Archaeology: What's Hot Now: Writing Samples

Archaeology: What's Hot Now These articles that had the largest increase in popularity over the last week

Writing Samples Jul 30th 2011, 10:00 Table of Contents Letter of Intent < | Writing Samples | > Curriculum Vitae What Writing Samples Should I Send? Written work is requested for two reasons: 1) to show that you can think and 2) to show that you can write. It is preferable that the work be at least related to archaeology (i.e., a cultural or physical anthropology paper is acceptable). It is best to submit a copy of a paper with a grade and comments from the instructor but if this is not possible a clean copy will suffice. If you have had a paper published you may submit that, either as an offprint or a photocopy. Try to avoid reports that are nothing more than site descriptions or artifact lists. The paper should show that you can synthesize information and that you are capable of critical thought. If you have completed an MA submit a copy of your thesis. If you are still writing your thesis submit a term paper and perhaps a couple of chapters of the thesis. The best chapters to submit are those that deal with your research, not the background or literary review chapters. Table of Contents Letter of Intent < | Writing Samples | > Curriculum Vitae

You are receiving this email because you subscribed to this feed at blogtrottr.com. If you no longer wish to receive these emails, you can unsubscribe from this feed, or manage all your subscriptions

Archaeology: What's Hot Now: Writing Samples

Archaeology: What's Hot Now These articles that had the largest increase in popularity over the last week

Writing Samples Jul 30th 2011, 10:00 Table of Contents Letter of Intent < | Writing Samples | > Curriculum Vitae What Writing Samples Should I Send? Written work is requested for two reasons: 1) to show that you can think and 2) to show that you can write. It is preferable that the work be at least related to archaeology (i.e., a cultural or physical anthropology paper is acceptable). It is best to submit a copy of a paper with a grade and comments from the instructor but if this is not possible a clean copy will suffice. If you have had a paper published you may submit that, either as an offprint or a photocopy. Try to avoid reports that are nothing more than site descriptions or artifact lists. The paper should show that you can synthesize information and that you are capable of critical thought. If you have completed an MA submit a copy of your thesis. If you are still writing your thesis submit a term paper and perhaps a couple of chapters of the thesis. The best chapters to submit are those that deal with your research, not the background or literary review chapters. Table of Contents Letter of Intent < | Writing Samples | > Curriculum Vitae

You are receiving this email because you subscribed to this feed at blogtrottr.com. If you no longer wish to receive these emails, you can unsubscribe from this feed, or manage all your subscriptions

Archaeology: What's Hot Now: Along the Silk Road

Archaeology: What's Hot Now These articles that had the largest increase in popularity over the last week

Along the Silk Road Jul 30th 2011, 10:00 The Silk Road (or Silk Route) is surely one of the oldest routes of international trade in the world. First called the Silk Road in the 19th century, the 4500 kilometer (2800 miles) route is actually a web of caravan tracks connecting Chang'an (now the present day city of Xi'an), China in the East and Rome, Italy in the West beginning in the Han Dynasty in the 2nd century BC up through the 15th century AD. Routes of the Silk Road The Silk Road contained three major routes leading westward from Chang'an, with perhaps hundreds of smaller ways and by ways. The northern route ran westward from China to the Black Sea; the central to Persia and the Mediterranean Sea; and the southern to the regions which now include Afghanistan, Iran, and India. Its fabled travelers included Marco Polo, Genghis Khan, and Kublai Khan. The Great Wall of China was built (in part) to protect its route from bandits. Historical tradition is that the trade routes began in the 2nd century BC, the result of the efforts of Emperor Wudi of the Han Dynasty, who commissioned Chinese military commander Zhang Qian to seek a military alliance with his Persian neighbors to the west. He found his way to Rome (called Li-Jian in documents to the time). One extremely important trade item was silk, manufactured in China and treasured in Rome. The process by which silk is made, involving silk worm caterpillars fed on mulberry leaves, was kept secret from the west until the 6th century AD, when a Christian monk smuggled caterpillar eggs out of China. Trade Goods of the Silk Road While important to keeping the trade connection open, silk was only one of many items passing across the Silk Road's network. Precious ivory and gold, food items such as pomegranates, safflowers, and carrots went east out of Rome to the west; from the east came jade, furs, ceramics, and manufactured objects of bronze, iron and lacquer. Animals such as horses, sheep, elephants, peacocks, and camels made the trip, and most importantly perhaps, agricultural and metallurgical technologies, information, and religion were brought with the travelers. Archaeology and the Silk Road Recent studies have been conducted on key locations along the Silk Route at the Han Dynasty sites of Chang'an, Yingpan, and Loulan, where imported goods indicate that these were important cosmopolitan cities. A cemetery in Loulan, dated to the first century AD, contained burials of individuals from Siberia, India, Afghanistan, and the Mediterranean Sea. Investigations at the Xuanquan Station Site of Gansu Province in China suggest that there was a postal service along the Silk Road during the Han Dynasty. Some archaeological evidence suggests that the Silk Road may have been in use long before Zhang Qian's diplomatic journey. Silk has been found in the mummies of Egypt around 1000 BC, German graves dated to 700 BC, and 5th century Greek tombs. European, Persian, and Central Asian goods have been found in the Japanese capital city of Nara. Whether these hints ultimately prove to be solid evidence of early international trading or not, the web of tracks called the Silk Road will remain a symbol of the lengths to which people will go to stay in touch. Sources Dani, Ahmad H. 2002 Significance of Silk Road to human civilization: Its cultural dimension. Journal of Asian Civilizations 25(1):72-79. Liu, Z., et al. in press. Influence of Taoism on the invention of the purple pigment used on the Qin terracotta warriors. Journal of Archaeological Science. Yang, Xiaoneng. 2004. Chinese Archaeology in the Twentieth Century: New Perspectives on China's Past. Yale University Press, New Haven.

