by Michael G. Lamoureux, March/April 2009
Introduction
Today, with the recent advances in technology, theory, and methodology, a modern archaeologist has a significant number of data sources for reconstruction of the past. In addition to artifacts, which can be of the stone, bone, ceramic, wood, or metal variety; remains, of humans and the animals they killed or domesticated; and sites, which can contain temporary dwellings, religious structures, and even entire cities; a modern archaeologist can extract a significant amount of information from biological remains, coprolites, soil deposition, site features, and ecofacts. Using the broad array of data sources available to them, which can be collected from a variety of remote sensing methods, on-site excavations, and detailed laboratory analysis of artifacts, ecofacts, and data collected from the archaeological site, an archaeologist can reconstruct a significant amount of information about the day-to-day life, culture, and environment of the society being studied. With the right archaeological data, subsistence activities, diet, seasonal migration, prevailing environmental conditions, degree of technological advancement, religious beliefs, values, family structure, daily activities, societal organization, population dynamics, wealth distribution, and intra-societal trade can all be reconstructed.
A careful examination of an archaeological site, and the artifacts, coprolites, organic remains, and ecofacts it contains can tell us much about the daily subsistence activities of the society being studied. The data gathered from a site can help us distinguish between stationary and migratory societies, tell us whether the population were primarily hunters or farmers, and tell us their primary food sources.
Insight into Pre-historic Activities & Envionmental Conditions
The butchered carcass of a mammoth, and in some cases just the skeleton, from 20,000 years ago tells as a lot about prehistoric activities. The tools that were used to hunt the creature, the tools that were used to carve up the creature, and what parts of the creature were eaten can all be deduced from the impressions left in the carcass and bones using modern forensic techniques that have their foundations in archaeological research. And while repeated findings of mammoth skeletons lead us to conclude that prehistoric man was primarily a hunter, organic remains, such as those found in the stomach of Tollund Man who lived in 4th century BC, buried and preserved in a Danish peat bog, tell us that man, in pre-roman Iron Age Scandinavia, subsisted at least partly by farming as the remains were those of a porridge made from barley, linseed, and wild grasses.
A careful examination of an archaeological site, and the artifacts and ecofacts it contains, will also tell us much about the prevailing environmental conditions at the time the society occupied the site. A careful study will often yield enough data to indicate the average annual climate, the prevailing flora and fauna, the farmable crops, and the building materials available to the culture being studied.
We know that the prehistoric hunters of the West Russian planes had limited access to raw materials and lived in a cold climate because they lived in houses made of mammoth skins and bones. Similarly, we know that early African farmers also had a lack of building materials in lived in a hot, dry climate as they lived in pole-and-mud huts with thatched roofs.
We know that the Native Americans of the Tehuacan valley were farmers as far back as 7,000 years ago from a detailed study by Richard MacNeish, who dug more than a dozen open sites and caves in the Tehuacan valley. His methodical and in-depth excavations yielded more than 80,000 plant remains and 25,000 specimens of domestic corn. Upon identification and laboratory analysis, he was able to determine that 18% of the inhabitants' food came from cultivation of corn and other crops in 5,000 BC, and that this percentage increased to 33% by 3,400 BC.
We know that the natives of Northern Europe had ready access to large woodlands in 3,000 BC when they started farming en-masse due to the work of Danish botanist Johannes Iversen. A detailed analysis of Northern European peat bogs indicated a sharp drop in the amount of tree pollen in layers dating to 3,000 BC, which allowed him to concluded that farmers started clearing natural forests at this time to create farmland.
Not only can a well preserved archaeological site tell us about the climate, flora, fauna, and available building materials, but it can even tell us the time of year a certain event happened. For example, we know that the funeral of the Eighteenth dynasty Egyptian pharaoh Tutenkhamun, who ruled from 1333 BC to 1324 BC, took place in the spring by way of the bouquet of wildflowers laid on his inner coffin, exceptionally preserved by the dry climate of the Nile Valley.
Insight into Culture & Cultural Shifts
The sophistication of the artifacts and structures uncovered will indicate a lot about the culture being studied and the time period in which it thrived. Since the earliest known pottery has been dated to circa 10,000 BC, if we find pottery, we immediately know that the site is likely not older than 12,000 years (and probably more recent than that). Similarly, since cold-hammered metal artifacts only appeared in the archaeological record about 9,000 years ago, and since fired metal artifacts only started to appear in the archaeological record about 6,000 years, at the beginning of the copper age, the presence of a cold-hammered metal artifact indicates that the site is likely at most 9,000 years old and the presence of fired metal artifacts decreases the maximum age of the site to about 6,000 years, 5,000 years for bronze, and about 4,000 years for iron.
