Maurizio Tosi - What is Archaeology

Maurizio Tosi - Lezione presso Università Bicocca

1. What Is Archaeology?
•Archaeology is one of four sub-
disciplines of Anthropology.
•Anthropology is the study of
people and their culture.
•Anthropology Disciplines:
–Archaeology
–Cultural Anthropology
–Linguistic Anthropology
–Biological or Physical
Anthropology
•Archaeology is the systematic,
scientific recovery and analysis
of artifacts in order to answer
questions about past human
culture and behavior.
Archaeology
Culture
Speech
&
Language
Biology of Man

2. What archeologists don’t do:
•Study dinosaurs.
•Just look for pretty or
valuable objects.
•Just pick up artifacts.
•Just study prehistoric
people.
•Spend all their time just
digging.
•Buy or sell artifacts.

3. The systematic, scientific recovery and analysis of
artifacts in order to answer questions about past human
culture and behavior.
So what is archaeology?

4. Recovery / Analysis: To collect and study artifacts.

5. Artifact: Any item resulting from human activity.

6. When did they live?
Where did they live?
What did they eat?
How large was the group?
Did they have disease or sickness?
Did they have art?
Did they hunt or farm?
What tools did they use?
Did they have writing?
Who took care of the children?
Did they have laws?
Did they have religion?
Question-based: Archaeologists study artifacts in order
to answer questions about how humans lived.

7. Archaeology Terms
•Systematic: A consistent
way of studying anything.
•Science: Methods and
knowledge of studying
anything.
•Recovery/ Analysis: To
collect and study artifacts.
•Artifact: Any item
resulting from human
activity.

8. Archaeology Terms
•Question-based:
Archaeologists study
artifacts in order to answer
questions about how
humans lived.
•Past: Archaeologists
study human cultures that
are no longer living.
•Culture: Any learned
behavior that is shared
with others.

9. History of Archaeology
•The first archaeologists
–Antiquarians or wealthy collectors
of artifacts
•Early Archaeology
–It was a combination of several
other sciences concerned with the
evolution of man.
•1817
–Danish archaeologist Christian
Jurgensen Thomsen opened the
National Museum of Antiquities in
Copenhagen to the public.
•1859 Origin of Species.
–Darwin publishes his book.
•1920’s
–Archaeology became a fully
fledged scientific discipline.
Christian Jurgensen Thomsen
Charles
Darwin

10. Early American Archaeology
•Earliest American settlers
–They debate the origin of
American Indians.
•1880’s
–Archaeologists and
anthropologists study Pueblo
Indians as direct descendants
of the first people in America.
•1890’s
–Cyrus Thomas of the Bureau
of American Ethnology proves
the “Moundbuilders” were
indeed Native Americans.
Indian burial mound in Georgia.

11. Modern Scientific Archaeology
1960’s
•The invention of modern
scientific excavation techniques
•Using a multidisciplinary
approach to study people.
•Increasing impact of science on
archaeology
•Refinement of archaeological
theory.
Dendrochronology
Botany
DNA

12. Academic Goals of Archeology
•Culture History
–Sequence of events
–How artifacts change over time
–Explain why events happened.
•Lifeways Reconstruction
–Technology, subsistence,
exchange, settlement, social
organization, ideology, etc.
•Culture Process
–Theoretical models on
lifeways.

13. Applied Goals of Archaeology
•Conveying the past as it’s
known through archaeology.
•The proper way to do
archaeology.
•Archaeology is a profession.
•Public Education
–Museum exhibits
–Television shows
–Documentary films
–Public lectures, digs, or
workshops.

14. Types of Archaeology
•Prehistoric Archaeology
–Before writing.
•Historical Archaeology
–Document/writing assisted
•Classical Archaeology
–Greek and Roman
•Biblical Archaeology
•Underwater Archaeology
–Shipwrecks or anything else
under water.
•Industrial Archaeology
–Industrial Revolution and other
modern structures
•Egyptologists, Mayanists,
Assyriologists
–Study of specific civilizations
or time periods.
•Cultural Resource Management
–Management and assesment of
significant cultural resources.

15. Culture: Any learned behavior that is shared with others.

16. Culture:
•Culture is a theoretical concept to
describe humankind’s external
adaptation
–to natural environment.
–A set of designs for living in different
situations
•In Archaeology a culture is an
assemblage of artefacts found at several
sites and defined in a precise context of
time and space

17. Culture:
Both
•Materialistic: culture is a set of
observed behaviours and material
objects that help a people adjust to
a physical or social environment
•Ideation: Culture is a set of
standards or rules for behaviours
and for the making of material
objects

18. Culture:
•Learned
•Includes the full range of behaviours in the
group
•The patterns of behaviour which are typical of
the group
•Shows the ability to change over time
•Demonstrates a set of symbols
•Represents a social grouping
•Has rules about variations in behaviour
•Ability to transmit culture through generations

19. Culture:
•Social Structure
–Patterned ways in which individuals and
groups relate within a society
–Social institutions e.g. economic
institutions
–Social status
•Positions
•Gender
•Age
•Ability
•Means of gaining status
–Social roles

20. Cultural Change
•Discovery and Invention
•Types of cultural diffusion
–Direct contact
–Intermediate contact
–Stimulus diffusion
–Selective nature of diffusion
–Acculturation
–Voluntary or involuntary

21. Cultural Change
Economic associations
•Economic institutions
•Promote production
•Gifts, trade, sales, inheritance
•Normative patterns of use,
storage, and consumption
•Rules of ownership and
possession

