Archaeology: What's Hot Now: Career Choices in Archaeology

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Career Choices in Archaeology Dec 31st 2011, 11:01 What are my career choices in archaeology? There are several levels of being an archaeologist, and where you are at in your career is related to the level of education you have and the experience you’ve received. There are two common types of archaeologists: those based at universities, and those based at cultural resource management (CRM) firms, firms that conduct archaeological investigations associated with federal construction projects. Other archaeology-related jobs are found at National Parks, Museums, and State Historical Societies. Field Technician / Crew Chief / Field Supervisor A field technician is the first level of field experience any one gets in archaeology. As a field tech you travel the world as a freelancer, excavating or conducting survey any where the jobs are. Like most other kinds of freelancers, you are generally on your own when it comes to health benefits, but there are definitely benefits to the ‘travel the world on your own’ lifestyle. You can read about the way field technicians work in the Have Trowel Will Travel: Field Technicians in Archaeology series. You can work on CRM projects or academic projects, but in general the CRM jobs are paid positions, while the academic field jobs are volunteer or even require tuition. A Crew Chief and Field Supervisor are Field Technicians who have earned additional responsibility. You’ll need a college degree in archaeology or anthropology (or be working on one) to get this job. Project Archaeologist / Principal Investigator / Manager A project archaeologist is the middle level of cultural resource managers, who writes proposals and budgets, supervises excavations, and writes reports on excavations conducted. These are permanent jobs, and health benefits and 401K plans are common. You can work on CRM projects or academic projects, and under normal circumstances, both are paid positions. An CRM Office Manager supervises several PA/PI positions. You’ll need an MA in archaeology or anthropology to get one of these jobs. See Getting into Graduate School for more information. Academic Archaeologist The academic archaeologist or college professor is probably more familiar to most people. This person teaches classes on various archaeology topics at a university or college through the school year, and conducts archaeological expeditions during the summer terms. You’ll need a PhD to get this job; these are also relatively rare. There are other, related jobs in archaeology you can look into, such as cultural resource lawyer or GIS specialist. These are described in Alternate Careers in Archaeology.

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Archaeology: What's Hot Now: Gobekli Tepe

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Gobekli Tepe Dec 31st 2011, 11:01 Göbekli Tepe was first discovered by Peter Benedict during the Joint Istanbul-Chicago Survey of the 1960s, although he did not recognize its complexity or importance. In 1994, Klaus Schmidt now of the German Archaeological Institute (DAI) began excavations and the rest is history. Since that time, extensive excavations have been conducted by the members of the Museum of Sanliurfa and the DAI. This photo essay was written as context for Charles Mann's feature article in the June 2011 issue of National Geographic, and the wonderful photography of Vincent J. Musi. Available on news stands on May 30, 2011, the issue includes far more photographs and Mann's article, which includes an interview with excavator Klaus Schmidt. Göbekli Tepe (National Geographic), online version of the text Photos of Göbekli Tepe, Vincent J. Musi / National Geographic. Sources Banning EB. 2011. So Fair a House: Göbekli Tepe and the Identification of Temples in the Pre-Pottery Neolithic of the Near East. Current Anthropology 52(5):619-660. Hauptmann H. 1999. The Urfa Region. In: Ordogon N, editor. Neolithic in Turkey. Istanbul: Arkeolojo ve Sanat Yay. p 65-86. Kornienko TV. 2009. Notes On The Cult Buildings Of Northern Mesopotamia In The Aceramic Neolithic Period. Journal of Near Eastern Studies 68(2):81-101. Neef R. 2003. Overlooking the Steppe-Forest: A preliminary report on the botanical remains from Early Neolithic Göbekli Tepe (Southeastern Turkey). Neo-Lithics 2:13-16. Peters J, and Schmidt K. 2004. Animals in the symbolic world of Pre-Pottery Neolithic Göbekli Tepe, south-eastern Turkey: a preliminary assessment. Anthropzoologica 39(1):179-218. Pustovoytov K, and Taubald H. 2003. Stable Carbon and Oxygen Isotope Composition of Pedogenic Carbonate at Göbekli Tepe (Southeastern Turkey) and Its Potential for Reconstructing Late Quaternary Paleoenvironments in Upper Mesopotamia. Neo-Lithics 2:25-32. Schmidt K. 2000. Göbekli Tepe, Southeastern Turkey. A Preliminary Report on the 1995-1999 Excavations. Paleorient 26(1):45-54. Schmidt K. 2003. The 2003 Campaign at Göbekli Tepe (Southeastern Turkey). Neo-Lithics 2:3-8.