You are receiving this email because you subscribed to this feed at blogtrottr.com. If you no longer wish to receive these emails, you can unsubscribe from this feed, or manage all your subscriptions

Archaeology: What's Hot Now: Viking Age

Archaeology: What's Hot Now These articles that had the largest increase in popularity over the last week

Viking Age Jul 30th 2011, 10:00 The Viking Age traditionally refers to the period in northern Europe between the first Scandinavian raid on England, in AD 793, and ends with the death of Harald Hardrada in 1066, in a failed attempt to attain the English throne. During those 250 years, the political and religious structure of northern Europe was changed irrevocably. Some of that change can be directly attributed to the actions of the Vikings, and/or the response to Viking imperialism, and some of it cannot. See the entry on Who were the Vikings See the Viking Timeline Viking Age Beginnings Beginning in the 8th century AD, the Vikings began expanding out of Scandinavia, first as raids and then as imperialistic settlements into a wide swath of places from Russia to the North American continent. The reasons for the Viking expansion outside of Scandinavia are debated among scholars. Reasons suggested include population pressure, political pressure, and personal enrichment. The Vikings could never have begun raiding or indeed settling beyond Scandinavia if they had not developed highly effective boat building and navigation skills; skills that were in evidence by the 4th century AD. At the time of the expansion, the Scandinavian countries were each experiencing a centralization of power, with fierce competition. See the glossary entry on Viking social structure for more detail Viking Age: Settling Down Fifty years after the first raids on the monastery at Lindisfarne, England, the Scandinavians ominously shifted their tactics: they began to spend the winters at various locations. In Ireland, the ships themselves became part of the over-wintering, when the Norse built an earthen bank on the landward side of their docked ships. These types of sites, called longphorts, are found prominently on the Irish coasts and inland rivers. Read more about Viking raids Read more about longphort Ath Cliath is a longphort in Ireland which eventually led to the foundation of Dublin Read more about Viking settlements Viking Economics The Viking economic pattern was a combination of pastoralism, long-distance trade and piracy. The type of pastoralism used by the Vikings was called landnám, and it was a successful strategy in the Faroe Islands, but it failed miserably in Greenland and Ireland, where the thin soils and climate change led to desperate circumstances. Read more specific details about Viking economies Landnám, Did the Viking way of life damage the ecology of Iceland? Read about the Eastern Settlement in Greenland The Viking trade system, supplemented by piracy, on the other hand, was extremely successful. While conducting raids on various peoples throughout Europe and western Asia, the Vikings obtained untold amounts of silver ingots, personal items and other booty, and buried them in hoards. Read more about Viking silver hoards Cuerdale Hoard Legitimate trade in items such as cod, coins, ceramics, glass, walrus ivory, polar bear skins and, of course, slaves was conducted by the Vikings as early as the mid 9th century, in what must have been uneasy relationships between the Abbasids in Persia, and Charlemagne's empire in Europe. Read more about Viking Age trade networks Read more about the importance of Norway cod to the Viking trade network Read about the History of Glass Making Westward with the Viking Age The Vikings arrived in Iceland in 873, and in Greenland in 985. In both cases, the importation of the landnam style of pastoralism led to dismal failure. In addition to a sharp decline in sea temperature, which led to deeper winters, the Norse found themselves in direct competition with the people they called the Skraelings, who we now understand are the ancestors of the Inuits of North America. Read about the Eastern Settlement in Greenland. Read more about archaeological theories about who the Skraelings were Thule migration, the massive movement of Inuit ancestors once thought to be the cultural group called the Skraelings Vinland Sagas, the stories about Viking adventures in North America Forays westward from Greenland were undertaken in the very last years of the tenth century AD, and Leif Erickson finally made landfall on the Canadian shores in 1000 AD, at a site called L'anse Aux Meadows. The settlement there was doomed to failure, however. Read about L'anse Aux Meadows Vikings in Wisconsin?, an odd story about a horse head found in the Spencer Lake Mounds of Wisconsin Additional Sources about the Vikings A Viking Timeline A Viking Bibliography, collection of resources used for this project Runic Writing including some examples of futhark Academic Projects on Viking Archaeology Viking Homeland Archaeological Sites Denmark: Ribe, Vorbasse, Jelling, Roskilde, Hedeby (now in Germany), Danevirke, Ahus, Lund (now in Sweden), Skuldelev Norway: Forsandmoen, Oseberg Ship burial, Gokstad, Kaupang, Trondheim, Bergen, Hon Hoard Sweden: Ridanas, Gamla Uppsala (Old Uppsala), Helgo, Birka, Sigtuna, Paviken, Nydam Boat, Ahus The Netherlands: Dorestad Norse Colony Archaeological Sites Iceland: Hofstaðir, Reykjavik, Reykholt, Steinbogi, Selhagi, Hrísbrú Greenland: Brattahlid, Gardar, Tasiusaq, Sandhavn, all in the Eastern Settlement; Western Settlement France: Germany: Wiskiauten, Grop Stromkendorf, Hedeby Netherlands: Dorestad Faroe Islands: Sandur, Leirvik on Eysturoy, Sandavagur, Sandoy, Hovsdalur, Toftanes Newfoundland: L'anse aux Meadows England: Cuerdale Hoard, Lancashire, Repton, Jorvik (York), Wessex, London, Ipswich Ireland: Dublin, Waterford, Áth Cliath, Beginish Island Poland: Wolin, Truso Russia: Staraya Ladoga, Novgorod

