A Short Brief: (Gr. archaios, “old” or “ancient”; logos, “word,” hence study or science of), literally, the study of old, or ancient, ways of human life. Many other definitions of archaeology, however, go beyond this. In the past most archaeologists, who traced the origin of their discipline back to classical and antiquarian studies, defined archaeology as the “systematic study of the material remains of past human life.” Others emphasized the behavioral aspects and defended archaeology as the “reconstruction of the life of past peoples.” More recently, as the 20th century progressed, many archaeologists have come to view archaeology as a branch of anthropology. While the parent discipline focused on the study of human cultures, archaeology was perceived as the study of the material manifestations of those cultures; thus, earlier generations of archaeologists may have studied an ancient pot as a time marker, to help date the culture being studied, or as an object in itself, possibly possessing significant aesthetic value. On the other hand, the anthropological archaeologists view the pot as one means of understanding the thinking, values, and culture of its maker.
Because of its focus on enduring, material manifestations, archaeological research has been primarily concerned with the past. This is no longer exclusively the case, however, and contemporary archaeologists have occasionally turned their attention to material cultures, studying such products of these cultures as urban garbage and landfills.
Modern archaeology is linked to many other fields. For example, to establish a chronology archaeologists often use techniques developed by researchers in other disciplines: radiocarbon dating, developed by atomic physicists; geological-dating procedures, developed by geologists; and techniques for evaluating fauna, developed by paleontologists. To reconstruct ancient ways of life, archaeologists also use techniques developed in the fields of sociology, demography, geography, economics, and political science.
HISTORY
The history of archaeology may be divided into six periods. During the first, which began in the Renaissance and extended to the end of the 18th century, antiquaries collected ancient works of art and other artifacts and speculated in an unsystematic way about their significance. About 1800, three events marked the beginning of a new period. One was Thomas Jefferson's report, published (1799) by the American Philosophical Society, on his excavations of mounds in Virginia and the well-reasoned conclusions he drew from this work. About the same time, in England, John Frere (1769–1846) began to recognize Paleolithic (Acheulean) hand axes and attempt to interpret them in light of ancient human behavior. The third event—and perhaps the most important, for it led to further advances—occurred in Denmark, where archaeologists recognized excavated artifacts as human products; moreover, a national museum was founded (1807). Danish studies—by Christian J. Thomsen (1788–1865) and J. J. A. Worsaae (1821–85)—led to the conception of the three successive Stone, Bronze, and Iron ages. During this period, in France, Jacques Boucher de Crèvecoeur de Perthes found and studied fossils in the gravel deposits of the Somme Valley, and William Pengelly (1812–94) studied Paleolithic (Old Stone Age) findings in South Devon, England.
All of these studies were built on the work of geologists of the late 18th and early 19th centuries such as Sir Charles Lyell, who had removed studies of the terrestrial past from the confines of a biblical chronology that placed all history within a 6000-year span, beginning with the divine creation in 4004 bc.. Almost simultaneously, the deciphering of Egyptian hieroglyphic writing on the Rosetta Stone, by the French Egyptologist Jean Francois Champollion, and of the Persian cuneiform writing on the trilingual Behistun inscription, by the British scholar Sir Henry C. Rawlinson, allowed the study of biblical cultures to be placed on firm historical ground.
A new period began about 1859, when Charles Darwin and Alfred R. Wallace published their theories of organic evolution, with obvious implications for cultural evolution. Subsequently, basic studies of the Paleolithic, begun in France, led to the Paleolithic classification of Gabriel Mortillet (1821–98). At the same time excavations were made in the Middle East and the classical world, the most famous of which were those of Heinrich Schliemann at Troy and later in Greece. This again initiated studies by the Americans in mainland Greece, the French at Delos and Delphi, and the English in Crete and Egypt. Solid archaeological techniques and methods were developing as a result of research in Europe—work in northern Italy and Switzerland on the Swiss lake dwellers, diggings and analyses by Danes in the Baltic area, and the excavations of barrows, earthworks, and villages in England by Augustus H. Pitt-Rivers (1827–1900). Archaeologists were also beginning to work in America. One group was attempting to determine the identity of the MOUND BUILDERS, (q.v.); another sought evidence of the Paleolithic period in the New World.