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Archaeology: What's Hot Now: Archaeology Defined

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Archaeology Defined Dec 31st 2011, 11:01 Archaeology has been defined by many people in many different ways in the 150 years of the study. Of course, some of the differences reflect the history of archaeology and how it has changed over time, becoming more of a science, and becoming more involved with human behaviors. But mostly the definitions reflect how people look at and feel about archaeology. Archaeologists speak from their varied experiences in the field and in the lab. Non-archaeologists speak from their vision of the archaeology, as filtered by what archaeologists say, and by what the popular media presents the study as. In my opinion, all of these definitions are valid expressions of what archaeology is. Define Archaeology "[Archaeology is] the discipline with the theory and practice for the recovery of unobservable hominid behavior patterns from indirect traces in bad samples." David Clarke. "Archaeology is the scientific study of peoples of the past... their culture and their relationship with their environment. The purpose of archaeology is to understand how humans in the past interacted with their environment, and to preserve this history for present and future learning." Larry J. Zimmerman "Historical archaeology is more than just a treasure hunt. It is a challenging search for clues to the people, events, and places of the past." Society for Historical Archaeology "Archaeology is our way of reading that message and understanding how these peoples lived. Archaeologists take the clues left behind by the people of the past, and, like detectives, work to reconstruct how long ago they lived, what they ate, what their tools and homes were like, and what became of them." State Historical Society of South Dakota "Archaeology is the scientific study of past cultures and the way people lived based on the things they left behind." Alabama Archaeology "Archaeology is not a science because it does not apply any recognised model has no validity: each science studies a different subject and therefore uses, or could use, a different model." Merilee Salmon, as quoted by Andrea Vianello Archaeology Definition: A Mind-Numbing Job "[Archaeology is] the most mind-numbing job on the planet" Bill Watterson "Archeology is... the most fun you can have with your pants on." Kent V. Flannery "[Archaeology] seeks to discover how we became human beings endowed with minds and souls before we had learned to write." Grahame Clarke "Archaeology puts all human societies on an equal footing." Brian Fagan "Archeology is the only branch of anthropology where we kill our informants in the process of studying them." Kent Flannery "The archaeologist partakes of, contributes to, is validated by, and dutifully records present-day social and political structures in the identification of research problems and in the interpretation of findings." Joan Gero "Archaeology is not simply the finite body of artefactual evidence uncovered in excavations. Rather, archaeology is what archaeologists say about that evidence. It is the ongoing process of discussing the past which is, in itself, an ongoing process. Only recently have we begun to realise the complexity of that discourse. ... [T]he discipline of archaeology is a site of disputation--a dynamic, fluid, multidimensional engagement of voices bearing upon both past and present." John C. McEnroe "[Archaeology] is not what you find, it’s what you find out." David Hurst Thomas "Indeed, archaeology is only really delightful when transfused into some form of art." Oscar Wilde Archaeology Definition: The Search for Fact "Archaeology is the search for fact, not truth." Indiana Jones "An aware, responsible and engaged global archaeology might be a relevant, positive force which recognizes and celebrates difference, diversity and real multivocality. Under common skies and before divided horizons, exposure to global difference and alterity prompts us all to seek responses and responsibility." Lynn Meskell "Archaeology is the study of humanity itself, and unless that attitude towards the subject is kept in mind archaeology will be overwhelmed by impossible theories or a welter of flint chips." Margaret Murray "Archaeology is the only discipline that seeks to study human behavior and thought without having any direct contact with either." Bruce G. Trigger Archaeology Definition: A Voyage to the Past "Archaeology is our voyage to the past, where we discover who we were and therefore who we are." Camille Paglia "New World archaeology is anthropology or it is nothing." Philip Phillips. ---- Geoff Carver has collected numerous quotations from archaeologists trying to define whatever it is we study. He was kind enough to supply us with the goods, and you'll find his collection on the next page. More Definitions This feature is part of the Guide to Field Definitions of Archaeology and Related Disciplines.

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Archaeology: What's Hot Now: Guide to Mesopotamia

