INTRODUCTION TO ARCHAEOLOGY Nancy White - Touro Institute

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this history relate to what is going on in this region of the world today? Can constant conflict become a part of culture history destined to continue? Describe the rise and fall of early civilization in the Indus Valley of Pakistan and India. The Harappan civilization, as we just saw in the movie about Mohenjo-daro, arose in a river valley environment similar to that of Mesopotamia between 2600-1900 B.C. Incredibly well-planned cities had covered drains, periodic rebuilding possibly due to flooding, standard weights and measures, evidence of extreme craft specialization, and a writing system we cannot yet read. There was far less socioeconomic differentiation—no rich tombs or elaborate palaces. For this reason, and because of the lack of evidence for military might, some want to bump down this culture to the level of chiefdom and not a true civilization. And yet there are many connections with modern civilization in the region seen in the archaeological record, such as depictions of yoga, ritual burning and bathing, costumes, and bull and elephant symbolism. Do cultures have to be aggressive and military to be civilized? How early did Egyptian civilization develop, and how was it different? It was centered along the Nile River, whose dependable annual flooding supported extensive agriculture, and after emerging before 3000 B.C. lasted as a centralized entity for over 2,500 years. The Upper and Lower Egypt segments were unified by the first pharaoh, and there followed different kingdoms and dynasties recorded in written hieroglyphs that we can read well. Famous pyramids and other monumental architecture were built at Giza and many other places for individual rulers, reflecting power and complex organization and engineering. Many think Egyptian civilization in general was more conservative and insular, but of course there were connections with other complex Old World cultures. We are perhaps more familiar with Egypt from the popular media; King Tut was not all that important; he just happened to have a tomb that remained unlooted until recent times and was able to be studied better. What are the highlights of the rise of the state in China? Beginning in 2205 B.C., we have written records of the earliest dynasties, and we try to establish the archaeology of each of them. An-yang is an ancient capital city of the Shang dynasty, 1766-1122 B.C., which has a royal center and household at its center, bronze foundries and other craft centers, and royal burials with sacrificed retainers, horses, chariots, and luxury items such as huge bronze pots. During the Qin
dynasty, conquest of many regions led to the first imperial state (221 B.C.), with the capital at Xianyang. The Great Wall was completed on the northern border, the legal system codified and writing system standardized, and paper was invented. The first emperor’s tomb was built over many decades; it covered a 500-acre complex and contained some 8,000 life-sized terra-cotta figures of warriors and horses with wooden chariots, arrayed for battle with thousands of swords and other artifacts. Clearly there was enormous sociopolitical stratification. Where else did states emerge in the world? Nearly everywhere, eventually, as secondary states built upon or were influenced by earlier forms. We will not have time in this class to discuss the Mediterranean, Rome, or Greece, not to mention Southeast Asia and other locales, though these places have rich archaeological records as well. Why are west and south African sites included in the textbook but not other places? Probably because subsaharan Africa is still ignored, just like all of eastern South America and much of Southeast Asia, in standard courses and textbooks. These regions are all hot and forested, and/or in the Southern Hemisphere, and still relatively alien to Western culture. But there is much to learn, and we can now abandon the ethnocentric interpretations of the past that saw development of cultural complexity as the product of diffusion from external, more superior cultures. The city of Jenne-jeno, inland on the Niger River in southwestern Mali, had been settled for a millennium when it became prominent around A.D. 800 as a trade and ironworking center, declining after the arrival of Arab traders and the introduction of Islam. The civilization represented at Great Zimbabwe in south central Africa is now recognized as a product of the indigenous Shona (Karanga) people. Beginning about A.D. 1250, enormous stone structures and enclosures were built into the natural rock outcrops and on the open plain. The conical tower is solid and of unknown function. This center and others grew in power, with cattle herding and commercial connections with Indian Ocean settlements, including trade with Arab and Indian merchants. Its importance declined after the sixteenth century, when the Portuguese established a fort on the coast and disrupted trade. The name of the site became the name of the country after colonial dominance was thrown off and Rhodesia became Zimbabwe. The famous stylized depiction of a bird, from stone statues at this and other sites, is now on the
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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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studies look at the scratches and t
Page 37 and 38: Why does iron metallurgy develop la
Page 39 and 40: Two deer leg bones, if they are rig
Page 41 and 42: What is the difference between dire
Page 43 and 44: What is AMS radiocarbon dating? The
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Page 47 and 48: can see what artifact manufacturing
Page 49 and 50: How is diffusion investigated? The
Page 51 and 52: An example I can recount from my ex
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Page 57 and 58: much as 2.5 million years ago. The
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Page 61 and 62: Where are some important Lower Pale
Page 63 and 64: hominids all over the Old World. Re
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Page 69 and 70: The population pressure hypothesis,
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Page 83 and 84: Lesson Objectives: Trace the develo
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INTRODUCTION TO ARCHAEOLOGY Nancy White - Touro Institute

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