You are receiving this email because you subscribed to this feed at blogtrottr.com. If you no longer wish to receive these emails, you can unsubscribe from this feed, or manage all your subscriptions

Archaeology: What's Hot Now: Along the Silk Road

Archaeology: What's Hot Now These articles that had the largest increase in popularity over the last week

Along the Silk Road Jul 30th 2011, 10:00 The Silk Road (or Silk Route) is surely one of the oldest routes of international trade in the world. First called the Silk Road in the 19th century, the 4500 kilometer (2800 miles) route is actually a web of caravan tracks connecting Chang'an (now the present day city of Xi'an), China in the East and Rome, Italy in the West beginning in the Han Dynasty in the 2nd century BC up through the 15th century AD. Routes of the Silk Road The Silk Road contained three major routes leading westward from Chang'an, with perhaps hundreds of smaller ways and by ways. The northern route ran westward from China to the Black Sea; the central to Persia and the Mediterranean Sea; and the southern to the regions which now include Afghanistan, Iran, and India. Its fabled travelers included Marco Polo, Genghis Khan, and Kublai Khan. The Great Wall of China was built (in part) to protect its route from bandits. Historical tradition is that the trade routes began in the 2nd century BC, the result of the efforts of Emperor Wudi of the Han Dynasty, who commissioned Chinese military commander Zhang Qian to seek a military alliance with his Persian neighbors to the west. He found his way to Rome (called Li-Jian in documents to the time). One extremely important trade item was silk, manufactured in China and treasured in Rome. The process by which silk is made, involving silk worm caterpillars fed on mulberry leaves, was kept secret from the west until the 6th century AD, when a Christian monk smuggled caterpillar eggs out of China. Trade Goods of the Silk Road While important to keeping the trade connection open, silk was only one of many items passing across the Silk Road's network. Precious ivory and gold, food items such as pomegranates, safflowers, and carrots went east out of Rome to the west; from the east came jade, furs, ceramics, and manufactured objects of bronze, iron and lacquer. Animals such as horses, sheep, elephants, peacocks, and camels made the trip, and most importantly perhaps, agricultural and metallurgical technologies, information, and religion were brought with the travelers. Archaeology and the Silk Road Recent studies have been conducted on key locations along the Silk Route at the Han Dynasty sites of Chang'an, Yingpan, and Loulan, where imported goods indicate that these were important cosmopolitan cities. A cemetery in Loulan, dated to the first century AD, contained burials of individuals from Siberia, India, Afghanistan, and the Mediterranean Sea. Investigations at the Xuanquan Station Site of Gansu Province in China suggest that there was a postal service along the Silk Road during the Han Dynasty. Some archaeological evidence suggests that the Silk Road may have been in use long before Zhang Qian's diplomatic journey. Silk has been found in the mummies of Egypt around 1000 BC, German graves dated to 700 BC, and 5th century Greek tombs. European, Persian, and Central Asian goods have been found in the Japanese capital city of Nara. Whether these hints ultimately prove to be solid evidence of early international trading or not, the web of tracks called the Silk Road will remain a symbol of the lengths to which people will go to stay in touch. Sources Dani, Ahmad H. 2002 Significance of Silk Road to human civilization: Its cultural dimension. Journal of Asian Civilizations 25(1):72-79. Liu, Z., et al. in press. Influence of Taoism on the invention of the purple pigment used on the Qin terracotta warriors. Journal of Archaeological Science. Yang, Xiaoneng. 2004. Chinese Archaeology in the Twentieth Century: New Perspectives on China's Past. Yale University Press, New Haven.

