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ARCA1000
Week 2
I am a destroyer of the past:
practicing archaeology

Peter Hiscock
Tom Austen Brown Professor
of Australian Archaeology

School of Philosophical and Historical Inquiry

For a quarter of a century I

have been an archaeologist,
a destroyer of the past, and
for nine or ten active years a
gunner, helping a little, I
suppose, to build the future
on good constructive highexplosive.
Sir Mortimer Wheeler 1958
Still Digging. Adventures in
Archaeology.

Mortimer Wheeler
Sir Robert Eric Mortimer
Wheeler (1890-1975)
He took up the positions of
Keeper of Archaeology in the
National Museum of Wales
and Lecturer in the University
of South Wales in 1920.
As brigadier-general of an
artillery unit in Africa Wheeler
possessed regimentation and
organization.

For a quarter of a century I have been an archaeologist, a

destroyer of the past
1.Where possible employ noninvasive data collection.
2. Where excavation cannot be
avoided there is a moral
obligation to dig carefully and
record thoroughly, because it is
the only chance we have to
obtain that information.
3. A portion of the deposit is often
left intact, for future investigations
when archaeological methods
may be better than those
available to us now.

Reconstructions can be sound when they

involve:
Accurate observation of preserved materials.
Basing all interpretations on recovered
material, grounded in empirical evidence.
Cross-checking multiple strands of evidence
to
evaluate
the
likelihood
of
the
interpretations.
Detailed
investigations
processes.

of

formation

Evaluating the limits of reasonable inference.

Facilitating the scrutiny of other scientists by

publishing the evidence on which all
interpretations are based.

It is only after consideration of the evidence that we should

accept reconstructions of the past that are developed from
excavations.
What is important in evaluating
reconstructions is the link
between
the
evidence
obtained in excavation and
inference
made
by
the
excavator
or
subsequent
researchers.
Modern archaeological research:
follows well developed protocols known to be effective.
is continually reassessed by archaeologists examining the
conclusions from previous fieldwork, looking for other, better
interpretations

Differential preservation involves some components of a body

being well preserved in one microenvironment but not in
another.
Desiccation of Egyptian
mummies often conserved
skin and bone in lifelike
states
but the high water content
of internal organs meant
these
could
not
be
preserved and were often
removed and/or discarded.

Differential preservation involves some components of a body

being well preserved in one microenvironment but not in
another.
Cold, anaerobic and acidic
waterlogged
deposits
preserved the skin and
internal organs of bog
bodies

but the bones were

softened and distorted.

John Hartnell,
buried 1844.

Extreme cold, below 4oC, limits bacterial activity,

prevents putrefaction, and can create sublimation.

Hot and dry conditions can desiccate flesh.

But preservation
scavengers.

also

requires

protection

against

Information about soft body

parts can be preserved in very
early archaeological contexts,
even when tissue has decayed.

Mary
Leakeys
famous
Laetoli footprints. Dated to
3.6 million years ago they
were
made
by
three
individuals of the species
Australopithecus afarensis.

Studying bone weathering

Anna K. Behrensmeyer

Research Paleobiologist at
the Smithsonian Institution.

Behrensmeyer recorded the

bones of dead animals at regular
intervals, recording how the bone
changed.

Behrensmeyer constructed a
classification of bone weathering,
with six categories.
0 = unweathered (surfaces
intact with no surface cracking)

to
5 = most weathered (large
areas of fibrous bone exposed)

Actualistic study
Actualism is the methodology
of inferring the nature of past
events by analogy with
processes
observable
in
action at the present.
Archaeological interpretations
are based not only on the
archaeological objects

but also on an understanding

how processes work today.

Archaeologists acquire knowledge by a three-step process:

1. Experiment and observation of contemporary processes,
2. Observation of and reflection on the patterns of
archaeological material, and
3. Comparison of contemporary and archaeological patterns.

