies, a
    process that involves attempts to reconstruct
    general principles of human behaviour

7
  • linguistic anthropology
  • studies human languages

8
  • archaeology
  • special type shares many common objectives with
    cultural anthropology
  • the major difference is that archaeologists study
    ancient societies, but they do so using many
    theoretical frameworks to link their excavated
    data to actual human behavior

9
  • archaeologists both build theories and apply
    scientific techniques and theoretical concepts in
    studying the material remains of culture
  • they cover all of human history from the time of
    the earliest human beings up to the present

10
  • it is a very applied science that requires a
    knowledge about
  • soils
  • geology
  • plants
  • animals
  • human skeletal anatomy
  • physics
  • trade and economics
  • pottery

11
  • flint knapping
  • stones
  • architecture
  • art
  • religion
  • camping
  • surveying
  • equipment repair
  • use of computers
  • statistics

12
  • Seven types of archaeological pursuit

13
  • Prehistoric Archaeology
  • History
  • 5000 ya in Egypt and Near East
  • 700 BCE in Mediterranean
  • 55 BCE in Britain
  • 16th C CE in New World
  • 19thC in Africa

14
  • prehistory
  • that portion of human history that extends back
    from before the time of written documents and
    archives
  • prehistoric archaeologists deal with an enormous
    time scale of human cultural evolution, dating
    back 2.5 million years
  • prehistoric archaeology is the primary source of
    information on 99 percent of human history

15
  • prehistoric archaeologists investigate how
  • early human societies all over the world came
    into being
  • they differed from one another
  • they changed through time

16
  • biblical archaeology
  • requires the archaeologist be an expert on a
    variety of ethnic groups living in what is now
    Israel, Lebanon, and Syria
  • it attempts to link accounts in biblical and
    Canaanite literature with archaeological data.

17
  • historical archaeology
  • the study sites of recent history
  • scholars at these sites frequently specialize in
    such objects as pottery imported from England,
    Italy, and China, Spanish-style architecture and
    uniform buttons
  • for these, the archaeologist supplies details
    lacking in historical records

18
  • underwater archaeology
  • the study of ancient wrecks in the Mediterranean,
    around Florida and elsewhere
  • techniques
  • special recording techniques have been devised
    to recover the smallest details of shipwrecks and
    the cargoes in their holds

19
  • this field has the same intellectual goals as
    their dry land colleagues to recover,
    reconstruct and interpret the past
  • complex and expensive
  • the excavation may involve shifting vast
    quantities of sediment, and recording and
    removing bulky objects as storage jars, metal
    ingots, and cannons

20
  • more than 100 sunken vessels have been excavated,
    revealing not only how they were constructed, but
    also many insights into shipboard life, cargoes,
    trade routes, early metallurgy, and glassmaking
  • the invention in recent times of miniature
    submarines, other submersible craft, and scuba
    diving gear has enabled divers to stay underwater
    longer, and to reach sites at previously
    impossible depths

21
  • industrial Archaeology
  • the study of buildings and other structures of
    the Industrial Revolution such as Victorian
    factories

22
  • Classical
  • relies heavily on written sources
  • until recently, Classicists have had relatively
    little interest in the minute economic,
    environmental, and social problems that absorb
    prehistoric archaeologists
  • art, architecture, literature, and history all
    come together in archaeology
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