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ANTH 100 Archaeology Workshop Assignment S-Z Group 2005 Section B

By: Anonymous

Part I: Readings and Lecture

1. The first characteristic of cities is their large size and population (Haviland 2003: 303). The second is a well-defined, nucleated core (Topic 2005b). With out a city core, people living near each other in a small area is still only that. There is no authority, no specialization because families do all of their own work building houses, weaving and farming, and there are no leaders to create order within the group. Cities must have relatively large populations because the central authority must have people to govern and who can sustain the governing body. People are needed to farm so that others involved with creating order in the city can be supported (Topic 2005b).      

2. One theory of civilization’s emergence is the hydraulic theory that irrigation systems were needed to improve soil for growing and that to build large, complex systems, a group of specialists was formed to manage them. These groups then began to govern people and civilizations arose (Haviland 2003: 323). Another theory is that as trade  networks became more and more necessary for people to obtain the materials they needed, there became a need for a central authority to manage trade. This governing body was also necessary for distributing the goods that were traded among the people (Haviland 2003: 323). Environmental and social circumspection, or the restriction of expansion on populations, is another theory. People began to compete for the resources in the limited area they were confined to and from this arose higher and lower classes, depending on who gained the resources (Haviland 2003: 324). Another theory is that religion developed from the uncertain growing seasons. When food wasn’t growing, people had no other choice but to turn to the supernatural. Priests who could determine the best time to grow crops were thought to have a connection with the supernatural and were relied upon by the rest of the people, giving them some authority over them (Haviland 2003: 308). All of the theories except religion are ecological because they focus on the relationship between people and what they do in their environment rather than their beliefs and values (Haviland 2003: 324).

3. The earliest written documents were business records and lists of plants and animal, tax lists and inventories, mainly for the government and temples to keep track of  business transactions and holdings. Governments needed a way to keep track of their possessions other than relying on the memory of their officials (Haviland 2003: 314). Writing was also used to send messages about goods and peoples, for example, a bag might be sealed with a message about its contents (Topic 2005b).

4. Archaeologists determine social status by burial customs, dwelling sizes, written documents and correspondence. Comparing burials can help distinguish between social classes (Haviland 2003: 317). Burials containing things like jewellery, animals, carriages, pottery, sacrifices of servants and other things that might be needed in the afterlife indicate nobility while simple burials containing no artifacts are common for the lower classes (Topic 2005b). Burials also tell us the health condition of the person by examining their skeletons (Haviland 2003: 317). Dwellings also show different social status; higher classes often lived in larger homes or palaces made of stronger materials and had much more space while lower classes in smaller homes made of less sturdy materials that were much closer together. Higher class homes were also much more elaborately decorated with murals and statues (Haviland 2003: 321). Written documents can also tell about the social stratification. Records of business transactions, laws and stories of rulers indicate an elite class. Laws especially demonstrate the difference in rights and punishments between classes; higher classes received lesser punishments for the same crimes (Haviland 2203: 321). Finally, letters written about a civilization by explorers and adventurers tell about the social structure from their point of view (Haviland 2003: 321).

5. Trade enables the growth of civilization by ensuring cities have the resources they need, even if they aren’t available in the immediate region. The resources in the vicinity of a city cannot meet the diverse need of the people in it. Plants and animals that live in a specific climate or region, metals from a certain area and special items such as seashells that can only be found in a coastal environment cannot be brought from so far away to the city when they are needed. Therefore, trade with people who can easily obtain these materials is necessary for cities to be maintained and to grow (Haviland 2003: 323).

