Intro to arch lecs 1_2 handout - Bogaard

The Nature of Archaeological Enquiry – Amy Bogaard Lectures 1-2: Introduction to the principles of archaeology Terms Renaissance, humanism, age of exploration, stratigraphy, law of superposition, uniformitarianism, theodolite, site, artefact, ecofact, human agency, material culture, taphonomy, site formation processes, C- and N-transforms (Schiffer), (single) context recording system, surface survey, aerial photography, satellite imagery, geophysical survey, ladder of inference, ethnographic analogy People Thomas Aquinas, Leonardo da Vinci, Marten van Heemskerk, Vasco de Gama, James Cooke, Sir Walter Raleigh, John White, John Sloane, Napoleon Bonaparte, Thomas Jefferson, Charles Darwin, Hadza, Tollund Man, Christopher Hawkes Sites Dartmoor reaves (Devon; Middle Bronze Age), Balbridie (Aberdeenshire; Early Neolithic), Tell Brak (Syria; Chalcolithic-Bronze Age), Çatalhưk (central Anatolia; Neolithic) Some quotations “No historical problem should be studied without studying the history of historical thought about it” (R.G Collingwood 1939) “Archaeology is not a universal or self-evident activity” (B Trigger 2006) “Archaeology is the past tense of anthropology (L.R Binford 1962) “Archaeology is archaeology is archaeology” (D Clarke 1973) Hawkes’ ladder of archaeological inference: (from Hawkes, C 1954 Archaeological theory and method: some suggestions from the Old World American Antiquity 56: 155-168) Techniques for the production of archaeological phenomena Subsistence-economics Socio-political institutions Religious institutions and spiritual life Q To what extent is Hawkes’ model useful in archaeology today? Reading: Barker, P., 1982, Techniques of Archaeological Excavation, Batsford See especially chapters 1-3 Greene, K., 2002, Archaeology: an introduction Fourth edition, fully revised Routledge and University of Pennsylvania Press, chapters 1-3 Hawkes, C 1954, Archaeological theory and method: some suggestions from the Old World American Antiquity 56: 155-168 Johnson, M.H., 2010, Archaeological Theory: an introduction (second edition) Oxford: Blackwell, chapter Museum of London Archaeology Service, 1994, Archaeological Site Manual London: MoLAS Renfrew, C and Bahn, P., 2008, Archaeology: Theories, Methods and Practice, Thames and Hudson, chapters 1-2 Trigger, B.G., 2006, A History of Archaeological Thought (second edition) Cambridge: CUP, chapters 2-3