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Guide to Mesopotamia Dec 31st 2011, 11:01 Mesopotamia is an ancient civilization that took up pretty much everything that today is modern Iraq and Syria, a triangular patch wedged between the Tigris River, the Zagros Mountains, and the Lesser Zab River. Mesopotamia is considered the first urban civilization, that is to say, it was the first society which has provided evidence of people deliberately living in close proximity to one another, with attendant social and economic structures to allow that to occur peaceably. Generally, people speak of north and south Mesopotamia, most prominently during the Sumer (south) and Akkad (north) periods between about 3000-2000 BC. However, the histories of the north and south dating back to the sixth millennium BC are divergent; and later the Assyrian kings did their best to unite the two halves. Mesopotamian Chronology Dates after ca 1500 BC are generally agreed upon; important sites are listed in parentheses after each period. Ubaid 5800-3700 BC (Telloh, Ur, Ubaid, Oueili, Eridu, Tepe Gawra, H3 As-Sabiyah) Early Northern Uruk 4400-3600 BC (Brak, Hamoukar) Uruk 3800-3200 BC (Girsu/Telloh, Umma, Lagash, Eridu, Ur, Hacinebi Tepe, Turkey, Chogha Mish, Iran) Jemdet Nasr 3200-3000 BC (Uruk) Early Dynastic Period 3000-2350 BC (Kish, Uruk, Ur, Lagash, Asmar, Mari, Umma, Al-Rawda) Akkadian 2350-2200 BC (Agade, Sumer, Lagash, Uruk, Titris Hoyuk) Neo-Sumerian (2100-2000 BC) (Ur, Elam, Tappeh Sialk) Old Babylonian and Old Assyrian Periods (2000-1600 BC) (Mari, Ebla Babylon, Isin, Larsa, Asssur) Middle Assyrian (1600-1000 BC) (Babylon, Ctesiphon) Neo-Assyrian (1000-605 BC) (Nineveh) Neo-Babylonian (625-539 BC) (Babylon) Mesopotamian Advances Mesopotamia was first home to villages in the Neolithic period of around 6,000 BC. Permanent mudbrick residential structures were being constructed before the Ubaid period at southern sites such as Tell el-Oueili, as well as Ur, Eridu, Telloh, and Ubaid. At Tell Brak in northern Mesopotamia, architecture began appearing at least as early as 4400 BC. Temples were also in evidence by the sixth millennium, in particular at Eridu. The first urban settlements have been identified at Uruk, about 3900 BC, along with mass-produced wheel-thrown pottery, the introduction of writing, and cylinder seals. Assyrian records written in cuneiform have been found and deciphered, allowing us much more information about the political and economic pieces of latter Mesopotamian society. In the north part was the kingdom of Assyria; to the south was the Sumerians and Akkadian in the alluvial plain between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. Mesopotamia continued as a definable civilization right through the fall of Babylon (about 1595 BC). Of most concern today are the ongoing issues associated with the continuing war in Iraq, which have gravely damaged much of the archaeological sites and allowed looting to occur, as described in a recent article by archaeologist Zainab Bahrani. Mesopotamian Sites Important Mesopotamian sites include: Tell el-Ubaid, Uruk, Ur, Eridu, Tell Brak, Tell el-Oueili, Nineveh, Pasargardae, Babylon, Tepe Gawra, Telloh, Hacinebi Tepe, Khorsabad, Nimrud, H3, As Sabiyah, Failaka, Ugarit, Uluburun Sources Ömür Harmansah at the Joukowsky Institute at Brown University is in the process of developing a course on Mesopotamia, which looks really useful. Bernbeck, Reinhard 1995 Lasting alliances and emerging competition: Economic developments in early Mesopotamia. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 14(1):1-25. Bertman, Stephen. 2004. Handbook to Life in Mesopotamia. Oxford University Press, Oxford. Brusasco, Paolo 2004 Theory and practice in the study of Mesopotamian domestic space. Antiquity 78(299):142-157. De Ryck, I., A. Adriaens, and F. Adams 2005 An overview of Mesopotamian bronze metallurgy during the 3rd millennium BC. Journal of Cultural Heritage 6261â€"268. Free download Jahjah, Munzer, Carlo Ulivieri, Antonio Invernizzi, and Roberto Parapetti 2007 Archaeological remote sensing application pre-postwar situation of Babylon archaeological siteâ€"Iraq. Acta Astronautica 61:121â€"130. Luby, Edward M. 1997 The Ur-Archaeologist: Leonard Woolley and the treasures of Mesopotamia. Biblical Archaeology Review 22(2):60-61. Rothman, Mitchell 2004 Studying the development of complex society: Mesopotamia in the late fifth and fourth millennia BC. Journal of Archaeological Research 12(1):75-119. Wright, Henry T. 2006 Early state dynamics as political experiment. Journal of Anthropological Research 62(3):305-319. Zainab Bahrani. 2004. Lawless in Mesopotamia. Natural History 113(2):44-49

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

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A Walking Tour of Machu Picchu Dec 31st 2011, 11:01 Inca architecture was among the finest prehistoric architecture in the world. Examples can be seen in Cuzco and Ollantaytambo, and of course here at Machu Picchu. The building style is characterized by exquisitely cut masonry, placed together completely without mortar. The raw material was granite, worked by stone and sand into irregular shapes that fit together like a gigantic puzzle. Some stones have as many as thirty facets worked into the surface, and as a result, the faces of the stone fit together so tightly that a needle won't fit between them. 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