You are receiving this email because you subscribed to this feed at blogtrottr.com. If you no longer wish to receive these emails, you can unsubscribe from this feed, or manage all your subscriptions

Archaeology: What's Hot Now: Ancient Quipu Found at Caral

Archaeology: What's Hot Now These articles that had the largest increase in popularity over the last week

Ancient Quipu Found at Caral Jul 30th 2011, 10:00 Archaeologists excavating at the ancient Peruvian coastal civilization called Caral have recovered an artifact which may represent one of the earliest forms of communication in the world, roughly equivalent in age to the cuneiform of Mesopotamia. The early civilization known as Caral was first reported in 2001, as a collection of at least 18 separate towns and villages on the northern coast of Peru, dated to approximately 4600 years ago. The discovery was of vast importance, because, on the basis of the dates, Caral is the earliest of the sophisticated civilizations in the Americas, and was one of the few civilizations on the planet which apparently developed without a form of written communication. Quipu Usage Archaeologists believe that most civilizationsâ€"those that develop public projects such as monumental architecture, and have a geographically wide distribution that was controlledâ€"require some form of record keeping to arise and survive. The exceptions include the Inca civilization, which did not have anything we modern people recognize as writing. What the Inca had were quipu, a complicated system of knotted cords of different colors. Many of these quipus (also spelled khipus) were destroyed by the Spanish conquistadors in the 16th century, but approximately 200 of them dating no earlier than about 650 AD have been found. Although archaeologists do not all agree about the function of the knotted strings, one fairly compelling argument is that the quipu was a method of record keeping. Quipu at Caral The recovery of quipu from the civilization of Caral, if the context and dates are correct, suggests several things. First, this is additional evidence that Caral was a precursor to the Inca civilization (since the Incas also used quipu). Secondly, quipu as a tradition dates at least 2000 years older than we recognized prior to this point. Thirdly, and most importantly, if quipu were indeed a form of written communication, they are among the earliest forms of writing in the world, only slightly younger than cuneiform, which has been identified at the Mesopotamian site of Uruk approximately 3000 years BC. As a very recently identified civilization of the world, Caral has the potential to help us rewrite human history. Sources Beynon-Davies, Paul 2007 Informatics and the Inca. International Journal of Information Management 27 306â€"318. Brooks, Nick 2007 Cultural responses to aridity in the Middle Holocene and increased social complexity. Quaternary International 15129â€"49. Fossa, Lydia 2000 Two khipu, one narrrative: Answering Urton's question. Ethnohistory 47(2):453-468. Haas, Jonathan and Winifred Creamer 2006 Crucible of Andean Civilization: The Peruvian Coast from 3000 to 1800 BC. Current Anthropology 47(5):745-775. Haas, Jonathan, Winifred Creamer, and Alvaro Ruiz 2004 Dating the Late Archaic occupation of the Norte Chico region in Peru. Nature 432:1020-1023. Niles, Susan A. 2007 Considering quipus: Andean knotted string records in analytical context. Reviews in Anthropology 36(1):85-102. Topic, John R. 2003 From Stewards to Bureaucrats: Architecture and Information Flow at Chan Chan, Peru. Latin American Antiquity 14(3):243-274. Quilter, Jeffrey and Gary Urgon. 2002. Narrative Threads: Accounting and Recounting in Andean Khipu. University of Texas Press: Austin. Urton, Gary and Carrie J. Brezine 2005 Khipu Accounting in Ancient Peru. Science 309:1065-1067. Vega-Centeno Sara-Lafosse, Rafael 2005 Ritual And Architecture in a Context of Emergent Complexity: A Perspective From Cerro Lampay, A Late Archaic Site In The Central Andes. PhD dissertation: University of Arizona, Tucson.

You are receiving this email because you subscribed to this feed at blogtrottr.com. If you no longer wish to receive these emails, you can unsubscribe from this feed, or manage all your subscriptions

Archaeology: What's Hot Now: A Walking Tour of Machu Picchu

Archaeology: What's Hot Now These articles that had the largest increase in popularity over the last week

A Walking Tour of Machu Picchu Jul 30th 2011, 10:00 Many of the rooms at Machu Picchu have been reconstructed. When the American explorer and diplomat Hiram Bingham was first was brought to the site by local residents in 1911, the ruins were in fairly good shape; but an earthquake in 1950 did additional damage. Excavation and conservation of some of the buildings was conducted by various governmental bodies in association with the Departmental Archaeological Foundation of Cuzco beginning in the late 1950s. The lower room blocks in this photo are unreconstructed. Archaeologists believe Machu Picchu was abandoned between about 1534 and 1570. Only a very few historic Spanish artifacts have been found at Machu Picchu. But, evidence of several fires at Machu Picchu has been identified, particularly in the area known as the Torreon, which was thought to have held the mummy of Pachacuti himself. The fires were likely the work of the Spanish, who attempted to obliterate the old Incan religion. More Inca Resources Guide to the Inca Empire The Inca capital city of Cusco Inca Road System Inca Road Photo Essay Inca writing system called Quipu Inca archaeological sites

You are receiving this email because you subscribed to this feed at blogtrottr.com. If you no longer wish to receive these emails, you can unsubscribe from this feed, or manage all your subscriptions

Archaeology: What's Hot Now: Viking Age

Archaeology: What's Hot Now These articles that had the largest increase in popularity over the last week

