1 partI What Is ARchaeOLOGY? The Science of chapter Archaeology FOR DECADES, SCIENTISTS had studied the pottery of the Moche, an early civilization of farmers and fishers that thrived along the north coast of Peru between about 1,900 and 1,200 years ago. The Moche were superb artisans, working with met- als (copper, gold, and silver), stone, and textiles. chapter outline Their pottery (Donnan 1976, 1990) was finely What Is Archaeology? Archaeology and Anthropology made and depicted plants, animals, and people, Archaeology and the Other Sciences The Basic Goals of Archaeology some in three dimensions. Other pottery was sim- The Branches of Archaeology Prehistoric Archaeology pler in form but was wonderfully decorated with Historical Archaeology scenes of elaborately dressed people engaged in HiGhLiGht 1.1 The Archaeology of Enslaved Africans in the New World interesting activities. Working diligently over the Classical Archaeology years, museum specialists had noted that a char- Maritime Archaeology HiGhLiGht 1.2 The Mary Rose acter depicted in a scene on one vessel was some- Public Archaeology times present in the scene on another vessel. As Key Concepts in Archaeology The Archaeological Record the decorations on more pottery were analyzed, Cultural Deposition, Stratigraphy, and Dating scenes began to repeat themselves and more links Archaeological Cultures Archaeology as Science between different scenes were discovered. The Structure of Scientific Knowledge By 1974, a series of scenes was linked together The Scientific Method Research Design to identify a major chronicle, called the Sacrifice Pseudoscience Frauds Ceremony. The characters were unearthly, their The Importance of Archaeology dress and decoration fantastically elaborate, and HiGhLiGht 1.3 The Piltdown Hoax had already been sold on the black market. Archaeologist Walter Alva examined the confis- cated items and recognized some of the ­objects as having been depicted in Moche art. Alva realized the scientific value of the discovery and began an excavation to salvage whatever information might remain in the shattered site, knowing that it would be completely ­destroyed by looters as soon as he left (Alva and Donnan 1994). Alva began to excavate into the pyramid and soon discovered, remarkably, the intact tomb (called Tomb 1) of a Moche lord (Alva 1988). As he painstakingly uncovered the burial of an adult male, Alva found many artifacts, some of which had never before been seen by archaeologists. Found were elaborate orna- ments worn by the individual, many of which were seen in artistic depictions of warriors, suggesting that the person was a warrior. As the excavation of the main burial was completed, Alva discovered other burials surrounding it, the activities astounding. Four major “priests” people who appeared to have been sacrificed. were identified: Warrior Priest, Bird Priest, Alva realized that he had discovered a person Priestess, and an unnamed priest. The four are who had been buried with all of the ritual para- shown decapitating and mutilating war captives, phernalia possessed by the Warrior Priest of then drinking their blood from a cup. The ­entire the Sacrifice Ceremony (Donnan 1988). story and imagery were interpreted as depic- A second tomb (Tomb 2) was soon discov- tions of the Moche gods conducting supernatu- ered nearby and excavated. This tomb also con- ral activities. The archaeologists working on the tained an adult male, but with different dress and pottery thought they were learning only about ornamentation. Again, other people had been Moche art and myth. buried in association. A copper cup and a large Although much work had been done to copper headdress with an owl’s head and large learn about the Moche, many of the sites had wings were found with the main burial. been badly vandalized and looted. In 1987, Amazingly, the individual in Tomb 2 vandals discovered an intact royal tomb seemed to ­correspond with another of in a small mudbrick pyramid at the Moche the priests of the Sacrifice Ceremony, site of Sipán (pronounced seepan). the Bird Priest. Police caught the looters and were able A third tomb (Tomb 3; Alva to recover some of the items stolen 1990) was found deeper in the pyra- from the tomb, but other ­materials mid and dated to an earlier time 2 than Tombs 1 and 2. The individual stripped naked and bound, their cloth- in Tomb 3 was buried alone but with ing and weapons were bundled together, spectacular clothing and ornamenta- and they were brought before the Moche tion. Alva was not able to ascertain whether priests. There, they were sacrificed: decapi- the individual was one of the priests of the tated, dismembered, their blood collected in Sacrifice Ceremony. However, the tomb of an in- cups and consumed in a ritual that was very im- dividual identified as the Priestess of the Sacrifice portant in Moche culture. Ceremony was later found in another Moche site Christopher Donnan of the University of (Donnan and Castillo 1992). Other similar