Anne Vincent:

Studied the consumption of

wild tubers by the Hadza, in
northern Tanzania.

The Hadza hunt game

and gather edible plants
from the dry savannah
where they live near Lake
Eyasi.

Vincent then carried out a vegetation survey in Lake Manyara

National Park to characterise phytoliths found in tubers.

Phytoliths are plant microfossils composed of silica

preserved in the soil and on the edge of stone tools.

Archaeologists often have to do actualistic studies to

develop the relevant principles.

Archaeologists often have to do actualistic studies to

develop the relevant principles.

One kind of actualistic study

called experimental archaeology
attempts to replicate and use
objects.

Another kind is ethnoarchaeology

where
the
archaeologist
undertakes fieldwork with other
cultures to observe how an
archaeological record is created.

Brian Hayden spent more than

a year with Pitjantjatjarpa.
He concluded:
Stone adzes must be
resharpened every 4-5
minutes and are exhausted
within half an hour.

It takes 1-2 such adzes to

make a hardwood spear or
a wooden bowl.

Uniformitarianism
Uniformitarianism is the adherence to a view advocating
uniformity.
There are two kinds of uniformitarianism:
Substantive Uniformitarianism, which says the world
remains unchanged from earlier times and that the rate
and intensity of processes creating change have
remained the same.
Methodological Principle of Uniformitarianism, which
says the laws of physics, chemistry, geology, biology
have remained the same through time.

Methodological uniformitarianism can be viewed

as telling archaeologists how they must behave
as scientists.

Cave Trampling
Shaws Creek Shelter is a small cavity underneath a
sandstone block in western Sydney.

In the early 1970's Eugene

Stockton, a local catholic priest,
excavated the site.

He designed an
experiment to
understand how
the deposit had
formed.

Stockton and his crew

smashed up red glass and
laid 254 glass fragments on
the surface of the deposit.
Stockton's team then walked
across the surface of the
deposit for one day.
Archaeologists
call
this
'trampling' of the cave floor

They excavated the deposit

in 2-3 cm deep units.

What did they find?

26% of specimens were still on the surface where

they had been placed.
52% of specimens had moved upward into the sand
that had buried the surface.
22% of specimens had moved down into the deposit
below the surface on which the glass fragments were
laid out.

Treadage is the action of a foot pushing

down on the deposit, causing objects
within the deposit to migrate downwards.

Scuffage is the horizontal and upward

motion of the foot in sand causing
objects in front of the foot to migrate
upwards.

These are mechanisms causing vertical

movement of archaeological objects.

Archaeologists can measure how much vertical movement

there has been in a deposit.
We piece together fragments
of an object that was broken
in antiquity. Archaeologists
call this conjoining.

These
fragments
were
probably discarded at the
same time, so we would
expect to find them at the
same level in an undisturbed
deposit.

PRESERVATION OF CLARITY
For archaeologists clarity is the ability to separate
different events that happen in the past.
When material
from different
time periods is
mixed together
we call that a
palimpsest.
Minimal
Temporal Unit
(MTU)

Other factors:
Rapid sediment accumulation buries the occupation from
different periods and keeps it separate. Slow
sedimentation produces a mixed assemblage.
Vertical movement of objects within a deposit causes
mixed assemblages.
Nomadic people stay only a short time, and leave debris
which represents a narrow time span.

The methods of archaeology enable

archaeologists to develop interpretations of
the complex events that have shaped the
archaeological record.

HOW CAN ARCHAEOLOGISTS PROCEEED?

The Sinking of great Stones through the Action of

Worms. - When a stone of large size and of irregular
shape is left on the surface of the ground, it rests, of
course, on the more protuberant parts; but worms
soon fill up with their castings all the hollow spaces
on the lower side; for as Hensen remarks, they like
the shelter of stones. As soon as the hollows are filled
up, the worms eject the earth which they have
swallowed beyond the circumference of the stones;
and thus the surface of the ground is raised all round
the stone. As the burrows excavated directly beneath
the stone after a time collapse, the stone sinks a little.
Charles Darwin The Formation of vegetable mould through the
action of worms, with observations of their habits.

