Mikko Louhivuori Understanding Neolithic Southern Levant Case Studies of Archaeological Semiosis in Action The writer, Rev. Dr. Mikko Louhivuori, has a Licentiate of Theology degree from Helsinki University, Doctor of Philosophy from Hebrew University, Jerusalem, and has worked in the Israel Antiquities Authority as a specialist on applying computers to archaeological research. Cover: Tove Ahlbäck Åbo Akademi University Press Biskopsgatan 13, FIN-20500 ÅBO, Finland Tel. int. +358-20-786-1468 Fax int. +358-20-786-1459 E-mail: [email protected] http://www.abo.fi/stiftelsen/forlag/ Distribution: Oy Tibo-Trading Ab P.O.Box 33, FIN-21601 PARGAS, Finland Tel. int. +358-2-454 9200 E-mail: [email protected] http://www.tibo.net UNDERSTANDING NEOLITHIC SOUTHERN LEVANT Understanding Neolithic Southern Levant Case Studies of Archaeological Semiosis in Action Mikko Louhivuori ÅBO 2010 ÅBO AKADEMIS FÖRLAG – ÅBO AKADEMI UNIVERSITY PRESS CIP Cataloguing in Publication Louhivuori, Mikko. Understanding Neolithic Southern Levant : case studies of archaeological semiosis in action / Mikko Louhivuori. – Åbo : Åbo Akademi University Press, 2010. Diss.: Åbo Akademi University. ISBN 978-951-765- 546-0 ISBN 978-951-765-546-0 ISBN 978-951-765-547-7 (digital) Painosalama Oy Åbo 2010 Table of Contents List of Figures and Tables.............................................................................................. 8 Preface............................................................................................................................ 9 Chapter 1. Archaeological Semiosis and the Archaeological Sign in Semiotics ......... 12 Processual and Post-Processual Archaeology .......................................................... 16 Language as Metaphor ............................................................................................. 22 The two branches of Semiotics and Archaeology.................................................... 23 Ferdinand de Saussure ......................................................................................... 23 Structuralism and Archaeological Interpretation ................................................. 24 Charles Sanders Peirce ......................................................................................... 26 Purpose and Outline of the Study ............................................................................ 28 Chapter 2. Peirce: the Sign........................................................................................... 30 Typology of the Three Signs.................................................................................... 31 Icon ...................................................................................................................... 32 Index .................................................................................................................... 32 Symbol ................................................................................................................. 33 Example of an archaeological sign .......................................................................... 34 Focus on Essentials .................................................................................................. 36 The Signifying Element ........................................................................................... 36 Interpretant - human mind and subjectivity ............................................................. 38 The Truth Value of the Interpretation ...................................................................... 40 About Semiotic Categories ...................................................................................... 40 Example of Archaeological Semiosis in Action ...................................................... 42 Semiotic Ground ...................................................................................................... 45 Cyclops ................................................................................................................ 47 Lot‘s Wife ............................................................................................................ 49 The Sign of the thunder-stone .............................................................................. 52 Chapter 3. John Garstang at Jericho ............................................................................ 56 The interpreter: some subjective considerations ...................................................... 56 Semiosis and Excavation Techniques ...................................................................... 59 Destroying Indexical Signs by Poor Archaeology ................................................... 60 Garstang‘s Stone Age Jericho .................................................................................. 62 The Case of the Missing Object - Pottery ................................................................ 64 The Case of Human Figurines: John Garstang and Ruth Amiran ........................... 66 The Case of the Megaron ......................................................................................... 68 The God Worshipped in the Megaron Temple .................................................... 73 Understanding the Two Human Burials in the Temple ........................................... 74 Archaeological Semiosis by Garstang at Jericho ..................................................... 76 Chapter 4. Kathleen M. Kenyon, giving meaning through Stratigraphy ..................... 79 Garstang vs. Kenyon ................................................................................................ 80 Wheeler – Kenyon Method ...................................................................................... 81 The sign of the Detached Skull ................................................................................ 84 Against her Own Rules of Digging .......................................................................... 85 Anthropology to the Assistance ............................................................................... 87 A Sign of Mass Burial.............................................................................................. 89 5 Archaeological Semiosis in Action: the Mass Burial .............................................. 90 Mass Burial .......................................................................................................... 91 Search for Skulls .................................................................................................. 91 Two Stages in Burials .......................................................................................... 91 The Ghost ............................................................................................................. 91 Accidental Death .................................................................................................. 93 Warfare ................................................................................................................ 93 Lack of Wounds ................................................................................................... 94 Funeral Cult ......................................................................................................... 94 Indexical and Symbolic signs in Kenyon's Archaeological Semiosis ..................... 95 Chapter 5. Denise Schmandt-Besserat: the plastered skull from ‗Ain Ghazal ............ 97 Semiotic Ground – Prehistoric Tokens .................................................................... 97 Neolithic ‗Ain Ghazal ............................................................................................ 100 The Sign: Skull 88-1 .............................................................................................. 103 Classification as Semiotic Key .............................................................................. 105 Other parallels to ‗Ain Ghazal Modelled Skull ..................................................... 109 Jericho ................................................................................................................ 110 Kfar HaHoresh ................................................................................................... 112 Tell Ramad ......................................................................................................... 113 Beisamoun.......................................................................................................... 115 Kösk Hüyük ....................................................................................................... 116 Nahal Hemar ...................................................................................................... 116 Conclusions of the Comparative Study.................................................................. 117 Deciphering symbolic Signs .................................................................................. 118 Ethnographic Parallels ....................................................................................... 119 Ethnography ....................................................................................................... 120 Ancient Near Eastern Documents ...................................................................... 121 Archaeological Semiosis by Denise Schmandt-Besserat at ‗Ain Ghazal .............. 125 Chapter 6. Contextual Semiosis - Michele A. Miller at Yarmuk............................... 127 Context of the Figurines........................................................................................