Discovering World Prehistory

Interpreting the Past through Archaeology

Mark Q. Sutton

• Editore: Routledge
• Anno: 2022
• ISBN:
  9781000533903
• Edizione: 1
• Argomento: Scienze sociali
• Categoria: Archeologia

Discovering World Prehistory introduces the general field of archaeology and highlights for students the difference between obtaining data (basic archaeology) and interpreting those data into a prehistory, a coherent model of the past.

The opening section of the book covers the history, methods, and techniques of archaeology to provide a detailed examination of archaeological investigation. It highlights the excitement of archaeological discovery and how archaeologists analyze and interpret evidence. The second half covers global prehistory and shows how archaeological data is interpreted through theoretical frameworks to create a picture of the past. Starting with human evolution, chapters detail the key stages, from around the world, of prehistory, finishing with the transition to post-prehistoric societies.

Including chapter overviews, highlight boxes, chapter summaries, key concepts, and suggested reading, Discovering World Prehistory is designed to support introductory courses in archaeology and allows students to experience both methods and interpretation, offering a perfect introduction to the discipline.

Part IArchaeologyA Synergistic Discipline

Chapter 1The Discipline of Archaeology

DOI: 10.4324/​9781003139522-2

To many, the word archaeology evokes romantic images of jungle adventures, lost treasure, and the romance of the ancient states of Egypt and the Mediterranean. Some see archaeologists as traveling to exotic locales and snatching golden idols from the clutches of arch villains. Others believe that archaeologists are crusty old scientists in pith helmets who dig up dinosaurs. Neither image is correct, although the former has certainly served to popularize archaeology. In reality, archaeology is the scientific study of the human past (not dinosaurs); a difficult, laborious, but exciting task.

Humans have the unique ability to grasp the concept of their own past and can use this privileged stance to learn about it. Archaeologists want to learn everything about past peoples: where they lived, what they ate, how they were organized, what they believed, where they succeeded and failed, their language, their religion—everything. We can ask where we came from, how we adapted to changing environments, and where we are going as a species. We can learn about social processes and issues, such as nationalism and racism, by illuminating the present with the perspective of the past.

It is important to understand the difference between archaeological data and archaeological interpretation. Archaeological data are obtained by going into the field and doing archaeology, finding and excavating sites, and reporting the results of that work. The basic archaeological data so obtained are static and do not change (unless there is an error in measurement). For example, a site found in location X will not move and a recovered tool that weighs 3.4 g will always weigh 3.4 g. Obtaining these data is basic archaeology.

Once obtained, the static archaeological data are compiled, analyzed, and used to form hypotheses and models. These hypotheses and models are tested and evaluated and are either rejected or supported. If supported, they are then reevaluated and retested with new data; this is how science works. These models then form the basis of the interpretation of the past and our understanding of the past will change as more basic data are acquired, existing models rejected or revised, or new models generated. Accordingly, while data are static, interpretation is dynamic. In a sense, archaeologists are detectives, finding clues to the past and then developing a story to explain what happened.

Defining and Partitioning the Past

What is meant by the past? Technically, the past is the time prior to the moment one asks that question. Some archaeologists deal with human behavior of the immediate past, such as by examining modern household trash. Most archaeologists, however, are interested in the more distant past. Time in the past is considered in a number of ways, often combining systems. For example, one could partition the past by geologic eras, such as Miocene, Pleistocene, Holocene, and Anthropocene. Or, one could use human technology, such as the Stone Age, Bronze Age, and Iron Age (but remember that bone and wood were also used throughout prehistory). Or, one could divide the past into preagricultural and agricultural times.

Probably the most basic and common partition of time is into prehistoric and historical periods. The time before the advent of writing is called prehistoric (covering most of human existence), while the time after the development of writing is called historical. Scholars who focus on the former are called prehistoric archaeologists, while those who focus on the latter are called historical archaeologists. As one might expect, however, there is often overlap between the two.

All societies keep records in some manner. In many societies, records are held in memory or by the use of very simple methods, such as notches on a bone. If things become too difficult for memory, more complex record systems may be needed, such as placing accounting records on some physical medium, including clay, papyrus, as knots on string, and the like. An even more complex approach would be needed to record narrative accounts of events; that is, history. Societies that lack any physical records are considered prehistoric, while societies having accounting record systems and narrative histories are considered historical. However, societies that may have accounting records but no real narrative historical records fall into a gray area and may be considered prehistoric. Examples include ancient Egypt, the Maya, and the Inca.

Describing Time

Archaeology is, understandably, obsessed with time, and several systems of describing time are used (Table 1.1). The AD and BC system, which takes the birth of Christ as its primary referent, is commonly used. The abbreviation AD refers to Anno Domini, Latin for “In the Year of Our Lord”; BC means “Before Christ.” The acronyms CE (Common Era) and BCE (Before the Common Era) mean the same thing, but without the religious connotations. In this general system, a date of AD 700 is about 1,300 years ago and a date of 700 BC is about 2,700 years ago. To avoid confusion, other archaeologists simply use a general time of “years ago” (sometimes using BP [Before Present] to mean years ago), whereas 700 years ago literally means 700 years ago (from the present), or roughly AD 1300. However, since BP is commonly used to express radiocarbon dates, it can get confusing.