New Trends and Great Discoveries.
Although archaeologists working in the Old World continued much as before, the trend in the New World changed radically about the turn of the century, ushering in a period that lasted until the Great Depression. The principal reason for this change was the influence of the American anthropologist Franz Boas, who criticized cultural evolutionary studies, both for their methods and for their lack of careful anthropological data collection. For archaeology this meant a need for meticulous stratigraphic studies, good field and digging techniques, and a knowledge of specific tribes or ethnic groups. During this period the classic studies of the U.S. Southwest began, culminating in the Pecos excavations of Alfred V. Kidder (1885–1963); basic Inuit (Eskimo) studies were undertaken by Danish archaeologists; shell mounds were dug in California; and the general sequence of events in the Valley of Mexico was established.
The Middle East, however, was the site of the largest archaeological projects of this period. Sir Leonard Woolley (1880–1960) dug at Ur, Sir Arthur Evans at Knossos, James H. Breasted and the Oriental Institute of Chicago in Iran, Howard Carter and the earl of Carnarvon in Egypt, and the French at Nineveh. Great archaeological treasures were discovered by these expeditions.
Simultaneously, research into the Paleolithic was moving ahead. Studies were conducted in the caves of France, and Paleolithic artifacts were turned up in China, Burma, India, Java, the Middle East, and Africa. The Lower Paleolithic was charted, the typology of lithic (stone) tools becoming the basis for classifications. Advances were made in the field of classical archaeology, and the Neolithic, Bronze, and Iron ages were investigated in many countries—the Danes and the British leading the way. New techniques, such as clay varve studies (based on annual deposition of silt), pollen analysis, fluorine tests, and aerial photography, were developed.
Charting Regional Chronologies.
The period between the First and Second World Wars was marked by major U.S. research initiatives overseas at sites such as the AGORA, (q.v.) of classical Athens and the ancient city of Megiddo in Israel. With the Depression, financial support for such expeditions was reduced, and local and regional areas became the focus of archaeological research. In the Americas one group was concerned with finding evidence of human life in the New World before the end of the Ice Age. A plethora of new finds enabled them to set the date for the first humans in the Americas farther back.
Another archaeological focus in the Americas was establishing local and regional chronologies. This began in the U.S. under the federal Works Progress Administration, which sponsored local archaeological programs to relieve unemployment. One direct outgrowth was river-basin archaeology, which has led to great advances in dating the Great Plains cultures. Latin American governments also sponsored archaeological projects. Throughout the New World archaeologists established local and regional chronologies, and Willard F. Libby's development of the radiocarbon (carbon-14) dating method (1947) helped place their conclusions on a firmer chronological footing.
The New Archaeology.
During the 1960s, however, many archaeologists began to find historiography-oriented archaeology sterile. Some, such as the American anthropologist Walter W. Taylor (1913– ), deplored the overemphasis on chronology and sought to use anthropological data about contemporary cultures to understand those of the past. Others—Albert C. Spaulding (1914– ), for example—demanded more sophisticated quantitative methods and techniques. Still others felt that archaeologists were not focusing sufficiently on theoretical objectives. Many young archaeologists of the 1950s sought to understand how and why cultural changes took place instead of simply describing and dating them. In their view, the ultimate goal of archaeology is to formulate laws of cultural change, thereby establishing it as a science. They believed that understanding the process of change in one area of archaeological research would yield generalizations that could be applied to other areas. The leader of this new movement was Lewis R. Binford (1930– ), who began writing on the subject about 1960, ushering in yet another period—that of the new archaeology.
The basic characteristics of the new archaeology are the following: (1) explicit use of evolutionary theory; (2) employment of sophisticated cultural and ecological concepts, which often require an interdisciplinary approach in fieldwork and computer techniques in analysis; and (3) use of systems theory. Although it became clear during the 1970s and 1980s that the so-called new archaeology had failed to keep its promise of turning archaeology into a fully law-bound science, the contributions of the 1960s should not be minimized. Contemporary archaeology owes much of its cognitive structure to the new archaeologists.
