PROJECT ARCHAEOLOGY: PENNSYLVANIA AN EDUCATIONAL STANDARDS BASED CURRICULUM FOR GRADES FOUR THROUGH EIGHT STUDENT TEXT (FOR USE WITH LESSON PLAN BOOK) AN EDUCATIONAL INITIATIVE OF THE PENNSYLVANIA ARCHAEOLOGICAL COUNCIL EDUCATION COMMITTEE THIS PROJECT IS SUPPORTED BY A GRANT FROM THE PENNSYLVANIA HISTORICAL AND MUSEUM COMMISSION PROJECT ARCHAEOLOGY: PENNSYLVANIA AN EDUCATIONAL STANDARDS BASED CURRICULUM FOR GRADES FOUR THROUGH EIGHT STUDENT TEXT (FOR USE WITH LESSON PLAN BOOK) Project Directed and Edited by Renata B. Wolynec, Ph. D. Contributing Authors: Renata B. Wolynec, Ph. D. Ellen Dailey Bedell, Ph. D. Edinboro University of PA Ellis School, Pittsburgh Sarah Ward Neusius, Ph. D. Beverly Mitchum Chiarulli, Ph. D. Indiana University of PA Indiana University of PA Joseph Baker PA Department of Transportation, Harrisburg SECTION ONE – BASIC CONCEPTS Chapter 1 -- What Is Anthropology? (Wolynec) Chapter 2 -- What Is Archaeology? (Wolynec) Chapter 3 -- Meet an Archaeologist (Wolynec, Bedell, Neusius, Baker, and Chiarulli) Chapter 4 -- How Do Archaeologists Do Their Work? (Wolynec) Chapter 5 -- How Old Is It? (Wolynec) SECTION TWO – PENNSYLVANIA BEFORE THE EUROPEANS Chapter 6 -- History and Culture in Pennsylvania Place Names (Wolynec) Chapter 7 -- What Was Pennsylvania Like Before European Contact? (Neusius) Chapter 8 -- Where Did the Ancestors of Native Americans Come From? (Wolynec) Chapter 9 -- Native American History in Pennsylvania Before the Europeans (Wolynec) SECTION THREE - COMPARING CULTURES Chapter 10 -- What Basic Needs Do All Cultures Meet? (Wolynec) Chapter 11 -- Written in Stone: Pre-European Rock Art in Pennsylvania (Baker) Chapter 12 -- Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphics (Bedell) Chapter 13 -- Who Are the Maya? (Chiarulli) Curriculum Development Specialist – Daniel J. Shelley, Ph. D. Robert Morris University, Pittsburgh Project Illustrator and Text Illustration Coordinator – Bernard Werner (Illustrations for Chapters 3, 11, 12, and 13 were provided by the authors.) This project is supported by a grant from the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission. October, 2003 Edinboro, Pennsylvania i TABLE OF CONTENTS SECTION ONE – BASIC CONCEPTS Chapter 1 - What Is Anthropology? . 1 Chapter 2 - What Is Archaeology? . 6 Chapter 3 - Meet an Archaeologist . 12 Chapter 4 - How Do Archaeologists Do Their Work? . 24 Chapter 5 - How Old Is It? . 30 SECTION TWO – PENNSYLVANIA BEFORE THE EUROPEANS Chapter 6 - History and Culture in Pennsylvania Place Names . 36 Chapter 7 - What Was Pennsylvania Like Before European Contact? . 40 Chapter 8 - Where Did the Ancestors of Native Americans Come From? . 47 Chapter 9 - Native American History in Pennsylvania Before the Europeans . 51 SECTION THREE - COMPARING CULTURES Chapter 10 - What Basic Needs Do All Cultures Meet? . 65 Chapter 11 - Written in Stone: Pre-European Rock Art in Pennsylvania . 68 Chapter 12 - Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphics . 72 Chapter 13 - Who Are the Maya? . 88 ii SECTION ONE - BASIC CONCEPTS CHAPTER 1 What is Anthropology? 1. By this time in your education you have learned a lot about science. Science is a way of studying the earth, stars, plants, animals, and so much more. You may be surprised to learn that there is also a science of people. Anthropology is the name we give to the science that studies people. Of course, there are other professions that can help us learn about people. Sociologists study how people work together as part of a society. Historians study written documents and the things that people remember in order to learn about their past. Biologists study the different parts of the human body and how these parts work. Philosophers study how people think about the world they live in. Psychologists study how the human mind works. 2. Anthropology uses a special way of studying people called the holistic approach. When anthropologists use the holistic approach they study people everywhere in the world, at all the times people have lived, and everything that people do and are. This means that anthropology does not choose only one kind of person, or one time in the past, or one kind of human behavior. This science studies everything about people. 3. Of course, it is impossible to study everything about people all at once. Therefore, the field of anthropology is often divided into four parts: cultural anthropology, physical anthropology, linguistics, and archaeology. cultural anthropology physical anthropology linguistics archaeology 4. Cultural anthropology studies the cultures of living and historically known people. Culture is a way of life that is learned and shared by a group of people who live and work together and share a common territory. This group of people is called a society. 