Viking Age Jul 30th 2011, 10:00 The Viking Age traditionally refers to the period in northern Europe between the first Scandinavian raid on England, in AD 793, and ends with the death of Harald Hardrada in 1066, in a failed attempt to attain the English throne. During those 250 years, the political and religious structure of northern Europe was changed irrevocably. Some of that change can be directly attributed to the actions of the Vikings, and/or the response to Viking imperialism, and some of it cannot. See the entry on Who were the Vikings See the Viking Timeline Viking Age Beginnings Beginning in the 8th century AD, the Vikings began expanding out of Scandinavia, first as raids and then as imperialistic settlements into a wide swath of places from Russia to the North American continent. The reasons for the Viking expansion outside of Scandinavia are debated among scholars. Reasons suggested include population pressure, political pressure, and personal enrichment. The Vikings could never have begun raiding or indeed settling beyond Scandinavia if they had not developed highly effective boat building and navigation skills; skills that were in evidence by the 4th century AD. At the time of the expansion, the Scandinavian countries were each experiencing a centralization of power, with fierce competition. See the glossary entry on Viking social structure for more detail Viking Age: Settling Down Fifty years after the first raids on the monastery at Lindisfarne, England, the Scandinavians ominously shifted their tactics: they began to spend the winters at various locations. In Ireland, the ships themselves became part of the over-wintering, when the Norse built an earthen bank on the landward side of their docked ships. These types of sites, called longphorts, are found prominently on the Irish coasts and inland rivers. Read more about Viking raids Read more about longphort Ath Cliath is a longphort in Ireland which eventually led to the foundation of Dublin Read more about Viking settlements Viking Economics The Viking economic pattern was a combination of pastoralism, long-distance trade and piracy. The type of pastoralism used by the Vikings was called landnám, and it was a successful strategy in the Faroe Islands, but it failed miserably in Greenland and Ireland, where the thin soils and climate change led to desperate circumstances. Read more specific details about Viking economies Landnám, Did the Viking way of life damage the ecology of Iceland? Read about the Eastern Settlement in Greenland The Viking trade system, supplemented by piracy, on the other hand, was extremely successful. While conducting raids on various peoples throughout Europe and western Asia, the Vikings obtained untold amounts of silver ingots, personal items and other booty, and buried them in hoards. Read more about Viking silver hoards Cuerdale Hoard Legitimate trade in items such as cod, coins, ceramics, glass, walrus ivory, polar bear skins and, of course, slaves was conducted by the Vikings as early as the mid 9th century, in what must have been uneasy relationships between the Abbasids in Persia, and Charlemagne's empire in Europe. Read more about Viking Age trade networks Read more about the importance of Norway cod to the Viking trade network Read about the History of Glass Making Westward with the Viking Age The Vikings arrived in Iceland in 873, and in Greenland in 985. In both cases, the importation of the landnam style of pastoralism led to dismal failure. In addition to a sharp decline in sea temperature, which led to deeper winters, the Norse found themselves in direct competition with the people they called the Skraelings, who we now understand are the ancestors of the Inuits of North America. Read about the Eastern Settlement in Greenland. Read more about archaeological theories about who the Skraelings were Thule migration, the massive movement of Inuit ancestors once thought to be the cultural group called the Skraelings Vinland Sagas, the stories about Viking adventures in North America Forays westward from Greenland were undertaken in the very last years of the tenth century AD, and Leif Erickson finally made landfall on the Canadian shores in 1000 AD, at a site called L'anse Aux Meadows. The settlement there was doomed to failure, however. Read about L'anse Aux Meadows Vikings in Wisconsin?, an odd story about a horse head found in the Spencer Lake Mounds of Wisconsin Additional Sources about the Vikings A Viking Timeline A Viking Bibliography, collection of resources used for this project Runic Writing including some examples of futhark Academic Projects on Viking Archaeology Viking Homeland Archaeological Sites Denmark: Ribe, Vorbasse, Jelling, Roskilde, Hedeby (now in Germany), Danevirke, Ahus, Lund (now in Sweden), Skuldelev Norway: Forsandmoen, Oseberg Ship burial, Gokstad, Kaupang, Trondheim, Bergen, Hon Hoard Sweden: Ridanas, Gamla Uppsala (Old Uppsala), Helgo, Birka, Sigtuna, Paviken, Nydam Boat, Ahus The Netherlands: Dorestad Norse Colony Archaeological Sites Iceland: Hofstaðir, Reykjavik, Reykholt, Steinbogi, Selhagi, Hrísbrú Greenland: Brattahlid, Gardar, Tasiusaq, Sandhavn, all in the Eastern Settlement; Western Settlement France: Germany: Wiskiauten, Grop Stromkendorf, Hedeby Netherlands: Dorestad Faroe Islands: Sandur, Leirvik on Eysturoy, Sandavagur, Sandoy, Hovsdalur, Toftanes Newfoundland: L'anse aux Meadows England: Cuerdale Hoard, Lancashire, Repton, Jorvik (York), Wessex, London, Ipswich Ireland: Dublin, Waterford, Áth Cliath, Beginish Island Poland: Wolin, Truso Russia: Staraya Ladoga, Novgorod