A recent major development in Old World archaeology has been the recognition that the chronologies of European prehistory, which had been based on the radiocarbon dating method, were incorrect owing to flaws in the method. Another chronology has been proposed that has resulted not simply in the redating of individual monuments but rather, in terms defined by British archaeologist Colin Renfrew (1937– ), in the establishment of a new paradigm of prehistoric cultural development. Previously, cultural achievements such as the development of metallurgy were to have radiated from a single point of invention in the Middle East.. Now, multiple sites of invention have been posited, leading to a conception of humans as much more innovative than previously supposed.
During the 1980s and early 1990s, archaeologists in North America have increasingly been called upon to adapt their research strategies to reflect the interests of Native Americans, who have insisted that their cultural values be respected when excavations are conducted. The accommodation of scientific strategies to traditional cultural sensitivities marks a new direction in archaeological practice and is a development that was scarcely contemplated a few decades ago, when it was assumed that rigidly scientific objectivity would soon dominate archaeology.
In the New World, studies of early humans indicate that they may have begun coming to the landmass some 30,000 years ago. In the Old World, Louis and Mary Leakey and others have established that humans used tools 5 million years ago. Even more important, the various kinds of archaeologists—classical, anthropological, historical, and other kinds—have begun to communicate with one another, not only to improve their methodology but also to understand the processes of cultural change.
METHODS AND TECHNIQUES
The archaeologist's work may be divided into successive stages: data collection, description, preliminary analysis, and interpretation.
Data Collection.
Field work is preceded by extensive reviews of the existing literature. Ancient texts, modern histories, and geological and environmental studies must all be consulted before data collection begins. Archaeological reconnaissance is conducted in order to locate promising sites for the collection of data. Traditionally, archaeologists relied on accidental discoveries, historical research, and surveys on foot to find such sites. By the mid-20th century, aerial photography had become an important additional method of reconnaissance. Since the 1970s a number of sophisticated new techniques have been added, including the use of ground-penetrating radar, infrared sensors, electrical resistivity, proton magnetometers, and remote sensing by orbiting satellites. In the field of underwater archaeology, the introduction of new sonar and electronic sensing devices has resulted in a greatly enhanced ability to detect the ruins of sunken ships. In the search for buried archaeological remains, the goal is to find sites that will yield undisturbed, stratified deposits of artifacts. Ideally, the layers of objects will allow a clear chronology to be established and, given enough contextual information, the reconstruction of an entire cultural system for each historical level. The better the initial survey is, the easier are the excavation and field research. See AERIAL SURVEY,.
This preliminary work leads directly to intensive data collection, accomplished primarily by digging. The purpose of excavation is twofold: to establish chronology and to make contextual observations. The old, reliable way of establishing a chronology was to dig stratified sites, preferably by peeling off superimposed occupation layers. Many other ways of obtaining relative, chronometric, or absolute dates have now been developed (see below). With interdisciplinary techniques, such data may be collected for any occupation site, stratified or not. Making contextual observations from occupational layers also requires careful excavation techniques, with particular attention to the location of each artifact and ecofact (preserved sample of ancient ecology). Such formation must be supplemented by environmental data, collected by means of interdisciplinary techniques. Preliminary collection of such data often begins with zoological, botanical, and geological surveys and with studies of the soil and climate in order to define the ecosystem and microenvironment within which the digging is to be done.
Description and Preliminary Analysis.
Laboratory analysis and description usually follow the data collection, but some simultaneous work of this nature can greatly enhance the excavation. Preliminary analysis during data collection can reveal gaps in the chronology and contextual field and thus indicate where more data should be collected. The important analysis, however, usually comes afterward. Like data collection, it is twofold: chronological and contextual.
Defining the chronology.
Although the use of interdisciplinary techniques may result in fine chronometric and temporal dimensions, the chronology must be basically determined by the artifact sequence in the specific stratigraphic contents. Stratigraphy, however, is not the only determinant of relative chronology. Dating artifacts by the geological age of their strata, by their association with sequentially aligned fossil animals or plant remains (such as pollen), or by association with datable artifacts are other ways of arriving at a relative chronology. Of course, in some cases, chronology can be established absolutely with radiocarbon dating, dendrochronology, thermoluminescence, archaeomagnetism, and clay varve dating. Mass spectrometry and atomic accelerators are being used to date artifacts and remains by radiometric methods. See DATING METHODS,.