Similarly, the type of stone tool found allows us to differentiate between Paleolithic ("old stone") and Neolithic ("new stone"). Paleolithic stone tools were chipped stone tools formed from the fracturing or flaking of stone from repeated striking from a hammerstone or against a fixed stone. Ground stone tools, usually made by pecking and grinding against abrasives such as sandstone, did not appear until the Neolithic period. Thus, while a chipped stone tool might have been made in the Neolithic age by a less advanced culture, we know that the presence of a ground stone tool indicates the site cannot be Paleolithic.
Insight into Technology & Technological Development
In addition to the presence of tools, and the material used in the tool construction, we can gain insights into the technological advancement of a society from the structures they built. A society without a basic understanding of mathematics and engineering cannot build multi-level free-standing structures or develop precise astronomical calendars.
The Mayan calendar demonstrates an advanced knowledge of astronomy and mathematics for societies of the day. A system of distinct calendars and almanacs that could be synchronized and interlocked, their combinations gave rise to very extensive cycles. At the base level was the Tzolkin, which was a 260 day calendar that was combined with the 365 day Haab calendar that form a synchronized 52-Haab cycle referred to as the Calendar Round. They then used the linear Long Count calendar, which was based upon the number of elapsed days since a mythological starting point (which has been calculated to be August 11, 3114 BC in the Gregorian calendar), to track longer time periods. The calendar used a positional notation system, like our modern system of Arabic numerals, where each position signified an increase multiple of the number of days that was based on a vigesimal (base-20) number system, with the only exception being the second position, which was base-18, to allow for a (18 * 20 = 360) day cycle. The Mayans also had a Lunar series calendar, which calculated the lunar phase and position of the moon in a half-yearly cycle of lunations, and a 584-day Venus cycle that tracked the heliacal rising of Venus.
The Egyptians used a 365-day calendar, that was the basis for the Julian calendar, which was in turn the foundation of our modern Gregorian Calendar (that is the internationally accepted civil calendar), and did so thousands of years before the Julian calendar was introduced. However, unlike its successor, the Egyptian calendar was divided into 12 months of 30 days each, plus 5 extra days at the end of the year and each month was divided into three weeks of 10 days. They had a strong understanding of astronomy, understood the concept of a solar year, understood that their 365 day calendar wasn't perfect and that the difference between a seasonal year and a civil year was 365 days in 1461 years, and that it took 1461 calendar years for the helical rising of the Sothis star (generally believed to be Sirius by modern scholars) to return to the same point, which meant that they had accurately calculated the length of the year using star positions.
Insight into Religious Beliefs
A great deal of insight into a culture's religious beliefs can be obtained from studying temples and other sites of religious rituals, artifacts and art obviously influenced by the religious beliefs of the day (as they contain decorations or enhancements that do not contribute to their function, if they have one). Grave sites can also say a lot about a culture's religious beliefs surrounding the after-life, and if they even believed in one.
Although we arguably don't know much about the Neanderthals of western Europe, we know that they honored their dead as they deliberately buried them with a variety of goods as far back as 70,000 years ago. We also know that the Indians of the Midwest honored their dead as thousands of graves at the Adena and Hopewell burial mounds contain elaborate grave furniture and distinct cultural objects. Similarly, we know that the ancient Mayan civilization believed in an underworld dominated by the aged Maya gods of death and putrefaction from the art and religious artifacts that have been discovered, and that they practiced human sacrifice as an offering to their gods.
Probably the best known example of the ability of archaeological artifacts to aid us in the decipherment of religious beliefs is the elaborately decorated and extravagantly filled Egyptian pyramids that demonstrated the ancient Egyptian's beliefs in multiple gods and their belief that the pharaoh, who at one point in Egyptian history was considered to be the incarnation of Horus in life and of Osiris in death, was the bridge between the people and the god (Osiris).
Insight into Family Structure & Community Organization
The dwellings at an archaeological site can provide a considerable amount of information about the family structure and whether or not an extended family was common. A small, single-room dwelling is usually indicative of a small family structure while a large, multi-room structure is indicative of an extended family or cohabitating tribal structure. For example, the long cedar houses uncovered at the Makah Indian village at Ozette, and the artifacts they contained, that was occupied from the 16th century AD until a mudslide covered it in the early twentieth century, tell us that each household was home to several nuclear families. Each family had its own hearth, and, in one case, the family living in the northeastern corner of one of the houses lived a demonstrably different way of life.
The structures and artifacts found at a site can tell us a lot about the daily lives of the population. Prehistoric rock art in caves and shelters such as Tsoelike River rock shelter in Lesotho (South Africa) depicts fisherman in their boat and hunters wearing ostrich skins, demonstrating that early people in this region spent a lot of their time fishing and hunting for food. Studies of early smudge pits from 1,000 AD in the middle and lower Mississippi Valley, by Binford, tell us that the Native Americans of the region smoked their animal skins to dry and toughen them for use in their clothing.