In the 1850s and 1860s Charles

Darwin was trying to explain how,
and at what rate, large rocks
would sink below the ground
surface:

As soon as the hollows are filled

up, the worms eject the earth
which they have swallowed
beyond the circumference of the
stones; and thus the surface of the
ground is raised all round the
stone. As the burrows excavated
directly beneath the stone after a
time collapse, the stone sinks a
little.
Charles Darwin The Formation of
vegetable mould through the action of worms,
with observations of their habits.

Darwin excavated buried rocks at Stonehenge and estimated

how much time had elapsed since the rocks had first fallen.

Darwin excavated buried rocks at

Stonehenge and estimated how much time
had elapsed since the rocks had first fallen.

The position of seemingly immovable

objects had changed.

Archaeological objects cannot be treated as

though they were just abandoned and still
intact.

'Pompeii premise', a
term invented by Robert
Ascher, describes the
view
that
many
archaeological sites had
been created:

by a single group of
people carrying out
activities in a single day

'Pompeii premise', a
term invented by Robert
Ascher, describes the
view
that
many
archaeological sites had
been created:

by a single group of
people
carrying
out
activities in a single day
and these objects had
been buried rapidly and
preserved until recovered
by archaeologists

Archaeological record is a distorted version of past

events:
pots that were used are
broken

Archaeological record is a distorted version of past

events:
pots that were used are
broken
buildings burnt
and collapsed

Archaeological record is a distorted version of past

events:
* pots that were used are
broken
* buildings burnt and
collapsed
* food eaten and only
scraps remain

Site formation processes = study all the distorting changes

that have altered the archaeological material
Taphonomy = the processes operating on organic
remains after death and which results in fossil deposits

Australopithecus is a genus of extinct hominid.

Australopithecus was recognised
in 1924 by Raymond Dart who
was given the fossil skull of a
hominid child found at Taung.

Australopithecus africanus, the "southern ape of Africa"

Dart posed the question: what is the connection between

the bones of Australopithecus africanus and the bones of
other animals found in the same caves. In 1929 he said:
Examination of the bone deposit at Taungs
shows that it contains the remains of thousands
of bone fragments. It is a cavern lair or kitchenmidden heap of a carnivorous beast. The
bones are chiefly those of small animals like
baboons, bok, tortoises, rodents, bats and
birds. Egg shells and crab shells have also
been found The deposit was, therefore,
formed by primitive man or by Australopithecus,
an advanced ape with human carnivorous
habits.

In 1929 Dart thought that after Australopithecus had

finished their meals they had used their bones, teeth
and horns as weapons to kill further animals.

man's
predecessors
differed from living apes
in being confirmed killers:
carnivorous
creatures,
that seized living quarries
by violence, battered
them to death, tore apart
their
broken
bodies,
dismembered them limb
from limb, slaking their
ravenous thirst with the
hot blood of victims and
greedily devouring livid
writhing flesh.

Dart also concluded Australopithecines were head

hunters because the bodies of baboons were only
represented by crania.

Did this mean humans

evolved from ancestors
who achieved dominance
and evolutionary success
through
their
violent
behaviour?

BUT what about site formation processes?

Leopards often target medium
to large game, such as
baboons.
When eating baboons cheetahs
and leopards will destroy much
of the backbone, hands and
feet.
Leopards often drag prey into
inaccessible places such as tall
trees to prevent them being
stolen by hyenas.

Leopards and leopard-like animals were present at South

African sites such as Sterkfontein and Swartkrans

Were leopards the agent accumulating bones?

Leopards appear to have
been
the
animals
hunting the antelope and
baboons.

Swartkran was a deep

cavity that filled up as
material dropped down
shafts.

