INTRODUCTION TO ARCHAEOLOGY Nancy White - Touro Institute

face of the Zimbabwe dollar. Part of the post-apartheid African renaissance, the archaeology of
this region has come a long way since a government archaeologist was fired in the 1950s for
suggesting that Great Zimbabwe was created by indigenous people and not intruding superior
Arabs or other outsiders. The archaeology director at the site today is Edward Matenga, who is
native to the area.
Why does the book go from a few places on the map to
more intensive treatment of European archaeology?
Because it is ethnocentric and geared for the English-
Europe,
speaking audience whose ancestral home is
and because more archaeology has been done in
Europe so we do know a lot.
Why spend a class on Ötzi, the Ice Man of Europe? He
is one of the most sensational recent discoveries, is the
subject of lots of hot new scientific study, and is an
archaeological resource embroiled in political and
interpretive and professional issues and controversies
that can illuminate some of the realities of twenty-firstcentury
archaeology. Though he only gets three pages
in the text (479-481), he will probably get more in the
next edition. After this frozen guy started melting out
of an Alpine glacier in 1991, he was found by lay
people, climbers who tried to hack him out with ski
poles and with a stick they later found to be one of his
ancient artifacts. Encounters with the law and with
others who tried to help preceded his excavation by
local archaeologists. They had to go back to do the job properly and record other associated
artifacts. Experts fought to have him, and surveyors were brought to redo the international
boundary, determining that he was actually found in Italy. He was examined in both Austria and
Italy and now, finally, sits in a special cold room in the museum in Bolzano, Italy. Tattoos on the
body are in places where there was arthritis, so they may be medical or magical. Stomach
contents showed diet, and pollen indicated that the time of death was in the spring. Artifacts
included bow and arrows, a chipped stone knife, and an ax determined to be of copper; he was
thought to be of a Bronze Age culture, but the ax and a radiocarbon date indicated a late
Neolithic placement, about 5,300 years ago. Scanned images just detected an arrowpoint in his
back, and reconstructions of his violent death scene are legion, though he could easily have been
killed by a hunting accident of the kind we have in Florida all the time! Medical, diet, genetic,
and other fancy studies continue, and each one brings new sensational imaginings about his
culture and means of death.
Review and Relevance of the Seven Principles