You are receiving this email because you subscribed to this feed at blogtrottr.com. If you no longer wish to receive these emails, you can unsubscribe from this feed, or manage all your subscriptions

Archaeology: What's Hot Now: A Walking Tour of Machu Picchu

Archaeology: What's Hot Now These articles that had the largest increase in popularity over the last week

A Walking Tour of Machu Picchu Jul 30th 2011, 10:00 Many of the rooms at Machu Picchu have been reconstructed. When the American explorer and diplomat Hiram Bingham was first was brought to the site by local residents in 1911, the ruins were in fairly good shape; but an earthquake in 1950 did additional damage. Excavation and conservation of some of the buildings was conducted by various governmental bodies in association with the Departmental Archaeological Foundation of Cuzco beginning in the late 1950s. The lower room blocks in this photo are unreconstructed. Archaeologists believe Machu Picchu was abandoned between about 1534 and 1570. Only a very few historic Spanish artifacts have been found at Machu Picchu. But, evidence of several fires at Machu Picchu has been identified, particularly in the area known as the Torreon, which was thought to have held the mummy of Pachacuti himself. The fires were likely the work of the Spanish, who attempted to obliterate the old Incan religion. More Inca Resources Guide to the Inca Empire The Inca capital city of Cusco Inca Road System Inca Road Photo Essay Inca writing system called Quipu Inca archaeological sites

You are receiving this email because you subscribed to this feed at blogtrottr.com. If you no longer wish to receive these emails, you can unsubscribe from this feed, or manage all your subscriptions

Archaeology: What's Hot Now: Ancient Quipu Found at Caral

Archaeology: What's Hot Now These articles that had the largest increase in popularity over the last week

Ancient Quipu Found at Caral Jul 30th 2011, 10:00 Archaeologists excavating at the ancient Peruvian coastal civilization called Caral have recovered an artifact which may represent one of the earliest forms of communication in the world, roughly equivalent in age to the cuneiform of Mesopotamia. The early civilization known as Caral was first reported in 2001, as a collection of at least 18 separate towns and villages on the northern coast of Peru, dated to approximately 4600 years ago. The discovery was of vast importance, because, on the basis of the dates, Caral is the earliest of the sophisticated civilizations in the Americas, and was one of the few civilizations on the planet which apparently developed without a form of written communication. Quipu Usage Archaeologists believe that most civilizationsâ€"those that develop public projects such as monumental architecture, and have a geographically wide distribution that was controlledâ€"require some form of record keeping to arise and survive. The exceptions include the Inca civilization, which did not have anything we modern people recognize as writing. What the Inca had were quipu, a complicated system of knotted cords of different colors. Many of these quipus (also spelled khipus) were destroyed by the Spanish conquistadors in the 16th century, but approximately 200 of them dating no earlier than about 650 AD have been found. Although archaeologists do not all agree about the function of the knotted strings, one fairly compelling argument is that the quipu was a method of record keeping. Quipu at Caral The recovery of quipu from the civilization of Caral, if the context and dates are correct, suggests several things. First, this is additional evidence that Caral was a precursor to the Inca civilization (since the Incas also used quipu). Secondly, quipu as a tradition dates at least 2000 years older than we recognized prior to this point. Thirdly, and most importantly, if quipu were indeed a form of written communication, they are among the earliest forms of writing in the world, only slightly younger than cuneiform, which has been identified at the Mesopotamian site of Uruk approximately 3000 years BC. As a very recently identified civilization of the world, Caral has the potential to help us rewrite human history. Sources Beynon-Davies, Paul 2007 Informatics and the Inca. International Journal of Information Management 27 306â€"318. Brooks, Nick 2007 Cultural responses to aridity in the Middle Holocene and increased social complexity. Quaternary International 15129â€"49. Fossa, Lydia 2000 Two khipu, one narrrative: Answering Urton's question. Ethnohistory 47(2):453-468. Haas, Jonathan and Winifred Creamer 2006 Crucible of Andean Civilization: The Peruvian Coast from 3000 to 1800 BC. Current Anthropology 47(5):745-775. Haas, Jonathan, Winifred Creamer, and Alvaro Ruiz 2004 Dating the Late Archaic occupation of the Norte Chico region in Peru. Nature 432:1020-1023. Niles, Susan A. 2007 Considering quipus: Andean knotted string records in analytical context. Reviews in Anthropology 36(1):85-102. Topic, John R. 2003 From Stewards to Bureaucrats: Architecture and Information Flow at Chan Chan, Peru. Latin American Antiquity 14(3):243-274. Quilter, Jeffrey and Gary Urgon. 2002. Narrative Threads: Accounting and Recounting in Andean Khipu. University of Texas Press: Austin. Urton, Gary and Carrie J. Brezine 2005 Khipu Accounting in Ancient Peru. Science 309:1065-1067. Vega-Centeno Sara-Lafosse, Rafael 2005 Ritual And Architecture in a Context of Emergent Complexity: A Perspective From Cerro Lampay, A Late Archaic Site In The Central Andes. PhD dissertation: University of Arizona, Tucson.

