BASICS IN ARCHAEOLOGY
Introduction
1.1 Definition
Etymologically, archaeology is originated from
two Greek words; Archaeos which means “ancient” or “past” and Logos which means
“study”
Functionally, archaeology is the systematic
study of past human societies primarily through the recovering and analysis of
material culture and environmental data which they have left behind, these
includes artifacts, ecofacts and features.
Because archaeology employs a wide range of different
procedures, it can be considered to be both science and humanity. In America
archaeology is considered to be a branch of Anthropology while in Europe is
taken as independent discipline.
Archaeology studies human history from the
development of the first stone tools in eastern Africa around 2.5 million years
ago up until recent decades. It is of most importance for learning about
prehistoric societies, when there are no written records for historians to
study. Archaeology is unique among sciences in its ability to study changes in
human societies over long period of time. It provides a way of studying the
collective heritage of humankind.
Artifacts
Artifacts are portable objects made or modified
by humans. Examples of artifacts include stone tools, pottery, metal implements
and bone points. Archaeologists therefore, study all these artifacts and come
up with appropriate history of the early people. Artifacts like hammer-stone
and pottery retain their form and appearance after the archaeologist takes them
from the ground.
Ecofacts
Ecofacts are non-artifactual material remains
that are not directly created or modified by humans but have cultural
relevance. Examples of ecofacts include remnants of both wild and domesticated
animals and plant species i.e. bones and seeds. Although they are neither
directly created nor significantly modified by human activity, ecofacts provide
appropriate information about past human activities. These and other ecofacts
such as soils contribute to our understanding of the past because they reflect
ancient environmental conditions, diet, and resource exploitation. Sometimes
the line between ecofacts and artifacts is a bit ambiguous. For example, bones
with cut marks from butchering might be considered artifact (reflecting human
technology) as well as ecofacts (yielding clues to the ancient environment).
Features
Features are non-portable structures made or
modified by humans. Examples include buildings, pits, post holes and burials.
These features cannot be removed from their place of discovery without
destroying their original form.
Goals
of archaeology
Modern archaeology has five broad goals including conserving and
managing archaeological sites; studying cultural history; reconstructing past
life ways; explaining cultural processes and understanding the archaeological
records. By no means would every archaeologist agree that all five of these
objectives are equally valid or, indeed, that they should coexist. In practice,
however, each objective usually complements the other, especially when
archaeologists design their research to answer specific questions rather than
merely dig as a precursor to describing rows of excavated objects.
Conserving
and managing archaeological sites
Ø Is the fundamental responsibility of all archaeologists
to ensure the conservation and survival of the finite archaeological materials
and sites. i.e. CHM.
Reconstruction
of Culture History
Ø This involves the description of human cultures
extending thousands of years into the past. An archaeologist working on the
culture history of an area describes the prehistoric cultures of that region.
Culture history is normally derived from the study of sites and the artifacts
and structures in a temporal and spatial context.
By investigating groups of prehistoric sites
and the many artefacts in them, archaeologists can erect local and regional
sequences of human cultures that extend over centuries even millennia. Most of
the activity is descriptive, accumulating minute chronological and spatial
frameworks of archaeological data as a basis for observing how particular
cultures evolved and changed through prehistoric times. Culture history is an
essential preliminary to any work on lifeways or cultural process.
Past
Lifeways
Ø The study of past lifeways – the ways in which
people made their living in changing environments of the past – has developed
into a major goal in recent years. This involves the reconstruction of how
people lived in the past and how their societies were organized.
Studying past lifeways is a multidisciplinary
enterprise, which enables the reconstruction of ancient subsistence patterns
from animal bones, carbonized seeds, and other remains recovered through
careful excavation. Archaeologists, pollen analysts, osteologists, and
botanists cooperate in looking at archaeological sites in a much wider
perspective. The aim is to look on changing patterns of human settlement,
subsistence strategies, and ancient environments.