Defining cultural contexts.
The study of cultural contexts generally follows the determination of chronology and is a more complicated process. The purpose of studying cultural and ecological contexts is to reconstruct cultural and ecological systems. Each artifact is then considered not as a time marker but rather as a result of, and part of, human activity.
The physical position of an artifact may be determined by relatively simple means—careful in situ excavation—but understanding exactly what activity produced it and how that activity fit into the ancient culture of its producer is often problematic. Interdisciplinary data collection may reveal where, and in what part of the ecosystem, the materials for the artifact were found, and—more important—it may establish a relationship between the culture and the ecosystem. Each piece of garbage, botanical and zoological, indicates something about subsistence activities, the elements of the ecosystem, the seasonality of settlement patterns, trading habits, and so forth. The manner of burial and the contents of tombs imply much about the past, particularly in terms of kinship, rank, status, and religious activities, as do other features, such as fire pits and architectural remains. Each artifact reflects activities during the periods when humans occupied a site.
Interpretation.
Having all this material in hand, the archaeologist then attempts to synthesize the reconstructed regional chronologies into a sequence of cultures and ecosystems in major areas or interrelated regions. Ideally, this becomes a dynamic description of processes that can be analyzed to determine the causes of cultural change. In other words, it attempts to reveal not only how such change happened but why. R.S.Ma., RICHARD STOCKTON MacNEISH, M.A., Ph.D.
THE ARCHAEOLOGICAL RECORD
The preceding discussion has introduced the discipline of archaeology, its history, methods, and objectives. This section presents some conclusions that archaeologists have reached regarding the human past and describes some major sites and artifacts they have uncovered during the past century or two.
THE MIDDLE EAST
Since the beginning of systematic archaeological research, the Middle East, from Mesopotamia to Egypt, from earliest times to the Islamic period, has been a principal area of investigation, and it is perhaps the region that has yielded the richest rewards.
Mesopotamia.
Archaeological exploration in Mesopotamia began with the surveys of Babylon (1812) and Nineveh (1820) made by C. James Rich (1787–1820). His reports drew the French consul Paul Émile Botta to the ruins of NINEVEH (q.v.) and nearby Khorsabad (in present-day Iraq) to dig for relics in 1843–45 and the British traveler Sir Austen Henry Layard (1817–94) to Nineveh and Nimrud (the ancient Calah), a few years later; both were supported by their governments. Based on his work deciphering Persian, Sir Henry C. Rawlinson, Edward Hincks (1792–1866), and other scholars were translating the Assyro-Babylonian cuneiform script. Thus, the written texts on the stone carvings and the thousands of clay tablets found at Nineveh could be read and the history of the kingdoms restored. Great palaces, with miles of sculptured reliefs, demonstrated the power of Assyrian kings previously known only from references in the Bible and in Greek writings. Excavations in the Assyrian palaces have continued sporadically to the present day.
Twelve seasons (1949–63) of digging by British archaeologists at Nimrud, Iraq, yielded hundreds of finely carved ivory panels—furniture decorations—the booty of Assyrian armies. A German team excavated (1903–13) the ruins of the Assyrian capital, Ashur, and with great skill disentangled superimposed mud-brick temples and palaces that dated from the 3d millennium bc to the 3d century ad.. These structures displayed the culture of early Assyria and its dependence on Babylonia, and historical information came from numerous inscriptions. Farther south another German team, led by Robert Koldewey (1855–1925), worked (1899–1914) at Babylon, revealing the city's plan in its heyday under Nebuchadnezzar II. The Ishtar Gate, covered with blue-glazed bricks and magic animals molded in relief, the temple of Marduk, the royal palace, city walls, and a Euphrates bridge were the principal discoveries. See also BABYLON.