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

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Amelia Earhart's Fate Dec 30th 2011, 11:00 The records ended in early 1942, with the bones being held for government by Hoodless. Needless to say, we immediately launched a search for them, with the aid of the Fiji Museum. At this writing, we’ve not located either the bones or the shoe, bottle, and sextant box. And a comparison of Gallagher’s description of the sextant box with such boxes in historical collections around the world has produced only one with similar features. Interestingly, however, that one--now in the Museum of Naval Aviation in Pensacola, Florida--belonged to Fred Noonan. If we can’t find the bones in Fiji, we thought, perhaps we can find some on Nikumaroro. Unfortunately, Gallagher left no map--or at least we haven’t found one--showing where on the southeast end of the island the bones were discovered. But the Seven Site is near the southeast end, and we began to wonder about those colonial-era artifacts on it, and the water tank, and a hole in the ground. Did the debris represent stuff left during Gallagher’s search? Had the tank been set up to supply the searchers? Gallagher had written that the original discoverers of the skull had buried it, and he was poised to excavate it. Did the hole in the ground represent where the skull had been buried, and then dug up? Might there be teeth--excellent reservoirs of mitochondrial DNA, left in the hole? So in 2001 we attacked the Seven Site, clearing a lot of Scaevola and very, very carefully re-excavating the hole. We found no teeth, but nearby we did find a whole series of locations where there had been fires, associated with Frigate Bird, reef fish, and Green Sea Turtle bones. And we found some clusters of giant clam (Tridacna) shells, and a few artifacts. It’s clear that someone spent time at the Seven Site cooking birds, fish, and at least one sea turtle. Someone also hauled at least thirty or forty Tridacna clams up to the site, probably from nearby clam beds, and opened some of them in odd ways. Island people typically sneak up on giant clams while they’re sitting with their shells open, siphoning microscopic food particles out of the water, and quickly slice the adductor muscle that allows them to close their shells. With the clam immobilized, the harvester can then cut out the meat or safely bring the open shell ashore with the meat aboard. The clams at the Seven Site, however, had been brought ashore closed, and then someone had tried to pry some of them open by jamming a sharp piece of metal (which we found) through the hinge. When this didn’t work, they’d taken the clam in one hand and used the other to smash it open with a coral rock. The way you open an oyster in the eastern U.S. is by jamming an implement through the hinge. Was whoever tried to open Tridacna at the Seven Site more familiar with eastern U.S. oysters than with giant Pacific clams? Most of the artifacts found so far at the Seven Site are probably of colonial origin, or associated with the Coast Guard (M-1 rounds, for example), but a few may be something else. There's the little metal implement that someone tried to use to open the clams--a pointed chunk of ferrous metal, perhaps a piece of a hatch from the Norwich City, a 1929 shipwreck that lies on the reef off the northwest end of the island. There are three pieces of glass--one piece of plate glass, one fragment of a drinking glass, one fragment of a fishing float--found together in a cluster, as though they’d been in a bag or pocket, perhaps picked up on the beach and held for use in cutting things. There are two littleâ€"things--made of aluminum, punctured with wood screws, with scalloped edges. They look like perhaps clips of some kind, but several other uses have been suggested, and we really just don’t know. And there’s a lot of corrugated iron that someone spread over much of the site at some time in the past--all reduced to rust now. What on earth, we wonder, is that all about? Ric Gillespie speculates that whoever camped there dragged it in to catch water; I think he’s nuts, and speculate that Gallagher had it brought in to cover up the area he inspected to impede vegetation growth. We estimate that we cleared and inspected only perhaps twenty percent of the Seven Site in 2001. We found five fire areas, and excavated only three of them. We need to do more work at the site, and until we do, we’re reserving judgment, but it certainly looks like we may have found the site where Gallagher and the colonists found the bones--a place near the southeast end of the island, associated with fire, bird, and turtle bones. Perhaps--just perhaps--more archaeology at the site will tell us whether the human bones were Earhart’s.

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Archaeology: What's Hot Now: Mapungubwe (South Africa)