Culture
Process
A third archaeological goal seeks to explain
the processes of culture change in the past. The ultimate goal is to explain
why human cultures in all parts of the world reached their various stages of
cultural evolution. Human tools are seen as part of a system of related
phenomena that include both culture and natural environment. Archaeologists
design their research work within a framework of testable propositions that may
be supported, modified or rejected when they review all of the excavated and
analysed archaeological data.
This processual approach to archaeology is
based on an assumption that the past is inherently knowable, provided that
rigorous research methods and designs are used and that field methods are
impeccable. It follows that archaeology is more than a descriptive science and
that archaeologists can explain cultural change in the past.
Understanding
the archaeological record
Ø The archaeological record is made up of
material things and arrangements of material objects in the soil. The only way
we can understand this record is by knowing something about how the individual
finds came into being. Binford relate archaeological data to a kind of
untranslated language that has to be decoded if we are to make statements about
human behaviour in the past. Therefore, the aim of archaeologists is to unlock
people’s knowledge of the past people through the interpretation of material
remins.
Scope
of archaeology
Ø Scope refers to time (temporal scope) and
themes (thematic scope) within which archaeology as a discipline swings.
Ø Temporal scope – from 2.5 million years ago
(the beginning of human culture) to present.
Ø Temporal scope can be divided into Prehistoric
archaeology (2.5 mill. years ago to 3000 BC) and Historical archaeology (3000
BC to present).
Thematic scope / specialization refer to
different themes in archaeology.
Example:
ü Historical archaeology
ü Prehistoric archaeology
ü Environmental archaeology
ü Classical archaeology
ü Industrial archaeology
ü Underwater archaeology
- Prehistoric archaeology studies
prehistoric times from the time of the earliest human beings up to the
frontiers of documentary history. That is to say 2.5 m.y.a to 3000 BC.
- Historical archaeology refers to
archaeological investigation carried out in conjunction with analyses of
written records. It covers the period from 3000 BC up to present.
- Underwater archaeology is the study of
sites and ancient shipwrecks on the seafloor and lake bottoms. There is a
tendency to think of underwater archaeology as something different, but in
fact it is not. The objective of such archaeology remain the same: the
reconstruction and interpretation of past cultures and the scientific
study, through material remains of ancient human endeavour, in this case,
seafaring.
- Industrial archaeology is the study of
buildings and other structures dating to the Industrial Revolution or
later, such as Victorian railway stations, old cotton plantations,
windmills, and even slum housing in England. Anyone entering the field
needs at least some training as an architectural historian.
- Classical archaeology is the study of the
remains of the great classical civilizations of Greece and Rome.
- Environmental archaeology is
concerned with the reconstruction of the ancient environments
(palaeoenvironment).
Archaeology and related discipline
Archaeology
and History
Archaeology is obviously related to the field
of history in that both disciplines seek knowledge of the human past.
The major difference between the two
disciplines is distinction in source of information which leads to differences
in methodology, and the technique by which the past is studied.
Ø History deals primarily with written accounts
from the past while Archaeology deals
with physical remains of the past.
These material remains are mute; their meaning
and significance depend entirely on the inferences that trained archaeologists
can make. In contrast, historical records contain messages that are direct and
often deliberate communications from the past, although their meaning and
significance are also subject to critical interpretation, to discover and get
rid of exaggerations, lies, or other biases in written sources.
Ø Another contrast between history and
archaeology is that history focuses on literature and richest communities i.e.
kings, queens and high priests. The prominence of these people could have
influenced the storage of their records WHILE Archaeology is less partial to
rich or learned folk; everyone eats, makes things, discard trash and dies.
Therefore everyone contributes to the archaeological record.
