Culture History:

Archaeological Theory From

1850 to 1950
ANT 103-101
Prof. Milan

Today
Start with the origins of archaeology
When did people start digging
How did we understand the past

Cultural evolution
Not biology
19th century theory

Culture history
Archaeology becomes part of anthropology
Trigger article

Before Archaeology
Classics

The study of the great texts

Biblical texts
Greek and Roman texts
Histories and natural histories

Missionary work
Priests in the New World
Records of missionary work
In an odd way, a precursor to anthropology

Geology
A study of the earth
How did the world begin?

Antiquarians
The French in Egypt
Napoleons invasion
The Rosetta Stone
Jean Francois
Champollion

Biblical scholars
Searching for proof
that everything in the
Bible really happened
Stratigraphy in the
Bible

Antiquarians
European antiquities
Leopold von Ranke
Christian Thomsen
Oscar Montelius

Three age
chronology
Stone Age
Bronze Age
Iron Age

The first diggers

Europe
General Pitt-Rivers
Boucher de
Perthes

The Americans
William Prescott
Ephraim Squier
Peabody Museum

Hienrich Schliemann
The Man
1820 1899
German
Not formally trained

Influences
Worked from Greek
myths
Believed them to record
actual historic events

Excavations
Troy
Mycenea
Accusations of fraud

Cultural Evolution
The progression of
human society from
hunter-gatherers to
high civilization
Charles Darwin
On the Origin of the
Species
Social Darwinism

Ties to Marxism
Lewis Henry Morgan
Friedrich Engels

Civilization

Barbarism

Savagery

Cultural Evolution
Savagery
Anarchy, no order; no wealth
Primitive behavior; instinct ;
nomadic lifestyle
Stone tools
Natives

Civilization

Barbarism

Law by force
Empires and kingdoms
Luxury items
Simple literature
Vikings; Central Asia; Nonwhites

Civilization

Moral code
Rule of law
Class status
Urbanization
Capital

Barbarism

Savagery

Cultural evolution
New questions

New way of
understanding
Shift from
descriptive to more
civilization
analytical
What are the origins
of civilization?
When do we
achieve civilized
society?
What qualifies as a
civilization?

All civilizations
develop in same
manner
Artifacts represent
advances in society
New technologies
reflect complexity of
a civilization

Problems with Evolution

Linear model
Every culture evolves in the EXACT same way
Every culture evolves, there is no backward
motion
Every culture can fit into one of the categories

Ahistorical
Does not look at how different cultures are unique
Does not look at the events that shape a culture
Does not look at the way different cultures
interacted

Archaeology as Anthropology
Franz Boas
Four fields
Ethnography
Physical
anthropology
Linguistics
Archaeology

Boas considered
archaeology the
most important

Anthropology
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New form of excavations

Systematic excavations

Carefully measured dimensions

Recording of changes in stratigraphy
Collection of artifacts
A lot of this developed by earlier archaeologists

Survey
Mapping and description of sites
Surface collections
Settlement patterns

Description of artifacts

Culture History
Focus on individual
cultures
Use the material culture to
identify different groups
Each culture has a unique
history
Rise of national archaeology

Rejection of cultural
evolution
Each cultures history is
unique and follows a
different trajectory
Transition to diffusion

Diffusion
The spread of an
idea, technology or
style
Origins of new
technologies
Linguistics

Use in archaeology
Look for origins of
civilization
Study the spread of
agriculture
Racism

Culture History
Cultures are defined
by their material
Focus on describing
artifacts and
contexts
Description of
artifacts and sites
provides insight into
who people were

Understanding material culture

Vessel form
Shape of body
Additions to
vessels shape
Type of base

Rim shape
Thickness of
neck to body
Handles

Decorations

Form = Substance
Each set of artifacts is
intrinsically unique
Simple, easy to make
make lots of tools
Efficient use of material
conserve
Multifunctional
Different from Clovis
No fluting
Not leaf shaped
Different way of notching
into spear and arrow shaft

Style = Substance