UNIT 1 DEFINITIONS AND SCOPE Definitions and Scope Contents 1.1 Introduction 1.2 Prehistory 1.3 Protohistory 1.4 Civilisation 1.5 Archaeology: Conceptual Developments 1.5.1 Culture History 1.5.2 Reconstruction of Life Ways 1.5.3 New or Processual Archaeology 1.5.4 Interpretative Archaeology 1.6 Archaeology: Methodological Developments 1.6.1 Environmental Archaeology 1.6.2 Settlement Archaeology 1.6.3 Ethnoarchaeology 1.6.4 Experimental Archaeology 1.6.5 Ethological Studies 1.7 Summary Suggested Reading Sample Questions Learning Objectives & Once you have studied this unit, you should be able to: Ø define each sub-unit of the subject matter thoroughly; Ø understand the importance of each sub-unit in human cultural study; Ø indicate the close relationship between archaeology and how this relationship is helpful for the study of human cultures across time and space; and Ø recognise the fundamentals of archaeological anthropology. 1.1 INTRODUCTION Anthropology and Archaeology are two interrelated disciplines that deal with the origin and development of human culture and hence occupy an important place in social sciences. Anthropology basically deals with the study of present- day-simple societies and it has two main divisions called physical anthropology and social anthropology. Several branches within it developed in course of time like cultural anthropology, etc. Archaeology endeavours to reconstruct ancient societies and is treated as part of anthropology in American universities. The mutual interdependence of anthropology and archaeology arises from the simple fact that both deal with the study of human cultures-one of the present and the other of the past. Archaeology is an important discipline with a methodology of its own. It recovers antiquarian remains of various kinds from the field through laborious techniques 5 Definition and Scope including excavation. Although archaeology remained for a long time as a descriptive and classificatory of ancient objects and features, Lewis Binford’s New Archaeology Movement of the 1960s emphasised the larger anthropological goals of archaeology. With the help of methods and approaches adopted from both social and natural sciences, modern archaeology seeks to reconstruct past human societies and their cultural processes. As such it supplies the much needed temporal dimension to the anthropologist’s endeavour to study cultures of present- day simple societies. This in fact is the principal objective of archaeological anthropology. This is particularly relevant in India, which has both a rich and diverse ethnographic record and an unequally rich archaeological heritage. Let us now consider the main divisions within archaeology and some of its basic concepts. Archaeological anthropology is one of the sub branches of anthropology deals with the origin and development of human species and its material manifestations in the form of material culture. Archaeology not only helps us to understand diversity in the world around us but also to understand how people relate to the material world. 1.2 PREHISTORY Prehistory is a period used to indicate the time before recorded history. Paul Tournal (1833) coined the term Pre-historique to explain the finds that he had made in the caves of southern France and the word ‘Prehistoric’ was introduced by Daniel Wilson in 1851. It is the period of human evolution before writing was invented and records kept. The term ‘prehistory’ refers to all cultural developments of man including his biological evolution till the beginning of historical period. In India the historical period is commonly said to commence from about the middle of the first millennium B.C. when Asoka issued the Brahmi edicts in different parts of India. Prehistorians make their reconstructions of the remote past on the basis of their study of material relics of various kinds. Prehistory in India covers a time range of 0.6 to 0.7 million years. Recent dates for the Palaeolithic sites of Isampur in Karnataka and Attirampakkam in Tamil Nadu take it to 1.2 or 1.5 million years. The dates from Riwat and Uttarbaini in the Siwalik hills of Punjab and Jammu further push the antiquity of human culture to more than 2 million years. Throughout this period man led a nomadic way of life with hunting of wild animals and gathering of wild plant foods as the chief mode of subsistence. Technology was based on the preparation of tools on a variety of rocks like quartzite and even limestone and siliceous stones like chert and jasper. Depending upon improvements in tool making traditions and to some extent, changes in hunting-foraging methods, prehistoric period is divided into three major phases or stages called the Lower, Middle and Upper Palaeolithic. All these three stages are dated to the geological