Table 1.1 Common Systems Used to Keep Track of Time

System	Referent	Stated age	Calendar years ago
AD/BC	Counting backward and forward from the birth of Christ	AD 700	1,320
		700 BC	2,720
CE/BCE	Counting backward and forward from the birth of Christ (without explicitly saying so)	700 CE	1,320
		700 BCE	2,720
Years ago	Counting backward from the present	700 years ago	700

Here, we will use the acronyms “Ma” to mean “millions of years ago” and “kya” to mean “thousands of years ago.” This is, admittedly, a very simple and straightforward approach, but it does not require any translation or mathematical skills.

Prehistory and History

Writing was only developed within the last 7 kya or so in some areas (and much later in others), and for the vast majority of human existence, societies were “prehistoric.” Even after the first writing, most societies remained “prehistoric” for millennia. We know of perhaps several hundred historical and several thousand prehistoric societies, but there are undoubtedly many more that are prehistoric but are completely unknown (e.g., Sutton 2017 a).

Prehistoric societies are investigated by prehistoric archaeologists, and the interpretation of such populations generated from that work is called prehistory. The interpretation of historical societies, those with writing, is called history. Another way to look at it is that prehistory is “an interpreted history based primarily on archaeological data supplemented with oral tradition and cosmology,” while history is based on “written records and narratives supplemented by archaeological data.” In sum, “prehistorical” or “historical” are periods of time while prehistory and history are interpretations of the societies that fall into these time periods.

Prehistory and history are like a family photo album. They document where we have been, what adventures we have had, our high and low points, and where we may be going. The more photos we have, the richer the story.

Archaeological Lineages

Serious interest in archaeology began several hundred years ago in Europe, mostly in England. Wealthy hobbyists developed a fascination with ancient art, architecture, and history and began to collect such materials. This early archaeology was related to art and history and thrived prior to the development of the field of anthropology. Today, this separation between archaeology and anthropology still exists in Europe. However, in the United States, archaeology developed from a background in anthropology with a primary focus on people rather than art or history. As such, American archaeology is considered a subdiscipline of anthropology, and most archaeologists trained in the United States have degrees in anthropology.

Archaeology and Anthropology

Anthropology is the study of humans and is a relatively new discipline, having been formalized in the middle to latter part of the 1800s. Anthropology is holistic and comparative in its approach and holds the view (called cultural relativism) that societies should not be judged, that no societies are better or worse than any other, and that all societies are valid and important, although there are some exceptions such as Germany under the Nazis or Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge. Anthropology is generally divided into four major subfields: cultural anthropology, biological anthropology, anthropological linguistics, and archaeology.

Cultural anthropology (or sociocultural anthropology) focuses on the multifaceted aspects of human culture. Culture consists of a corpus of learned behaviors within a society, such as language, territory, religion, and self-identity that are transmitted from generation to generation. A society is a group of people who share specific patterns of learned behavior, patterns of traits that differ from one group to another. Cultural anthropologists generally study extant (living) groups; very often these are small-scale societies living within larger political units or countries and are generally referred to as “Fourth World” groups, such as Native people in the United States and Indigenous Australians. The study of a particular group at a particular time is called an ethnography, and the information obtained is called ethnographic data.

Biological anthropology (or physical anthropology) is the study of human biology through time, focusing specifically on biological evolution and human variation. Within biological anthropology are a number of specialties. Paleoanthropology is the multidisciplinary study of primate and human evolution, as well as the various aspects of geology and biology that serve as the background to such studies (Henke and Tattersall 2015). Anthropological genetics is the study of human variation and short-term (or micro) evolution. The study of our closest living relatives, the primates, is called primatology.

Anthropological linguistics is the study of human languages, including the historical relationships between languages, syntax, meaning, and other aspects of communication. Archaeologists are interested in linguistics, especially historical linguistics, because certain aspects of language (and so groups) can be traced back in time. The classification and distribution of languages are used by archaeologists to infer population movements in the past.

Archaeology, the study of the human past (Sutton 2021 a), is closely related to cultural anthropology in that archaeologists want to know the same things about a past society that a cultural anthropologist wants to know about a living one: what people ate, how they lived, how they were organized, what their religious beliefs were, and every other aspect of their lives. The difference is in the types of information available. Cultural anthropologists can directly observe people doing things and ask them questions to get a detailed view of a society. Because archaeologists deal with the past, they cannot directly observe behavior and must rely on what people left behind to infer what happened. The material remains with which archaeologists work are limited by preservation and recovery techniques, and as a result, it is very difficult to obtain...

Indice dei contenuti

• Cover Page
• Half-Title Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• List of Figures
• List of Tables
• Preface
• About the Author
• Special Features
• Acknowledgments
• Part I Archaeology: A Synergistic Discipline
• Part II Unearthing the Evidence
• Part III The Roots of Humanity
• Part IV The Upper Paleolithic and Beyond: A Prehistory of Modern Humans
• Glossary
• References
• Index