Ø Another contrast is found on the scope/coverage
of the two disciplines. Archaeology covers the period from the beginning of
human culture (2.5 m.y.a) up to present. For this case archaeology is our
primary source of information for 99 percent of human history WHILE History
covers the period from the beginning of written records (3000 BC) to present
Archaeology
and Anthropology
Ø Anthropology is a discipline which is concerned
with the scientific study of humanity in its widest sense. Anthropologists
study human beings as biological organism and as people with culture. They
therefore carry out research on contemporary societies and on human
developments from the very earliest times. Anthropology is therefore a very
broad area of study and is sub-divided into a number of sub-disciplines
·
Physical
Anthology involves the study of human biological evolution and the variations
among different populations. Physical Anthology is also concerned with the
study of the behavior of living non-human primates such as chimpanzee and the
gorilla, in an attempt to understand and explain behavior among the earliest
human beings. Physical anthropologist also use data obtained by primatologist
who a concerned with the biological studies as well as the study of behavior of
non-human primates.
·
Cultural
or Social Anthropology is concerned with the study and analysis of human social
life, both past and present. It is primarily concerned with the study of human
culture and how culture adapts to the environment. There are a number of
special areas of study namely;
ü Ethnography; The study and description of the
culture, technology and economy of living and extinct societies.
ü Ethnology; is a comparatives study of societies
with the objective of reconstructing general principles of human behavior.
- Archaeology. Is a discipline which studies
the material culture of ancient societies. The archeologists also want to
know the meaning and significance of material remains of the past cultures
and to explain how the cultures evolved and changed overtime.
ü The sub-discipline of ethno-archaeology has
therefore developed within archaeology where archaeologists like ethnographers
live among contemporary communities for the purpose of understanding how much
societies use material culture-how they make their tools and weapons, how they
are used, the social organization of such communities etc.
ü By a simple definition, ethno-archaeology is an
attentive study of the contemporary societies as a means of understanding and
interpreting the ancient societies. Take an example of the study of ancient
hunting and gathering communities.
ü Ethnoarchaeologist can best do this by studying
the material remains of the present day hunting and gathering communities for
example, as a means of understanding and interpreting the ancient hunting and
gathering communities. This method of archaeology overlaps with those of
Ethnography.
It is perhaps important to point that in Europe
archaeology is not considered a sub-discipline of anthropology.
- Linguistic
anthropology deals with the study of languages. Linguistic anthropologists
are concerned with major problems as the origins of languages.
Archaeology and Sociology
Archaeology is part of anthropology
which is concerned with past humans and their material remains they left
behind. Sociology is very close related to cultural anthropology – it is
actually concerned with living humans. Sociologist deals with migration, social
injustice, demographics, crime, gender and so on.
Thus, both archaeology and
sociology are concerned with societies and structures within those societies
and also pattern in those societies.
Archaeology and Art
Art has been part of human life
since time immemorial. What archaeologist does in the field is the
manifestation of such art in the form of various technologies and designs.
Archaeology and Zoology
Zoology is the scientific study of both living and
extinct animals. Zoology as far as is relevant in archaeology, mainly study the
ancient animal bones collected from excavation sites.
The study of animal remains from archaeological sites is called Zooarchaeology. Zooarchaeology can be understood as a branch of
archaeology where scientists are specifically interested in studying the
interrelationship between humans, animals and environmental context. Archaeological sites produce many kinds of
artifacts, which provide clues to aid archaeologists in understanding the past.
Along with the more commonly recognized artifacts such as stone tools or
fragments of pottery, animal (faunal)
remains are also frequently found.
Faunal remains recovered from archaeological
sites generally consist of the hard parts of animals such as bone, tooth and
antler. Consequently, zooarchaeologists use these remains to learn about the
interactions between animals and people in the past, and how these interactions
affected people and their environment.
Archaeology and Geology
Geology is the scientific study of
solid earth. As far as is relevant in archaeology, geology gives insights into
the history of the earth as it provides the primary evidence for the
evolutionary history of life and past climates. Archaeology especially
prehistoric archaeology had always had strong ties with geology.
The formulation of the concept like
stratigraphy in archaeology in the 19th century paved the way for
the acceptance of the idea of human antiquity and provided the basis for
interpreting the evolution of humanity and its cultures. So far, archaeologists
viewed geology as a source of information on stratigraphy and reconstruction of
palaeoenvironment.
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