1 Because we are not born with our culture, we have to learn the rules of our culture while we are growing up. What we choose to eat, the clothes we wear, the tools we use and make, the houses we live in, our beliefs, the work we do, the language we speak, who we can call friend and family, and good manners are all part of the culture that we learn and share. All human cultures are not the same. What may be good manners in one culture may be rude in another culture. For example, in the United States, we write thank you notes or say thank you to someone who has given us a gift. If we don’t do this, the person who gave us the gift might think that we are rude. Among the !Kung San of the Kalahari Desert of South Africa, to say thank you for a gift is considered rude. It suggests to the person that gave the gift that somehow she is not generous and that you did not expect her to share. In both cultures, people enjoy receiving gifts, but the correct response to a gift is different. We share our culture with people who are our ancestors (such as our parents), with the people we live with today, and with our descendants (such as our children). Yet, this is not always the same culture. Culture is always changing. Human needs, opportunities, tools, and attitudes change through time. Everyone has heard someone say: “well, when I was your age…” They are only saying that things were once different. Yet you probably share today’s culture with them. In fact, you are sharing a changing culture with them. Cultural anthropologists can study a culture as it exists in one time, or they can study how a culture changes. Both kinds of study provide us with knowledge about the nature of culture and its importance to people. 2 5. Physical anthropology studies the biology of human groups (populations). Physical anthropologists are interested in describing and explaining our physical and genetic characteristics. Some study living people. They try to learn about human diseases, nutrition, and why there are differences among people. Others study people who lived in the past by studying their skeletons and fossil bones. They try to understand why people have changed through time. Still others work with the police to help solve crimes. Some physical anthropologists study monkeys and apes in order to discover how they interact with their environments. Others study how the environment affects human biology and human characteristics. 6. Linguistics is the study of language. Linguistic anthropologists study the sounds, rules, meanings, and relationship to culture of languages all over the world. Anthropologists estimate that there may have been as many as 2,000 languages that have been spoken by people. Many languages disappeared so long ago that we will never be able to study them. Babies are born with the ability to learn language. But the particular language they speak must be learned, just as culture must be learned. If you had been born in Japan to a Japanese family, Japanese would have been your first language. In some cultures, children learn to speak more than one language. A child born to the Arunta culture of Australia would learn both the Arunta language (the language of the native culture) as well as English (the official language of Australia). Language is an important tool for learning a culture. Some languages are written and spoken. Others are only spoken. Some 3 languages, such as American Sign Language, use hand symbols. All are important tools for communication. There are many kinds of linguistic anthropologists. Some study how a particular language has changed through time or how the meaning of words has changed in a language. Others try to describe a particular language including its sounds and grammar. Most try to understand how a particular language meets the needs of a particular culture. 7. Archaeology is the study of past cultures from the things people have left behind. Historical archaeologists study people who have writing. Prehistoric archaeologists study people who lived before writing was invented. Over 99% of the time people have been on the earth occurred before writing. Although these people did not write, they left us clues such as their tools, houses, symbols, ceremonial objects, and trash. The places where these remains are found are called archaeological sites. By discovering these remains and paying careful attention to where they are located (context) archaeologists can learn about the history of a culture, the way of life of a people, their ideas, and how their cultures changed. An archaeologist is a kind of detective, always looking for clues about cultures of the past. Archaeologists often work with scientists such as chemists, ecologists, zoologists, botanists, and geologists in order to discover how people interacted with their environment. An archaeologist does not collect archaeological remains as a hobby. The scientists who are archaeologists try to solve research problems or answer questions about people who lived in the past by studying their remains. 4 Archaeological remains are very fragile and non-renewable. We have all learned about plants and animals that are extinct. They are gone forever. Archaeological sites that are not carefully studied are also gone forever.