You are receiving this email because you subscribed to this feed at blogtrottr.com. If you no longer wish to receive these emails, you can unsubscribe from this feed, or manage all your subscriptions

Archaeology: What's Hot Now: Timing is Everything

Archaeology: What's Hot Now These articles that had the largest increase in popularity over the last week

Timing is Everything Jul 29th 2011, 10:00 Archaeological Dating Table of Contents | Part 1: Stratigraphy and Seriation | Part 2: Chronological Markers and Dendrochronology Archaeologists use many different techniques to determine the age of a particular artifact, site, or part of a site. Two broad categories of dating or chronometric techniques that archaeologists use are called relative and absolute dating. Relative dating determines the age of artifacts or site, as older or younger or the same age as others, but does not produce precise dates. Absolute dating, methods that produce specific chronological dates for objects and occupations, was not available to archaeology until well into the 20th century. Stratigraphy and the Law of Superposition Stratigraphy is the oldest of the relative dating methods that archaeologists use to date things. Stratigraphy is based on the law of superpositionâ€"like a layer cake, the lowest layers must have been formed first. In other words, artifacts found in the upper layers of a site will have been deposited more recently than those found in the lower layers. Cross-dating of sites, when one compares geologic strata at one site with another location, and extrapolates relative ages in that manner is still used today, primarily when sites are far too old for absolute dates to have much meaning. The scholar most associated with the rules of stratigraphy (or law of superposition) is probably the geologist Charles Lyell. The basis for stratigraphy is quite intuitive, but its applications were no less than earth-shattering to archaeological theory. For example, Worsaae used this law to prove the Three Age system. For more information on stratigraphy and how it is used in archaeology, see the Stratigraphy glossary entry. Seriation Seriation, on the other hand, was a stroke of genius. First used, and probably invented by the archaeologist Sir William Flinders-Petrie in 1899, seriation (or sequence dating) is based on the idea that artifacts change over time. Like fins on the back end of a Cadillac, artifact styles and characteristics change over time, coming into fashion, then fading in popularity.[ Generally, seriation is manipulated graphically. The standard graphical result of seriation is a series of "battleship curves," which are horizontal bars representing percentages plotted on a vertical axis. Plotting several curves can allow the archaeologist to develop a relative chronology for an entire site or group of sites. For detailed information about how seriation works, see Seriation: A Step by Step Description. Seriation is thought to be the first application of statistics in archaeology. It certainly wasn't the last. The most famous seriation study was probably Deetz and Dethlefsen's study on changing styles on gravestones in New England cemeteries. The method is still a standard for cemetery studies.

You are receiving this email because you subscribed to this feed at blogtrottr.com. If you no longer wish to receive these emails, you can unsubscribe from this feed, or manage all your subscriptions

Archaeology: What's Hot Now: Vikings

Archaeology: What's Hot Now These articles that had the largest increase in popularity over the last week

Vikings Jul 29th 2011, 10:00 Who were the Vikings, Anyway? The Vikings were Scandinavian farmers, fishers, herders and pirates whose raids and invasions from Russia to North America between roughly 800-1000 AD helped shape the medieval period of the region. The word "viking" means something like "raid" in Old Norse; "vikingr" means something like "one who raids"; but there is no doubt that the word Viking came to mean the loosely-organized cultural groups in Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and eventually Iceland who shared a common economy: hunting, fishing, and piracy. The Viking Age is traditionally marked with the first raid on England, in AD 793, and ends with the death of Harald Hardrada in 1066. Possible reasons for the Viking expansion outside of Scandinavia include population pressure, political pressure, and personal enrichment, or a combination of all three. It is recognized that the Vikings could never have begun raiding or indeed settling beyond Scandinavia if they had not first developed (about 4 centuries earlier) highly effective boat building and navigation skills. Sources See Viking Timeline and the Guide to the Viking Age for further information. This glossary entry is a part of the Guide to the Viking Age and part of the Dictionary of Archaeology. A Viking Bibliography has been created for this project

You are receiving this email because you subscribed to this feed at blogtrottr.com. If you no longer wish to receive these emails, you can unsubscribe from this feed, or manage all your subscriptions

Archaeology: What's Hot Now: Vikings

Archaeology: What's Hot Now These articles that had the largest increase in popularity over the last week

Vikings Jul 29th 2011, 10:00 Who were the Vikings, Anyway? The Vikings were Scandinavian farmers, fishers, herders and pirates whose raids and invasions from Russia to North America between roughly 800-1000 AD helped shape the medieval period of the region. The word "viking" means something like "raid" in Old Norse; "vikingr" means something like "one who raids"; but there is no doubt that the word Viking came to mean the loosely-organized cultural groups in Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and eventually Iceland who shared a common economy: hunting, fishing, and piracy. The Viking Age is traditionally marked with the first raid on England, in AD 793, and ends with the death of Harald Hardrada in 1066. Possible reasons for the Viking expansion outside of Scandinavia include population pressure, political pressure, and personal enrichment, or a combination of all three. It is recognized that the Vikings could never have begun raiding or indeed settling beyond Scandinavia if they had not first developed (about 4 centuries earlier) highly effective boat building and navigation skills. Sources See Viking Timeline and the Guide to the Viking Age for further information. This glossary entry is a part of the Guide to the Viking Age and part of the Dictionary of Archaeology. A Viking Bibliography has been created for this project