The layout of a community and the objects it uses in daily life is greatly determined by social and cultural factors, which can be inferred from an archaeological site. Thus, If a site contains organizational patterns, similar artifacts with different styles, or art depicting differences in dress of the native people, we can use this to infer a lot about societal organization.
We know from site excavations that the Native Americans of the Oaxaca Valley in Mexico had a societal structure that incorporated tradesman in addition to the farmers and hunter-gatherers that formed a large percentage of the population. Detailed excavations led by Ken Flannery in Oaxaca Valley uncovered and documented a large number of one-room thatched pole-and-mud houses and artifacts dating to between 1350 BC and 850 BC. These excavations found that while every household obtained, processed, and stored food as part of the daily activity, some households spent considerably more time making stone tools or ornaments. This suggested that certain individuals occupied a specialist role in the community, supplying the needs of the community as a whole in exchange for food.
A study by James Deetz of the Arikara Indians of South Dakota on the changing pottery designs, based on site excavations and contemporary records, demonstrated that female roles in the society changed over time. The changing pottery designs were used to demonstrate that instead of living with their mothers, females would move away to new villages being formed by the men who were taking up trade and spending their time as middlemen between the Plains Indians and European traders. Deetz was able to deduce this as new styles developed each time a woman broke away from her household as she developed a style unique to her new household over time.
We also know that Aztec warrior tribes had a rank-based structure as the Codex Mendoza displays Aztec warriors wearing different styles of elaborate uniforms that signified their rank, which we know was based on the number of captives they took in battle.
Archaeology also tells us that the Sumerians of Ur observed royalty. An analysis of over 1,850 graves at Ur-of-the-Chaldees by Leonard Wolley demonstrates this as 16 of the graves stood out as special sepulchers due to their very rich furnishings. The corpses were laid to rest in brick chambers along with their personal servants and the entire court and the royal bodyguard was lined up in order outside the main burial chamber. By way of the dress and material goods left behind, Wolley was able to describe the members of the court and their order of precedence.
Insight into Population Dynamics, Trade, & Wealth
Sites with a large number of graves and distinct human remains allow us to determine a lot about the dynamics of the population. In addition to their nutrition, we can deduce a lot about the health, gender ratio, and life-expectancy of the society. Detailed analysis of preserved remains using modern analytical techniques have allow researches to determine not only the age of the remains, but the gender, age, and general health of the deceased at death. When such an analysis is performed over a large number of individuals from the same society or settlement who died in the same timeframe, archaeologists can build up a detailed picture of the gender ration, the average life expectancy, and, general health of the population, especially when this information can be supplemented with dietary information.
An archaeological site with a number of dwellings or a number of graves can also give us insight into the wealth and wealth distribution of a culture. For example, at the Maya site of Tikal in Guatemala, archaeologists have found that house forms are consistent throughout the site but range considerably in size and decoration, demonstrating that some people in the society had considerably more wealth than others.
If a site contains artifacts that are not indigenous to the society being studied, not only can those artifacts be used to cross-date the site, but they can also tell us about the other cultures the society interacted with and the trade that took place. For example, we know that the Indians of the Lake Superior region (of North America) had contact with tribes as far south as Florida by way of copper artifacts made from copper that came from the region. Similarly, we know, from the work of Colin Renfrew, that Mesoamerican peoples who had access to obsidian, which is only found at a few locations in the Near East and Mesoamerica, had a lot of contact with their neighbors as a large number of Obsidian artifacts, which can be traced to a particular site by way of its characteristics, have been found at sites throughout the region to which they are not native.
Summary
Archaeological data has taught us much about civilizations from the Paleolithic up until the twentieth century. Cave paintings and kill sites have told us much about the early hunting and fishing activities of stone age man and the importance of the activity in their daily life (as it was key to their vary survival). Ceramic pottery has not only taught us much about the technological skills and dietary habits of the people who produced it, but also about their cultural values and religious beliefs by way of the decorative adornments the artifacts contain. Copper, Bronze, and Iron Age tools demonstrated a marked improvement in technological achievements of the people of ancient Mesopotamia and Europe. Magnificent structures such as the Egyptian pyramids and ancient Mayan temples demonstrate the advanced understanding of mathematics, astronomy, and engineering possessed by the early societies. Preserved organic remains, including pollen samples, tell us a lot about the diet of early peoples and the crops that they farmed. The grand temples of the Aztecs and burial chambers of the royal court of Ur tell us a lot about their religious beliefs and views of the afterlife. As archaeology is our only means for reconstructing the pre-historic past of ancient societies, it's a good thing that extensive archaeological data allows us to reconstruct not just the material elements of a society, but the intangible elements as well.