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Mapungubwe (South Africa) Dec 30th 2011, 11:00 Mapungubwe is an African Middle to Later Iron Age site (AD 900-1300), located in the Mapungubwe National Park, in the Shashe-Limpopo river basin, Limpopo province of South Africa, adjacent to both Zimbabwe and Botswana. A stratified population is in evidence at the site, with elites residing at the top of the sandstone outcrop on Mapungubwe Hill, and non-elites living on the southern terrace at its base. Mapungubwe was the center of a polity, referred to in the literature as the Mapungubwe Landscape, with a religious leader based at Mapungubwe Hill and a sphere of influence extending to the Kalahari desert and the east coast. Settlements that were part of the Mapungubwe Landscape include Mtanye, Mutshilachokwe, Princess Hill, Skutwater, Weipe, Little Muck and Mmamgwa Hill. The economy was based on herding domesticated cattle; pearl millet, peas and sorghum agriculture; and participation in the vast Indian Ocean trade network. About 5,000 people lived at Mapungubwe at its height ca 1250 AD. Chronology at Mapungubwe AD 350-450, first occupation AD 450-900, Early Iron Age (mostly a hiatus at the site) AD 900-1000 Zhizo Phase or M1 Phase AD 1000-1220 Leopard's Kopje/K2 Phase or M2, seat of regional power at K2 Village AD 1220-1290 Eiland/Mapungubwe Phase or M3, power at Mapungubwe AD 1290-15th century AD power shifts to Great Zimbabwe, some evidence of occupation continues Gold Graves Approximately 27 graves have been identified on the top of the hill. Three of them were looted by the original discoverers, although the majority of the objects were eventually recovered. The "chief's grave" or "original gold grave" was reportedly covered by large square possibly polished stones. Based on minimal bone fragments recovered from the looted site, this individual was a young adult, perhaps 25-45 years of age. Artifacts recovered from the shallow grave included gold funerary objects including a sculpture of a gold rhinoceros and a gold bowl, and thousands of glass and gold beads and bangles, and a few ceramic pots. The "sceptre skeleton" was a young adult man, buried in a sitting position with a gold sceptre and a second, fragmented gold rhinoceros sculpture. The "gold skeleton" is of an older individual, buried with more than 100 bangles of coiled gold wire and about 12,000 gold beads. Living at Mapungubwe Mapungubwe contains some of the earliest known evidence for gold, bronze and brass casting in Africa. Among iron wares produced at the site are delicate iron wires, fabricated using the 'strip-twisting technique', also used in decorating pendants. Small copper funnels and conical tubes were made at the site, and scholars believe they were part of the wire manufacturing process. Trade goods made at Mapungubwe included glass beads and cloth; a significant Mapungubwe-based trade in salt, hides, ivory and ostrich eggshell beads is in evidence along the eastern coast. Chinese celadon ceramics dated to the Song (1127-1279 AD), Yuan (1279-1368 AD) or early Ming (1368-1644 AD) dynasties of China were recovered from the site. Over 100,000 glass beads were eventually identified at Mapungubwe, a quarter of which were recovered from one burial. Mapungubwe's bead assemblage included "Dutch Dogons" made in Germany, hexagonal beads from Czechoslovakia, Indo-Pacific beads from India and Sri Lanka, Islamic beads from al-Fustat, and Venetian glass beads: all of these attest to the breadth of the trade system connecting Mapungubwe to the rest of the world. Archaeology at Mapungubwe Mapungubwe was "rediscovered" in 1932 by a farmer/student who heard rumors about the site and forced a local man to take him to the hill, where an abundance of gold, pottery and beads was identified in the midst of stone architecture. First excavated by Leo Fouché of the University of Pretoria in 1933, and again several times over the succeeding decades, Mapungubwe has been systematically studied by a raft of archaeologists including Robinson, Summers, Whitty, Garlake and Huffman. UNESCO named Mapungubwe a World Heritage Site in 2003. Archaeologist Rachel King (2011) recently discussed the role of the African game of mufuvha at Mapungubwe, and how it is used to enrich the social and political heritage of Mapungubwe. A board where the game could be played was carved into the sandstone within the main complex of Mapungubwe Hill. Mufuvha, or a version of it, is known throughout the subcontinent of Africa and parts of east and west Africa as well. Historically, the game of mufuvha is played only by men, and traditionally it is associated with gambling and herding or stealing cattle. Although the rules vary from place to place, it always involves capturing pieces to win. Reanalysis of beads and celadon pottery found at Mapungubwe and the related site of K2 (Prinsloo et al.) suggests that some of them date to the early Ming Dynasty, suggesting that Mapungubwe cannot have been abandoned until the 14th or early 15th centuries AD, opening up the possibility that these reflect contact via the travels of the Chinese explorer Zheng He. Support for the latter dating by Prinsloo and colleagues is found in a recent article (Zink et al.) describing OSL dating of the pottery recovered from Mapungubwe, which also date "too late" for traditional reports of the abandonment from 1290 to well into the 14th or early 15th centuries. Sources This glossary entry is a part of the guide to African Iron Age, and the Dictionary of Archaeology. Huffman TN. 2008. Climate change during the Iron Age in the Shashe-Limpopo Basin, southern Africa. Journal of Archaeological Science 35(7):2032-2047. Huffman TN. 2009. Mapungubwe and Great Zimbabwe: The origin and spread of social complexity in southern Africa. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 28(1):37-54. King R. 2011. Archaeological naissance at Mapungubwe. Journal of Social Archaeology 11(3):311-333. Koleini F, Schoeman MHA, Pikirayi I, and Chirikure S. 2012. Evidence for indigenous strip-drawing in production of wire at Mapungubwe Hill (1220â€"1290 AD): towards an interdisciplinary approach. Journal of Archaeological Science 39(3):757-762. Mosothwane MN, and Steyn M. 2004. Palaeodemography of early Iron Age Toutswe communities in Botswana. The South African Archaeological Bulletin 59(180):45-51. Neukirch LP, Tarduno JA, Huffman TN, Watkeys MK, Scribner CA, and Cottrell RD. 2012. An archeomagnetic analysis of burnt grain bin floors from ca. 1200 to 1250 AD Iron-Age South Africa. Physics of the Earth and Planetary Interiors 190-191(0):71-79. Prinsloo LC, Tournié A, and Colomban P. 2011. A Raman spectroscopic study of glass trade beads excavated at Mapungubwe hill and K2, two archaeological sites in southern Africa, raises questions about the last occupation date of the hill. Journal of Archaeological Science 38(12):3264-3277. Robertshaw P, Wood M, Melchiorre E, Popelka-Filcoff RS, and Glascock MD. 2010. Southern African glass beads: chemistry, glass sources and patterns of trade. Journal of Archaeological Science 37(8):1898-1912. Steyn M. 2007. The Mapungubwe Gold Graves Revisited. The South African Archaeological Bulletin 62(186):140-146. Zink AJC, Susino GJ, Porto E, and Huffman TN. in press. Direct OSL dating of Iron Age pottery from South Africa â€" Preliminary dosimetry investigations. Quaternary Geochronology in press.