You are receiving this email because you subscribed to this feed at blogtrottr.com. If you no longer wish to receive these emails, you can unsubscribe from this feed, or manage all your subscriptions

Archaeology: What's Hot Now: Amelia Earhart's Fate

Archaeology: What's Hot Now These articles that had the largest increase in popularity over the last week

Amelia Earhart's Fate Jul 29th 2011, 10:00 Why don’t we ask the colonists? We have. They left in 1963, and are now either in a village named Nikumaroro in the Solomon Islands, or scattered across other islands of the area. Tapania Taiki, who lived on the island in the 1950s as a little girl, says she remembers an airplane wing on the reef near the village, and the elders told the kids to stay away from it because it had something to do with the ghosts of a man and a woman. Emily Sikuli, who lives in Fiji, left Nikumaroro in 1941, but says her father showed her airplane wreckage on the same part of the reef, and that human bones were found in the area. The Shoes In 1991, Ric Gillespie got the idea that a very small grave we’d found near the middle of the south side of the island was where the colonists had buried Earhart’s bones. The origin of this strange notion was a story told by a former Coast Guardsman, Floyd Kilts, to a San Diego Tribune reporter in 1960. Kilts--dead by the time we learned of the story--had said he was sure that Earhart had wound up on Nikumaroro, because when he was there in 1946 a “native” had told him of finding human bones and a “woman’s shoe, American kind” on the island. The “Irish magistrate,” he said, had “thought of Earhart right away,” and set out to row the bones to Fiji in the island’s four-oared boat. But he had died en route, and the “superstitious natives” had thrown the bones overboard. A strange story, and we speculated a lot about it. When the isolated grave turned up, Ric speculated about that, too. Why so far from the village? Why in such an isolated place? Why so small? Maybe the bones had been disarticulated, and maybe the colonists were afraid of the ghost that might be attached to them. Maybe they were the bones Kilts had heard about. So Ric got permission from the government to excavate the grave, and in 1991 a TIGHAR team landed on the island to do so. They excavated it with all the care that archaeology requires, and all the respect due a dead person, and found the remains of an infant. So much for that; they put the bones back, and filled in the grave. But while they were doing so, one of the team members, Tommy Love, was changing his boots when a small coconut crab ran under his legs and turned over a leaf, exposing the heel of a shoe. The heel was embossed with the name “Cat’s-Paw”--an American brand. Detailed search of the vicinity revealed the fragmentary sole associated with the heel, and the heel of a different shoe. The sole-heel combination were the remains of a woman’s blucher-style oxford, dating--said shoe experts--to the 1930s or thereabouts--while the other heel was from a man’s shoe. Earhart wore blucher-style oxfords; we have pictures. But it appears in the pictures that her shoes were smaller than the one found on the island. But we know from news accounts of her flight that she carried at least a couple of pairs of shoes. Was one pair more commodious than another, perhaps to accommodate heavy socks when flying? We don’t know. The shoe parts remain in TIGHAR’s collection, the subjects of endless speculation. The Seven Site The place on the island where we’ve done the most intensive archaeological fieldwork is called the Seven Site--because of a natural seven-shaped clearing in the Scaevola that covers it. The Seven Site is near the southeast end of the island on the windward (northeast) side, about a quarter mile northwest of the old Coast Guard station, about two miles southeast of the village and across the lagoon. There’s a colonial-era water tank there, a scatter of artifacts, and a hole in the ground. In1997, New Zealand TIGHAR member Peter McQuarrie was doing research in the Kiribati National Archives on Tarawa for his World War II history book Conflict in Kiribati, and came upon a file titled “Skeleton, Human, finding of on Gardner Island.” It contained copies of 1940-41 wireless traffic between Gallagher on Nikumaroro and his superiors, mostly in Fiji, about the discovery of a partial human skeleton near the southeast end of the island. The bones were associated with a woman’s shoe and a sextant box, as well as a Benedictine bottle and the remains of a fire with bird and turtle bones. Gallagher thought they might represent the remains of Earhart. So Kilts had not been completely off-base, but instead of rowing the bones to Fiji, Gallagher had searched the site and sent the bones to Fiji on a small ship that serviced the islands. There they were examined by Dr. David Hoodless, who decided they represented a male, of European or mixed ethnicity. Further research in England turned up Dr. Hoodless’ notes, with measurements of the bones.http://anthro.dac.uga.edu TIGHAR turned these over to forensic anthropologists Karen Burns and Richard Jantz, who applied the modern forensic program FORDISC, and concluded--with lots of caveats--that the bones appeared to have been most like those an adult woman of European ethnicity, about Earhart’s height.

You are receiving this email because you subscribed to this feed at blogtrottr.com. If you no longer wish to receive these emails, you can unsubscribe from this feed, or manage all your subscriptions