22. Cultural Change
Normative patterns of use, storage,
and consumption
•Types of consumption
–Primary
–Secondary
•Modes of Exchange
•Reciprocity
•Redistribution
•Market Exchange

23. Cultural Change
Normative patterns of use, storage,
and consumption
•Types of consumption
–Primary
–Secondary
•Modes of Exchange
•Reciprocity
•Redistribution
•Market Exchange

24. Types of organization
•Band
•Tribe
•Chiefdom
•State

25. Types of organization
Band:
–a local group
–little or no specialization in
political structure
–Hunting-gathering subsistence
–Small, egalitarian communities

26. Types of organization
Tribe:
•Sometimes multi-local political
orgs.
•Little or no specialization of
political officials
•Extensive and shifting
hunting/gathering, agriculture, or
herding (domesticated/wild)
•Small, low density communities
•Egalitarian
•Reciprocity

27. Types of organization
Chiefdom:
•Multi-local political org.
•Some specialized political officials
•Extensive agriculture and/or herding
•Large communities w/ medium density
•Ranked societies
•Both reciprocity and redistribution

28. Types of organization
States:
•Multi-local political org. by language
group
•many specialized political officials
•Intensive agriculture and/or herding
•Large communities in towns or cities w/
high density
•Class societies (castes)
•Market exchanges

29. Reconstructing Settlement Patterns
•Settlement archaeology
–Distribution of archaeological sites
–Distribution of dwellings etc
–Carrying capacity
–Site catchment analysis (area served)
•Tools include
–GIS

30. Reconstructing Social Systems
•Funerary Archaeology
–Study of burials
•social status
•ritual
•Trading patterns
–Most populations are engaged in some form of
trade
–It is an important part of cultural diffusion

33. From archaeological data
to imagination

34. STEP 1
STEP 4
STEP 3
STEP 2
Archaeological Data Acquisition and Evaluation
Elaboration and Analysis
Simulating Processes
Reconstruction
Scientific explanatory process

35. Archaeological Data Acquisition
• DTM Geomorphological Evaluation
• Geological Maps (Lithology, Pedology…)
• Aerial Photographs
• Satellite Images
• Radar Images
• Geophysical Survey
• Field Survey
• Cores and drillings
• Site excavations, test trenches
• Environmental data collection (archaeobotanical, archeozoological)
NO ONE OF THESE DATA CAN BE USED AS A WHOLE
FOR THE REPRESENTATION OF
ARCHAEOLOGICAL LANDSCAPE

40. •The history of
archaeological method
is of a discipline
which has used
sophisticated
technologies in the
search for and
understanding of
archaeological sites.

41. Approach and Problems of Landscapes Studies between ’80 and ’90
Trend of archaeological landscape studies
•Field-walking survey (more than 1000 km
2
surveyed areas and 10500 sites)
•Stereoscope analysis of vertical air photographs (5000 features)
•Undervaluation of the need of sources-integration
Specific problem has been faced mainly as follow
•Information available from the archaeological model
•Localisation of area of interest using documentary sources
The main problems related to this approach is a too strong dependency from
•archaeological visibility related to the use of soil
•archaeological visibility related to the material culture (= invisibility of some specific
historical periods)
•Inaccessible areas from the ground
•Progressive degeneration of many of the surface finds due to more than half a
century of intensive ploughing
•Landscape development in the last 50-80 years

42. Summary of modern approach
Ikonos-2 MSS Verticals Aerial surveylidar
QuickBird-2
Obliques
Data processing
(Colour Composites;
NDVI, PCA; TCT;
DS…)
Georeferencing,
interpretation/mapping,
classification, etc.
Ground verification througth
Field Walking Survey, geophysics,
shovel test and test excavation
ARCHAEOLOGICAL MAP
SETTLEMENT AND LANDSCAPES PATTERN MODELS
NEW INFORMATION FOR THE CONSERVATION OF CULTURAL HERITAGE
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Field Walking Survey
DATA
COLLECTION
technical
cartography, thematic,
historical; DEM
from maps and
from DGPS;
archaeological
literature;
documentary and
toponomastic;
iconography sources;
ecc.
GIS based interpretation and 3D visualization
Large scale geophysical
survey

44. Timber Castle
Roman villa
Temple or roman villa Necropoli
Hillfort
Roman villa
Roman villa

45. Field walking survey Grid collection (phisical and virtual)
GPS position of
specific surface
findings and field
data integration
Mapping the path of
surveyed areas,
etc…

46. DEM generated from
The DGPS survey of the area
Draping of the oblique
Draping of the grad s.
Draping of the interpratation

55. Urban Stratigraphy of Modena

57. Territory
TIME
Population
Resources

61. The Promise and Challenge of
Archaeological Data Integration
Archaeology’s long-term and spatially extensive
data on society, economy, human biology,
population, and environment has the potential to
contribute uniquely to scientific understandings of
socio-ecological dynamics. The fundamental
challenge is to enable scientifically meaningful use
of the expanding corpus of archaeological data.

62. Archaeology as science
•Scientific method including identification of
research problem, theoretical basis for
research, hypotheses, test implications,
confirmation, testability, explanation.
•Science involves rigorous analysis of a fair
test of alternative explanations using specific
criteria; explanations are confirmed by
multiple lines of evidence.
•Archaeology seeks to understand social or
culture behavior through a scientific method.

65. fase finale della Media età del Bronzo (1450 a.C.)

66. Redù
Rastellino
Gaggio
S. Agata
Pradella
??

77. Examples of:
•THEMATIC MAPS
• SPATIAL and STATISTICAL ANALYSIS
• MODELING
MODELLING / PREDICTION / DECISION MAKING