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Archaeology: What's Hot Now: Goats

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Goats Dec 30th 2011, 11:00 Domestic goats (Capra hircus) were among the first domesticated animals, adapted from the wild version Capra aegargus. Archaeological data suggest two distinct places of domestication: the Euphrates river valley at Nevali Çori, Turkey (11,000 years ago), and the Zagros Mountains of Iran at Ganj Dareh (10,000 years ago). Domestication of the Goat, more details and sources History of Farming Table of Animal Domestications How do we know an animal from an archaeological site is domesticated?

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

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Ancient Quipu Found at Caral Dec 30th 2011, 11:00 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.

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Archaeology: What's Hot Now: Horticulture

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Horticulture Dec 29th 2011, 11:00 Definition: Horticulture is a process by which a plot of soil is prepared for the planting of seeds, tubers, or cuttings. It is tended to control competition from intrusive plants (weeds), and protected from predatory animals including humans. The crop is harvested, processed, and usually stored in specialized containers or structures. Some produce, often significant a quantity, is eaten during the growing season, but an important element is having the wherewithal to store food for future consumption, trade or ceremonies. Sharing food remains a crucial element of many, if not most, human ceremonies. Horticulture and Gardening A garden, being a more or less permanent location, forces those who tend and harvest the garden to settle down in its vicinity. Garden produce has value, so a group of humans must cooperate to the extent that they can protect themselves and their produce from those who would rather steal it. It is telling that many of the earliest horticulturalists also lived in fortified communities. There is safety in numbers, and there is safety in walls. The notion of "peaceful horticulturalists" is a myth of wishful thinking. Settling down in a community does not lead to gardening -- gardening leads to settling down in communities. You can't take it with you. Michael Scullin, ethnohorticulturalist This glossary entry is a part of the Guide to Ancient Farming and part of the Dictionary of Archaeology. Also Known As: Gardening

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Archaeology: What's Hot Now: Jericho (Palestine)

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Jericho (Palestine) Dec 29th 2011, 11:00 Jericho (also called Tell es-Sultan) is the name of a tell situated on an ancient lake bed plain in what is known as the West Bank, Palestine. The oval tell has between 8 and 12 meters of occupation fill, and it covers an area of about 2.5 hectares. The city that the tell represents is one of oldest continuously occupied (more or less) locations on the planet. The most widely known occupation at Jericho is of course, the Judeo-Christian Bronze Age one--Jericho is mentioned in both old and new testaments of the bible. However, the oldest occupations at Jericho in fact much earlier than that, dating to the Natufian period (ca. 10,500-9,300 years before the present), and it has a substantial Pre-Pottery Neolithic (8300-7300 BC) occupation as well. Jericho's reputation in the bible has a strong association with towers and walls--and with good reason. The first walls at Jericho were built during the Pre-Pottery Neolithic A (PPNA) period, indicating that violence and conflict were important parts of Jericho's history for a very long time. Another important feature of Jericho is plastered skulls, human skulls on which faces have been modeled in plaster and then buried buried beneath floor houses. Plastered skulls are a known trait from PPNB sites, such as Kfar HaHoresh, Beidha, Çatalhöyük and Beisamoun, and similar eerie statuary at 'Ain Ghazal. Jericho Chronology Natufian (10,800-8,500 BC), sedentary hunter-gatherers in large semi-subterranean oval stone structures Pre-Pottery Neolithic A (8,500-7300 BC), roofed, oval semi-subterranean dwellings in a village, engaging in long distance trade and growing domesticated crops, construction of the first tower (4 meters tall), and a defensive perimeter wall Pre-Pottery Neolithic B (7300-6000 BC), rectangular houses with red- and white-painted floors, with caches of plastered human skulls Early Neolithic (6000-5000 BC) Jericho was mostly abandoned during this time Middle/Late Neolithic (5000-3100 BC), very minimal occupation Early / Middle Bronze Age (3100-1800 BC) (extensive defensive walls constructed, rectangular towers 15-20 meters long and 6-8 meters tall and extensive cemeteries Late Bronze Age (1800-1400 BC), Jericho destroyed After the Late Bronze Age, Jericho was no longer much of a center, but continued to be occupied on a small scale, and ruled by Babylonians, Persian Empire, Roman Empire, Byzantine and Ottoman Empire, on and on until the present day Jericho and Archaeology Jericho was recognized as the biblical site a very long time ago indeed, with comments from the "Pilgrim of Bordeaux" in AD 333. Among the archaeologists who have worked at Jericho are Carl Watzinger, Ernst Sellin, Kathleen Kenyon and John Garstang. Sources This glossary entry is a part of the Guides to the Pre-Pottery Neolithic, and Biblical Archaeology, as well as part of the Dictionary of Archaeology. Any mistakes are the responsibility of Kris Hirst. Barlett, John R. 1982. Sites of the Biblical World: Jericho. Lutterworth Press, Surrey, England. Blau, Soren 2006 An Analysis of Human Skeletal Remains from two Middle Bronze Age Tombs from Jericho. Palestine Exploration Quarterly 138(1):13-26. Broshi, Magen 2007 Date Beer and Date Wine in Antiquity. Palestine Exploration Quarterly 139(1):55-59. Fletcher, Alexandra, Jessica Pearson, and Janet Ambers 2008 The Manipulation of Social and Physical Identity in the Pre-Pottery Neolithic: Radiographic Evidence for Cranial Modification at Jericho and its Implications for the Plastering of Skulls. Cambridge Archaeological Journal 18(3):309â€"325. Goren, Yuval, A. N. Goring-Morris, and Irena Segal 2001 The technology of skull modelling in the Pre-Pottery Neolithic B (PPNB): Regional variability, the relation of technology and iconography and their archaeological implications. Journal of Archaeological Science 28:671-690. Naveh, Danny 2003 PPNA Jericho: a Socio-political Perspective. Cambridge Archaeological Journal 13:83-96.

