INTRODUCTION TO ARCHAEOLOGY Nancy White - Touro Institute

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and craftworkers, especially goldsmiths, who made highly prized wealth items. This state lasted from about A.D. 800 until 1470, when it was conquered by the Inca, who brought Chimu goldsmiths to their own capital. Who were the Inca? The last great civilization of South America, they were similar to the Aztec of Mexico in gaining power by militaristic conquest and strategy, and only began creating an empire in the fifteenth century, shortly before the Spanish arrived. Our knowledge of them is historic archaeology because we have Spanish documents, but the Inca had no writing system. Instead they used the quipu, a system of colored, knotted cords, to keep records. They built the largest empire in the world up to that time and connected it with an elaborate road system through the Andes. The capital was Cuzco, a highland city which retains much of its prehistoric construction plan. Machu Picchu is a highland fortress and royal estate famous for its inaccessibility and was apparently little-known or altered by Spanish conquerors. Inca construction techniques used huge pillow-shaped stones that fit together well without mortar. Construction was done by the mit’a system of groups of laborers drafted into state service for specific tasks. Communication over the vast network of roads was done by a relay messenger service of runners. The socialistic governmental system was unlike anything known in Western society. The state owned all the land and goods and people were fed and cared for, but owed labor taxes or tribute in textiles and other goods. The Inca empire fell to Spanish conquistadors under Pizarro, who arrived in 1532. Are the Inca and other native South Americans gone? No. The large Indian populations of course reflect all the change occurring over 500 years of European dominance, but some native languages such as Quechua, the language of the Inca, are still spoken. Indigenous peoples in South America remain mostly dominated by elites, however, of Euro-American or other “foreign” descent. What about archaeo-tourism and antiquities problems? There are many sites that can be visited, and museums filled with beautiful pottery, gold, and textiles. While it is similar to Mexico in that Americans can visit economically, the poverty of Peru and the region today is great. Looted antiquities are often the major means of subsistence of poor farming communities. The Sipan discoveries came after a disgruntled looter reported others to the police; it is famous because there had never been an unlooted grave discovered before. The market for such antiquities is high, such that the local looter gets a pittance compared with what the piece brings the dealer at auction in New York or London. It is hard for the public to understand that this is destruction of someone’s heritage. It is hard to care about heritage when you are starving or, alternately, when it is not thought to be your own heritage and all you want
is some beautiful decoration for your wall. While public education is crucial, archaeo-tourism can have its negative sides too. Recently the ceremonial stone pillar at Machu Picchu was cracked by a crane involved in filming a beer commercial there! Old World Prehistory, Origins of Civilizations Lesson Objectives: Compare civilizational development in four pristine states (Mesopotamia, Indus Valley, Egypt, China), later states such as Great Zimbabwe, and the evolution of complex societies in Europe. Even more than the previous sections on North and South America, this section is the very briefest of summaries of the whole rest of the world, highlighting only one or two sites from the hundreds of thousands that are important in the development of local and national cultural traditions (and several chapters of the text are skipped). It eliminates completely the later, secondary states that are part of what are sometimes called the classical civilizations, such as Greece and Rome, and many many others that are often studied in history classes even though they have a rich archaeology. Also NOT covered in this section are the historical archaeology of most of the world and the development of secondary states in most of the world (Great Zimbabwe is an exception to this). Briefly describe the pristine states that emerged in the four areas of the Old World. The first civilization in the world arose in Mesopotamia, the land around the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers in Iran and Iraq, in southwest Asia, around 3000 B.C. It was characterized by temple-based cities such as Eridu, with stepped pyramids called ziggurats, canal irrigation farming, and cuneiform writing on clay tablets. The earliest city emerged at Uruk, where early dynasties used armies with bronze weapons and chariots to conquer and control. A succession of city-states rose and fell, and powerful leaders and elites were buried with incredible wealth, including wagons and chariots, oxen, and human servants and other sacrif ices, showing marked social stratification. How does
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In Conjunction with the INTRODUCTIO
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USF's public archaeology program. T
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Same as Midterm, above, but coverin
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Students seem to like all the exerc
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Student Exercise 10: ETHNOGRAPHER A
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traditionally studying non-Western
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consideration landowners, descendan
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historic archaeology because we can
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11. It tries to see both synchronic
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ooks and drawings of monuments; and
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meaningful to the prehistoric peopl
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acquisition of the material (from t
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sample. What is the sampling univer
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landowners or other residents, to f
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What other technological devices mu
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excavation must take place in the p
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planet Muni Mula, which we know was
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Page 43 and 44: What is AMS radiocarbon dating? The
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Page 49 and 50: How is diffusion investigated? The
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INTRODUCTION TO ARCHAEOLOGY Nancy White - Touro Institute

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