Part III: Seriation and Stratigraphy

1. According to the size, shape and style, I feel that the order of the vessel types from oldest to youngest is Type D, Type A, Type C, Type B. Since Stylistic seriation is a relative dating method, the order could also go in the opposite direction but the pots look to me as if the style is improving for a storage vessel. Looking at vessel shape, Type A is very simple and has a very wide brim. I would think that a wide brim would not be ideal for storing things because they would be exposed to the outside, small animals and dirt getting into them. The other pots have gradually shrinking openings which could have been an solution to this problem. Vessel C is the first pot to show a handle but it is a small handle that could have easily broken off. Type B shows an improvement with two handles that look sturdier and would be easier for a person to pick up. Vessel C, B and D all have smaller bases than Type A. This seems like it would be a bad design for pots being knocked over but it could have made them easier to handle for things like pouring. It is also a more stylistic design, which takes time to develop compared to the plain design of Types A an D. Another advantage of Type B is the lip around the rim which would make it easier to pour than the straight rims of the other pots. Vessel decoration shows that Type C and B have finer decoration and more shapes and symbols. These shapes might have a symbolic meaning, which takes time to develop. Type A and D are more colourfully decorated but they don’t seem to have a pattern or any sort of style. Type D just has some lines wrapped around in the shape of the vessel while Types C, A and B have more abstract decoration that doesn’t have to do with the shape or use of the vessel. Looking at vessel size, the pots get smaller as they get younger according to my order. It would seem to make sense that pots would get bigger for more storage but the smaller pots might have been designed more according to their use. Types C and A are smaller and would hold less because f their shape but they would be lighter, easier to pick up and to pour things out of. The size and shape of the younger pots shows more specialization of the vessels while the decoration shows more specialization in art and design, things that aren’t related to the vessels themselves.   

The frequency seriation shows that some types of pottery increased in popularity while others became less popular. Choosing Type A as the oldest, it was the most popular type and became less popular, eventually not being used at all in the last two villages. Type D was also somewhat popular at the beginning and then became less and less popular until it was hardly used at all in the last village. Type B shows the opposite pattern. Originally, it wasn’t used at all and then after it was introduced it became very popular until the last village where it was used more than half of the time. Type C is also very popular in all of the villages but it is older than Type A. It starts off only somewhat popular and then gains popularity in the second village. It remains fairly popular throughout all of the villages but is slightly less so in the middle and at the very end.

Data is missing from this information telling us which is the oldest type of pottery and which is the youngest. The frequency diagram could be flipped around so that the type I chose as the oldest could have been the youngest and the types that started out very popular and became less popular may have actually been grown in popularity. The data needs to be compared to other data to find out which is in fact the oldest (Dougherty 2005).

3. The Law of Superposition states that in undisturbed deposits, the lower bed was deposited before the upper bed. The Law of Cross-cutting relationships says that a cross-cut layer is more recent than the layer it cuts through (Topic 2005a).  According to these rules, the burials in Village 15 can be ordered according to which burial is on top of the other. The flex burial with sword, artifacts and the vessel at its feet, is the oldest because it is underneath the others, or the other 2 burial cut into it. The flexed burial with the knife is the youngest because it is on top of, or it cuts into, the other two and the extended burial happened sometime in between because it is on top of one and below the other. In Village 22, the cremated burial is younger than the flex burial because it is on top of it. From this evidence, we can tell that cremation burials are the youngest, extended burials are older than cremations and flex burials are the oldest.

4. Artifacts found in a burial site can tell us about the person that was buried there. Higher classes are usually buried with more artifacts than lower classes (Topic 2005b). The burials in the villages contain items that different tradespeople might use in everyday life. Burials containing swords, arrowheads, helmets and armour may have belong to warriors. These burials probably belong to men because women were probably responsible for raising children while men defended the village. The child buried in village 22 is buried with only one artifact while the urn is buried with useful artifacts for making things, such as needles and tongs which suggests that children were not as important where they could not really contribute to the village with a specialized trade. Some of the burials have pottery at the feet of the skeleton. Burials with pottery could be women because if men were defending the village, women may have been given the responsibility of managing the food and cooking.