What is the role of Australopithecus?

Perhaps Australopithecines
were not brave hunters
but just another prey of
Leopards
Australopithecus individuals
are represented by the
same
body
parts
as
baboons.

Leopard teeth marks

are found on the skulls
of
Australopithecus
individuals.

Australopithecines
were not the hunters,
but the hunted.

Reconstructing the site

formation
of
an
archaeological
site
requires
tracing the evidential
trail back as in a
forensic investigation.
Sherlock
this was

Holmes

said

"reasoning backward,
or analytically".

Here how:

* work back through the distortions

* quantify each distorting factor
* calculate the original composition of the assemblage

A major framework for reconstructing the past is what

Michael Schiffer has called the Synthetic Model.

Objects can exist in two states:

Systemic context when items are

participating in an ongoing
behavioural system.

Archaeological context when they

leave the functioning human
system and are deposited.

Three properties of material in the archaeological record:

Correlates = Principles used to relate human
activities to the archaeological objects.

C-Transforms = Principles used to describe the nature

of object loss from the cultural system and the postdepositional changes that result from cultural activities.
N-Transforms = Principles used by archaeologists to
describe the post-depositional changes in the record
that result from non-cultural processes.

Inferences move
upward from the
base
of
the
pyramid.

Stipulations adapt
the principles to
specific situations.

The width of the

graph
represents
the amounts of
information that is
available.

To reconstruct the original form of archaeological

material it is necessary to do three things:
* describe the range of site formation processes,

* arrange those processes in the order in which they

occurred, and
* calculate the extent to which those processes have
altered the record.

In 1940 the Russian Ivan Efremov invented the study of:

Taphonomy

Taphonomy = "the laws of burial"

the study of the transition

(in all its details) of the animal
remains from the biosphere
into the lithosphere.

Olduvai Gorge

Archaeological sites contain patches of artefacts and bones

distributed over a small area.
These were seen as the locations of hominid activity as
living floors.

Glynn Isaac (1937-1985)

founded the Koobi Fora
research
project
in
Kenya.
He taught at University
of California, Berkeley
and Harvard.

He suggested that these

archaeological
sites
were
home
bases,
around
which
early
hominids organised their
foraging and social life.

Isaac thought of
these
sites
as
fossilised camps.
Early hominids who
had killed animals
somewhere
else
returned with the
meat to share it
with their family.

Isaac led some archaeologists to think of Australopithecus as

very like a modern hunter, reliably killing game and bringing
the meat home for the family, who relaxed on shady river and
lake-sides.

Olduvai Bed I has a number of sites, including FLKNN-3 and

FLK Zinj. These are concentrations Hominid bones, bones of
other animals and stone artefacts.

Bones were arranged in a criss-cross pattern with a preferred

orientation typical of a pattern produced by water.

Many bone fragments are rounded with broken edges, a

pattern consistent with water transport.

Olduvai assemblages at least 15-25% of bones show damage

diagnostic of non-human carnivores.
Perhaps carnivores brought bones to the site?

Alternatively, hominids may have brought the animal carcases

to the sites where they were scavenged by other animals.

We can compare a modern hyena den and these Olduvai

sites in terms of the frequency of Bovid bones.

Hill studied a
modern
hyena
den in Amboseli
National Park.

Bovid bones
Site

% Small

% Medium

% Large

Amboseli den

34

53

13

FLK Zinj

35

50

15

Tooth marks are usually visible as grooves and punctures,

either single or in pairs, with rounded or flattened crosssections.

At FLK Zinj carnivore tooth scratches are more numerous

than identifiable cut marks!

At FLKNN-3 most carnivore tooth marks are on

fresh bone, whereas hominid cut marks are found
on slightly weathered bone.

The carnivores seem to be at the site before

the hominids!

Never assume that only human behaviour

is represented in the record, that there
are no taphonomic transformations.

The End