period called Pleistocene. In the early part of the Holocene tiny stone implements called microliths came into vogue. This stage is called the Mesolithic. In addition to stone, wood and bone also began to be used for making tools from the Middle and Upper palaeolithic phases. Prehistoric stone tools are grouped into two broad categories: tools for heavy work (heavy duty tools) and tools for light work (light duty tools). These were 6 used for a variety of operations such as hunting, digging of roots and tubers, Definitions and Scope cutting, scraping, flensing and boring connected with the acquisition, processing and consumption of animal and plant foods. The Lower Palaeolithic stage is characterised by large sized tools such as handaxes, cleavers, chopping tools, polyhedrons, etc. The Middle Palaeolithic tools are smaller in size and consist of flake - tools such as scrapers, points and borers etc. The Upper Palaeolithic culture belongs to Late Pleistocene and is characterised by blade technology leading to the production of long, slender- looking backed blades, points, penknives, saw edged blades, etc. In the succeeding Mesolithic tools become very small or tiny in size, generally measuring a few centimeters in length. The types include backed blades, lunates, triangles, points, etc., all used to prepare composite implements such as arrowheads, spearheads and harpoons. Rock art and intentional burial of the dead also come into vogue in the Mesolithic stage. Lower Palaeolithic tools Middle Palaeolithic tools Upper Palaeolithic tools Mesolithic tools Human skeleton from Langhnaj (a Mesoltihic habitation site), North Gujarath 7 Definition and Scope 1.3 PROTOHISTORY The term ‘la Protohistorique,’ was first coined by the French, to refer to a period transposed between prehistory and true historical Period. It suits India very well. First, before historical period there is evidence of writing in the Harappan or Indus valley scripts, though as yet undeciphered. Secondly, though the Vedic literature was in an oral state up to the 4th century AD or so, its antiquity goes back to the second millennium B.C. And it is an important source for reconstructing our early social, political, religious and literary history. This is a unique feature in world’s history. Hence, this period should be legitimately included in as protohistory. Moreover, contemporary with much of the Vedic literature there is evidence from all over India about the early metal-using communities. However, this is certainly prehistory in one sense, because there is no trace of writing in any case but since this period also runs parallel with the Vedic literature, it has been included under protohistory. During the last 60 years or so it has been customary in India to introduce this period as a buffer between the ill-defined prehistoric period and the better defined historical periods covering archaeological record of post-Mesolithic and pre-Mauryan cultures, between 3500 or 3000 B.C and 300 BC (Sankalia, 1973). The cultural panorama of Protohistory in India began with the Neolithic phase in seven geographical zones, i.e., North-western India including Kashmir and Swat valleys, the Vindhyan plateau of Belan valley, the Kaimur hills and the Chhotanagpur plateau, northern Bihar, north-eastern region covering all north- eastern states and adjacent sub-Himalayan regions, Central-eastern region of Bengal, Bihar and Orissa complexes and the Southern region covering peninsular India, except Kerala. It is the first settled way of life defined by permanent settlements according to geographical convenience, production of pottery, domestication of plants and animals, pecked and ground stone and blade tool industries, and some degree of reliance on hunting, gathering and fishing. The findings from Mehrgarh in Baluchistan and Lahuradeva in eastern U.P. suggest that the Neolithic phase began around 6000 B.C. Under protohistory are also included not only the Indus civilization but also the various Late Harappan cultures of Gujarat, Punjab and Haryana, Late Harappan, Black-and -Red and Ochre- painted pottery cultures of the Ganga-Yamuna Roap, and the various Chalcolithic cultures of Rajasthan, central India, middle and lower Ganga valley, and the Deccan. The Banas, Kayatha, Malwa, Savalda and Jorwe cultures are major examples of this Chalcolithic stage. To this protohistoric phase also may be assigned the iron-using painted Grey-ware culture of the Ganga Valley and the Megalithic culture of vidarbha and South India. Neolithic Habitation at Tekkalakota Funerary vessels from Pit dwellings from Burjaham Tekkalakota Neolithic habitation in Kashmir 8 Definitions and Scope Megalithic cist circle with port-holes Copper and Terracotta objects Brahmagiri, Karnataka (Chalcolithic