5. Some of the artifacts in the burials are arranged around the skeleton as they would be if they were still alive. In village 15, metal foil is arranged above the head of the skeleton as if it were part of a hat or headdress that may have decomposed while the metal remained intact. The sword is also placed at the side of the skeleton as if the person were holding it. The skeleton in village 9 appears to be holding the sword. A possible reason that the artifacts are placed this way is because the people believed that the dead person would need to use the items in the afterlife. I would expect this belief to come later when religion was developed because it would take a long time for the idea of the afterlife to develop. Other artifacts are placed in the burial with the skeleton but no as if the person were using them. In village 8, the sword is placed beside the skeleton as if it were laying beside him. I would expect the people who did this to have some idea of an afterlife but not a well developed concept of what it was like and what a person who died might need. Some of the artifacts in village 6 and 22 are placed inside the urn with the cremation. In village 22, some of the items, arrowheads, a bracelet and fibula, are placed inside the urn while a sword, needles and tongs are placed in the burial out of the urn. In village 6, all of the artifacts, including beads and bracelets for decoration and tweezers for more practical work, are inside the urn. Since a cremated person doesn’t seem to me to be very useful in the afterlife, I think that the objects in the urn may be an offering for the gods. This means that, if urns came later than burial, religion was focusing more on the gods than on individuals. Some artifacts are found only in some types of burials. Tongs, needles and other items that would be useful in a trade are only found in the urns. Bracelets are found only on flex burials while fibulas are found on extended burials. The different types of artifacts could have changed in popularity along with the form of burial over time or the different types of jewellry could have been buried with different types of people, such as men and women or high and low class. Another possibility is that the number of bracelets or other jewellry was a status symbol. The child in village 22 has only one bracelet while the warrior in village 15 has many bracelets. Another pattern seen in the burials is the presence of a torc along with a sword and other soldier-type gear. The only two skeletons wearing a torc are the burials in village 15 and 3 who are also wearing armour and have swords and spears. This could mean that a torc was either used to identify or to reward someone who had fought in battles.  

6. The village sites are clearly connected because they show similar patterns in ways of burying the dead, types of artifacts and pottery styles. However, some of the villages are younger than others while others are older. We can see this because the styles of burials, artifacts and pottery change and the newer styles aren’t seen in some villages. Some of the villages must have existed at the same time to have the same styles and either trade was going on between villages or that people moved between villages often. Fro We can see that some of the villages are younger than others because the styles of pottery change in popularity through the villages. Styles that may not have a very good design for things like storing food or pouring liquids seem to be older than the better designed pottery. But, since change is gradual over time, some of the villages continued to use the older pottery. From this, we can assume that the villages who used the newer styles more often were younger. From the styles of pottery and the frequency of each style in the illages along with the types of burials and their stratigraphy, we can make a guess about the order of the age of the villages. If the order of the stylistic seriation that I chose is correct according to usefulness of the different styles, then Type D is the oldest type of pottery and Type B is the newest. This can tell us which direction the frequency seriation of the pottery is correct. Since I chose Type D as the oldest type of pottery, it must be one of the first to appear in the frequency distribution. This means that village 9 is the oldest according to the pottery styles. According to the stratigraphy of the burials, the flex burials are the oldest and the cremation burials are the youngest. From this information, we can decide that village 6 and village 22 are younger villages and that village 9 is an older village. Village 6 has only a cremation burial while village 22 still has an older skeleton burial. From this we can assume that village 6 is younger than village 22. Since village 15 doesn’t have a cremation burial, we can assume it is not the youngest village but it has 2 different types of burials, suggesting that it existed for a long period of time. If it existed at the same time as villages 9, 3 and 8, we can see that village 9 is older than 3 and 8 because it is a flex burial, which in village 15 is the older type of burial because it is below the others. Since both village 8 and 3 have extended burials, I can’t tell which is older so I looked at the frequency seriation of the pottery. Since pottery type B doesn’t appear in village 8, village 9 must be older. According to this evidence, the order of the village from oldest to youngest is 9,8,15,22,6.  Putting the artifacts in context with the burials, we can deduce some things about life in the village. Cremation burials came later and show artifacts like needles for making clothes and tongs for metalwork that indicate specialized trades. This means that specialized trades came later. Burials that show warriors are often flexed or extended so they are older. This means that war and defense was more prevalent in life in earlier times.

Bonus: Daniel Wilson, Professor of History and English Literature at the University of Toronto was the first to use the term “prehistory” (Friedland 2002: 43).

Bibliographic References

Friedland, Martin L. 2002. The University of Toronto: A History. Toronto, Ontario:   University of Toronto Press.  

Dougherty, Kate. 2005. Anthropology 100 Archaeology Lab. Lecture Notes, Trent    University, Peterborough, Ontario.

Haviland, William A. 2003. Human Evolution and Prehistory. 6th ed. Toronto Ontario:          Thomson Wasdworth.

Topic, John. November 1, 2005a. Introducing Archaeology: what it does and how it does   it. Lecture Notes, Trent University, Peterborough, Ontario.

Topic, John. November 29, 2005b. The Nature of Civilization and Civilization in the Old    World. Lecture Notes, Trent University, Peterborough, Ontario.