Chapter 2
What is Left? The Variety of the Evidence
In this chapter, the authors provide and explain basic archaeological terms and survey both the scope of archaeological evidence and the range of processes that affect the preservation of archaeological evidence and create the archaeological record.
After reading Chapter 2, students should
- Understand the basic categories of archaeological evidence
- Understand the importance of archaeological context, and how context is defined archaeologically
- Know the variety of processes, both natural and cultural, that affect the preservation of archaeological artifacts, features, and sites.
- Know the range of climatic conditions affecting preservation in the archaeological record
Key Concept Identification
Basic Categories of Archaeological Evidence
Artifacts, p. 51
Features, p. 52
Structures, p. 52
Ecofacts, p. 52
Sites, p. 52
Importance of Context
Context, p. 52
Matrix, p. 52
Association, p. 52
Provenience, p. 52
Formation Processes
Experimental Archaeology, p. 55
Formation Processes, p. 54
Cultural Formation Processes
Hoards, p. 57
Deliberate burial. p. 57
Human destruction, p. 57
Natural Formation Processes
Electrolysis, p. 59
Basic Categories of Archaeological Evidence
In the second chapter, students are introduced to some of the basic categories of archaeological evidence, in particular specific terms such as artifacts, ecofacts, features, and sites. The importance of context to reconstructing past human activity is stressed; the provenience, matrix, and association with other finds are all underscored as essential to the scientific value of artifacts, features, structures, and organic remains. The distinction between primary and secondary context is also mentioned.
Formation Processes
The ways in which the archaeological record forms and taphonomic processes affect what survives are the focus of the next section. Michael Schiffer’s concepts of cultural formation processes (C-transforms) and natural formation processes (N-transforms) are introduced to students as ways of seeing the different effects people and nature have upon what archaeologists find. Cultural formation processes include a range of behaviors or activities, and examples are introduced by the authors, such as hoards, burial of the dead, and intentional or unintentional destruction of the archaeological record. Natural formation processes are extensively treated through a discussion of the differential preservation of inorganic and organic materials. Organic materials are discussed in terms of the preservative effects of different climatic conditions. Preservation by natural disasters is also addressed, and includes a box feature that introduces the remarkable state of preservation created by a natural disaster (mudslide), at the site of Ozette.
Extreme conditions leading to the preservation of organic materials are also discussed, with the example of dry environments introduced first. The extreme aridity of Egypt that fostered the exceptional preservation of organic materials in Tutankhamun’s tomb is introduced in a box feature. Other examples include the bodies of the pueblo dwellers and Danger Cave in the American Southwest, and those of the Peruvian coast. Examples of cold environments include the burial mounds at Pazyryk in southern Siberia, dating to the Iron Age (c. 400 BC), where not only clothing, rugs, and headdresses were preserved, but even tattoos were still visible on human skin.
Two box features are dedicated to exceptional preservation of organic artifacts and human remains, the first is the Barrow Site and the second is “Ötzi,” the Iceman, the human found in a melting glacier in the Alps on the Swiss-Italian border.
The final examples of outstanding organic material preservation are those found in different waterlogged environments such as peat bogs, swamps, and lakes. The anoxic (anaerobic) effect of such environments allows preservation of organic finds rarely seen in other contexts. Perhaps best known are the bog bodies of northwest Europe, such as Tollund Man, which are preserved in a truly remarkable condition, revealing evidence of their lives and their sometimes violent deaths.
Lecture Openers and Class discussion questions
- What are the basic categories of archaeological evidence?
- What do archaeologists mean by “context”? Why is this so important?
- How do people affect what archaeologists find in survey and excavation?
- What types of environmental conditions create exceptional preservation? Why?
Additional Links of Interest:
Brief overview of the Iceman, at PBS
On Video (NOVA) Ice Mummies: Return of the Iceman
South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology
Discovery Channel:
Tutankhamun: Anatomy of an Excavation, sponsored by the Griffith Institute at the Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology at the University of Oxford in England, attempts to make Howard Carter’s records of his excavations of Tutankhamun’s tomb available via the Web. Also includes a link to a searchable database of Carter’s finds. Some original black and white images of objects found in the tomb are available by using the database search.
For more images of Tutankhamun, but less content, visit:
Exercise
Chapter 2, From the Map on page 58
Map Exercise
Choose 10 sites where natural formation processes have led to good preservation and place them on the map. Indicate the type of conditions (i.e. wet, dry, warm, cold) at the site.
Peru
Danger Cave/Lovelock Cave
Ozette
Barrow
Aleutian Caves
Beresovka
Pazyryk
Egypt
Pompeii
Qilakitsoq
Florida
Iceman
Northern Europe
Holme-next-the-Sea
Chinchorro