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Archaeology: What's Hot Now: Hibabiya (Jordan)

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Hibabiya (Jordan) Dec 29th 2011, 11:00 Hibabiya (sometimes spelled Habeiba) is the name of the ruins of an early Islamic village, which was located atop the basalt bedrock outcrop immediately adjacent to the Qa Hibabiya mudflat at the fringe of the northeastern desert in what is today Jordan. Pottery collected from the site during its earliest investigations dates to the Late Byzantine-Umayyad [AD 661-750] and/or Abbasid [AD 750-1250] periods of the Islamic Civilization. The site was largely destroyed by a large quarrying operation in 2008: but examination of documents and artifact collections created in a handful of investigations in the 20th century has allowed scholars to redate the site and place it in context with the newly burgeoning study of Islamic history. A report of the site appeared in the journal Arabian Archaeology and Epigraphy in 2011 (Kennedy 2011). Architecture at Hibabiya The earliest publication of the site (Rees 1929) describes it as a fishing village with several rectangular houses, and a series of fishtraps jutting into the mudflat. Additional analysis of aerial photos taken then and in the 1950s indicates there were at least 30 individual houses scattered along the edge of the mudflat for a length of some 750 meters (2460 feet), most with between two to six rooms. Several of the houses included interior courtyards, and a few of those were very large, the largest of which measured approximately 40x50 m (130x165 ft). Henry Field, who visited the site in the 1920s, argued that the largest structure was possibly a Roman (or Byzantine) fort. Investigating Hibabiya Hibabiya was discovered in 1921 by Royal Air Force pilots flying on a new airmail route across the northeastern desert of Jordan and Iraq. In 1929, Group Captain L.W.B. Rees published an article on the sites the RAF had identified in their flyovers in one of the first issues of the journal Antiquity, which included an aerial photograph of Hibabiya. The site was visited by archaeologist Henry Field in 1927 and 1928; OGS Crawford published his analysis of the site's pottery in the 1930s. A.N. Garrard and N.P. Stanley-Price investigated the site during a survey of sites in the region in the 1970s, but intensive investigations at the site itself (or in the region for that matter) were not performed. Most of the site of Hibabiya was destroyed by an immense rock quarry and archaeological evidence of all but one of the structures is gone. Investigations of the collected artifacts and historical photographs were conducted by a group from the University of Western Australia, led by David Kennedy. Kennedy reassessed the interpretation of the site as a "fishing village". He identified what Rees called "fish-traps" as walled gardens, which were built to exploit annual flooding events as irrigation. The location between the Azraq Oasis and the Umayyad/Abbasid site of Qasr el-Hallabat suggested to Kennedy that the site location was probably on a migration route used by nomadic pastoralists. Kennedy argues that Hibabiya was likely a village that was seasonally populated by pastoralists, who took advantage of the grazing opportunities and opportunistic farming possibilities on annual migrations. Numerous desert kites have been identified in the region, lending support to this hypothesis. The Roman fort hypothesis is possible, says Kennedy: the favorable location of Hibabiya might have enticed the Romans (or more properly, Byzantine, ca 4th-7th centuries AD) to set up a fort here; but it was not the focal point of the village, which would have developed well after the Romans had left. Sources This glossary entry is a part of the guide to Islamic Civilization, and the Dictionary of Archaeology. Kennedy D. 2011. Recovering the past from above Hibabiya â€" an Early Islamic village in the Jordanian desert? Arabian Archaeology and Epigraphy 22(2):253-260. Kennedy D. 2011. The "Works of the Old Men" in Arabia: remote sensing in interior Arabia. Journal of Archaeological Science 38(12):3185-3203. Rees LWB. 1929. The Transjordan Desert. Antiquity 3(12):389-407.

