Archaeology Lecture 5

The a
● According to the textbook
● Paleontology​ - study of ancient life forms except humans (dinosaurs)
● Prehistoric Archaeology​ - study of ancient humans or hominins without written
documents
● Paleolithic Archaeology​ - study of ancient humans with lithic technology from around 3
mya to 12,000 BP
○ Mya and Mesoamerican culture - technology

Passion to the Past

● We see the past from the present perspective
● Early Complex societies - Egypt and Mesopotamia

Ancient Excavation in Egypt

● Giza pyramid - built by Kakra
● Ordered the excavation of the Sphinx in the 15th c BC.
○ Restoring the monument = he becomes the pharaoh (had many brothers)
○ Young at the time
○ Way for grabbing power

Ancient Excavation in Mesopotamia

● Cuneiform-inscribed clay cylinder describing repairs on the template of the moon-god,
6th c BC, Iraq

St. Helena
● Ca AD 250-330
● Conducted excavations to find the “true cross” near jerusalem
● Feast Day

Granaries of Egypt
● Egyptian Pyramid = Biblical Joseph to store grain (considered true)
● Long standing process of Christianization of cultural monuments

Renaissance (14th to 17th centuries)

● Critical time for Western scientific knowledge
● People became more interested in the world surrounding them
● Stasis - never changing world
○ John Ray - (English Naturalist, 1691)

Young World
● Bishop James Ussher (1581 - 1656) calculated the age of the world at around 6,000
years, placing its inception at 4004 BC, using the lifespan of biblical figures
Cabinet of Curiosities
● Premodern vs Modern
○ Correct the cabinet as a museum = excavated in the 18th c and open to the
public
Antiquarian
● Backward-looking curiosity (The Speculative Era)
● Excavation and collection without

Antiquarian China
● Song Dynasty ( AD 960 - 1279)
● Collection of ancient art, scholarly studies in historiography
● Sshen Kuo (AD 1088) suggested that ancemt

Provenience vs Provenance

Pompeii and Herculaneum

● Pompeii - Ancient roman city + covered in ash (town)
● 1794 - found + excavated some parts

European Colonial Expansion after the 16th Century

Napoleon’s Expedition to Egypt

● Rosetta Stone to Arabs
○ Champollion discovered the way of reading it
○ 3 different languages (demotic, egyptian hierography, greek)

New World Scholars

● Many scholars credited ruins in the Americas to Old World immigrants

The United States

The Early Expeditions to the Maya Civilization

The beginning of Modern Archaeology

The Impact of geology

● Soil and Sediment - earth changes gradually

The First Archaeologists

Evolutionary theory