tombs California–Los Angeles continued his explora- had been discovered at other Moche sites but tions among the Moche ruins. He has uncovered were looted before they could be documented. additional tombs (Donnan 2001), gathering new However, they appear to have contained materi- information and details on materials discovered als similar to those of Sipán, indicating that the earlier. As work continues, a more complete un- Sacrifice Ceremony was widespread. There now derstanding of Moche culture emerges. In 2009, seems little doubt that the fantastic Sacrifice more Moche tombs were discovered in a valley Ceremony first identified on Moche pottery was many miles away, suggesting that the Moche actually practiced by the Moche. Warriors en- may have had a centralized state (Atwood 2010), gaged in ritualized combat, and vanquished en- although this conclusion is not accepted by all emies were taken to Sipán as captives. They were (Chapdelaine 2011). For the location of Sipán and other sites mentioned in this chapter, see the map on page XXX. What Is Archaeology? Before 1987, no one would have guessed that the ceremonies represented on Moche pot- tery were real, that the tombs of the Moche priests depicted in the art would be found, or that an understanding of the scenes represented on those vessels would be gained. Through ar- chaeology, the realities of the past exceed the imagination of the present. To the average person, the word archaeology conjures romantic images of jungle adventures, lost treasure, and the ro- mance of the ancient civilizations of Egypt and the Mediterranean. Some see archaeologists as traveling to exotic locales and snatching golden idols from the clutches of arch villains. Others believe that archaeologists are crusty old scientists in pith helmets who dig up dinosaurs or woolly mammoths (those scientists are not archaeologists but paleontologists). Neither image is correct, although the former has certainly served to popularize archaeology. Archaeology is the study of the human past. In the United States, archaeology is considered a subdiscipline of anthropology, the study of people, whereas in Europe, archaeology is linked more closely to history. Archaeologists want to learn all about past peoples: where they lived, what they ate, how they were organized, what they believed, where they succeeded and failed, their language, their religion—everything. In a sense, archaeologists are detectives, finding clues to the past and trying to sort out what happened and why. Archaeologists do more than simply obtain facts about the past; they also interpret the information to create an understanding of the past. Anthropologists who study living groups are called cultural anthropologists and have the same goals as archaeologists. The major differences between archaeology and cultural 3 4 PART I: What IS ARCHAEOLOGY? LOcatiON MAP: Sites Mentioned in Chapter 1 North America Asia 5 6 11 7 Europe 9 2 10 Atlantic Ocean 3 8 Pacific Ocean Central Africa America 4 Pacific Ocean 1 Indian Ocean South America Australia New Zealand 1 ■ Moche, 7 ■ Porto delle Conche, Sipán, Peru Pisa, Italy 2 ■ Minoan civilization, 8 ■ Palenque, Crete Chiapas, Mexico 3 ■ Cleopatra’s Palace, 9 ■ Shroud of Turin, Alexandria, Egypt Turin, Italy 4 ■ Port Royal, 10 ■ Pecos Pueblo, Pecos, Jamaica New Mexico 5 ■ Mary Rose site, 11 ■ New York Slave Cemetery, Portsmouth, England New York City, New York 6 ■ Sutton Hoo, Woodbridge, England CHAPTER 1: THE SCIENCE OF ARCHAEOLOGY 5 anthropology are in the methods used to obtain information. Cultural anthropologists can di- rectly observe people doing things and ask them questions to get a detailed view of a culture. Because archaeologists deal with the past, they cannot directly observe behavior and must rely on what people left behind to infer what happened. The material remains with which archae- ologists work are limited by preservation and recovery techniques, and as a result, it is very dif- ficult to obtain a complete picture of a past society. However, unlike cultural anthropologists, archaeologists are able to detect change over long periods of time, can identify broad trends, and can examine transitions, such as the change from hunting and gathering to agriculture. In addition, archaeologists can detect the behaviors that might not be seen by a cultural anthro- pologist, such as foods eaten in secret (archaeologists would find the trash). Humans have the unique ability to grasp the concept of their own past and can use this privileged stance to learn about our past through the study of archaeology in order to more clearly shape and direct our future. Archaeologists are interested in all aspects of the human past and are limited only by the kinds of questions they pose and their ability to find and recover information. Some of these questions seem esoteric, but all are ultimately practical, providing insight into where we came from, how we adapted to changing environments, and where we are going as a species.