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Archaeology: Recumbent Stone Circles

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Recumbent Stone Circles Dec 28th 2011, 11:06 While I was updating my article on solstice photos of Stonehenge, I ran across a handful of articles about an interesting subset of megalithic monuments called recumbent stone circles (or RSC for short). Old Keig, Aberdeenshire, Scotland. Photo by Stu Smith Scholars investigating the thousands of stone circles and megalithic monuments in Europe noticed a recurring pattern restricted to two areas: northeastern Scotland and southwestern Ireland. The pattern involves a large flat rectangular block, each end marked by a pillar stone. Researchers interpret this specific alignment as associated with Late Neolithic/Early Bronze Age (ca 2,500-1500 BC) ritual ceremonies involved with tracking the movement of the moon in the sky. Recent excavations during this last decade have revealed that, like most other megalithic monuments, recumbent stone circles (abbreviated RSC) were a later stage in what was centuries or millennia long periods of building and rebuilding. Read more about Recumbent Stone Circles More on the variety of Types of Megalithic Monuments identified to date

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Archaeology: Most Popular Articles: Discovery of Fire

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Discovery of Fire Dec 28th 2011, 11:12 The discovery of fire, or, more precisely, the controlled use of fire was, of necessity, one of the earliest of human discoveries. Fire's purposes are multiple, some of which are to add light and heat, to cook plants and animals, to clear forests for planting, to heat-treat stone for making stone tools, to burn clay for ceramic objects. Discovery of Fire The controlled use of fire was an invention of the Early Stone Age (or Lower Paleolithic). The earliest evidence for controlled use of fire is at the Lower Paleolithic site of Gesher Benot Ya'aqov in Israel, where charred wood and seeds were recovered from a site dated 790,000 years ago. Not everybody believes that; the next oldest site is at Zhoukoudian, a Lower Paleolithic site in China dated to about 400,000 BP, and at Qesem Cave (Israel), between about 200,000-400,000 years ago. In a paper published in Nature in March 2011, Roebroeks and Villa report their examinations of the available data for European sites and conclude that habitual use of fire wasn't part of the human (meaning early modern and Neanderthal both) suite of behaviors until ca. 300,000 to 400,000 years ago. They argue that the earlier sites are representative of opportunistic use of natural fires. Read more about Roebroeks and Villa's findings Hearth Fire Construction As opposed to fire, a hearth is a deliberately constructed fireplace. The earliest fireplaces were made by collecting stones to contain the fire, or simply reusing the same location again and again and allowing the ash to act as hearth construct. Those are found in the Middle Paleolithic period (ca 200,000-40,000 years ago, at sites such as Klasies River Caves (South Africa, 125,000 years ago) and Tabun Cave (at Mt. Carmel, Israel) Earth ovens, on the other hand, are hearths with banked and sometimes domed structures built of clay. These types of hearths were first used during the Upper Paleolithic (ca 40,000-20,000 years BP), for cooking, heating and, sometimes, to burn clay figurines to hardness. The Gravettian Dolni Vestonice site in the modern Czech Republic has evidence of kiln construction, although construction details did not survive. The best information on Upper Paleolithic kilns is from the Aurignacian deposits of Klisoura Cave in Greece (ca 32,000-34,000 years ago). Fuels Although relict wood may have been the original fuel, other sources became important in various places with limited wood supply. In places with scarce wood resources, timber and branch wood for structures, furnishing and tools would have cut back the amount used for fuel. If wood was not available, alternative fuels such as peat, cut turf, animal dung, animal bone, seaweed, and straw and hay. Techniques for discriminating fuel from ashy remains are outlined in the Church et al. paper listed below. But of course, everyone knows that Prometheus stole fire from the gods, the Greek myth as reported by our Ancient History guide. Sources This definition is part of the Guide to the Lower Paleolithic. More information on the clay hearths is available at the Klisoura Cave glossary entry. Church, M. J., C. Peters, and C. M. Batt 2007 Sourcing Fire Ash on Archaeological Sites in the Western and Northern Isles of Scotland, Using Mineral Magnetism. Geoarchaeology 22(7):747-774. Goudsblom, J. 2004 Fire, human use, and consequences. In International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences. Neil J. Smelser and Paul B. Baltes, eds. Pp. 5672-5676. London: Elsevier. Goren-Inbar, Naama, et al. 2004 Evidence of Hominin Control of Fire at Gesher Benot Ya'aqov, Israel. Science 304(5671):725-727. Karkanas, P., et al. The earliest evidence for clay hearths: Aurignacian features in Klisoura Cave 1, southern Greece. Antiquity 78(301):513-525. Karkanas, Panagiotis, et al. 2007 Evidence for habitual use of fire at the end of the Lower Paleolithic: Site-formation processes at Qesem Cave, Israel. Journal of Human Evolution 53(2):197-212. Roebroeks W, and Villa P. 2011. On the earliest evidence for habitual use of fire in Europe. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Early Edition:1-6.

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