In 1877 the French consul Ernest de Sarzec (1837–1901) found magnificent statues of the Sumerian ruler Gudea (c. 2144–2124 bc) at the ancient city of Lagash, now called al-Hiba (Iraq), clues to the high culture there about 2130 bc.. This kindled interest in SUMER (q.v.) and its civilization. At Nippur (Iraq) an American team began work in 1887, finding thousands of cuneiform tablets, notably literary compositions in Sumerian. The work of Sir Leonard Woolley at UR (q.v.) in 1922–34 revealed splendidly equipped tombs of Sumerian kings (c. 2500 bc) and well-built houses (c. 1800 bc). At Mari (now Tell Hariri) on the mid-Euphrates, the French archaeologist André Parrot (1901–80) unearthed a great palace from about 1800 bc and buildings and sculpture of the 3d millennium. German discoveries at Uruk, or Erech (now Warka), since 1928 have disclosed the skill of architects and artisans of about 3500 bc, as well as the earliest writing known. Since World War II continuing work has enlarged knowledge of all periods, notably the earliest—about 6000–3000 bc—when the first settlements were made in Babylonia.
Research into the remains of the Parthian and Sassanid empires (c. 250 bc–ad 650) has recovered palatial buildings and temples at Hatra, CTESIPHON, (q.v.), and Kish (all in Iraq). Islamic sites, such as Samarra and Wasit, have been excavated or surveyed, and those above ground have been restored.
Egypt.
Modern knowledge of ancient Egypt began with the scholars Napoleon Bonaparte took to survey the country in his campaign of 1798. Their discovery of the Rosetta Stone (1799), an important artifact (a heavy block of black basalt, now in the British Museum, London), bearing an inscription written in hieroglyphic, demotic, and in Greek characters, precipitated Jean François Champollion's decipherment (1822) of Egyptian hieroglyphics. Now the monuments could be understood, and surveys of those standing above ground were undertaken by Karl R. Lepsius and others; these are still valuable because the sites have since been damaged or destroyed. At the same time large-scale collecting for private and public collections resulted in the loss of much information. In 1858 the Cairo Museum was founded, and treasure hunting was gradually controlled. Finally, in the 1880s Sir Flinders Petrie began to excavate systematically and interpreted his finds more methodically.
Exploration in the south since 1960 has located sites where late Paleolithic people cultivated barley, the earliest attempts at farming the rich Nile soil. Subsequent Neolithic cultures brought true agriculture, pottery, and weaving, culminating in the so-called Tasian phase, which merged into the first metalworking period, the Badarian. It was during the Badarian that copper was first utilized and the red-polished, black-topped ware typical of early Egypt was first made. Petrie's excavation (1894–95) of 3000 graves at Naqada first brought to light the period just before the beginning of Egyptian history, about 3400 bc. Later studies distinguished the culture of the south from that of the north, where west Asian influences—and possibly a different race—encouraged advances in pottery (painted with images of people and boats) and metalwork.
According to tradition, the southern king Menes united the land at the beginning of the dynastic age (c. 3100 bc). A series of slate palettes for cosmetics from that time bear elaborate carved battle and hunting scenes; chief among them is the Palette of King Narmer (fl. about 3100 bc), perhaps another name for Menes. Similar carvings on stone and ivory mace-heads and handles reveal links with other cultures in the Near East, and the oldest known hieroglyphic texts date from this time. The early history of northern Egypt was virtually unknown until recent excavations revealed evidence for the Predynastic and early Dynastic periods. Given the emergence of strong families of rulers, the first of Egypt's lavishly equipped tombs also appear. Cemeteries at the sites of Naqada, Abydos, and Saqqara furnish considerable evidence of the history and culture of this time. The large brick tombs (mastabas) at Saqqara gave place to stone pyramids, the first rising in steps, but later ones, such as that of Khufu (Cheops) at Giza, cased in smooth blocks. Robbed of their treasures long ago, they yet tell of the skill and ability to move stone in those centuries. Gold-plated wooden furniture of Queen Hetepheres (fl. about 2600 bc), reburied in antiquity after a robbery, was brilliantly restored from a mass of fragments by George A. Reisner (1867–1942) of Harvard University in 1924–27. King Menkaure (r. about 2578–2553 bc) is known from the fine slate statue of him found by Reisner; it is now in Boston.
Until recently, Egyptian archaeology concentrated on tombs and temples, because most ancient town sites are still occupied. They are generally in the damp river valley, where perishable materials do not survive; burials were made in the desert, where the heat dries and preserves most things. Wooden models of domestic activities, left in tombs, join paintings, wall carvings, and tools buried with the dead to give a fuller view of ancient life than other civilizations afford. The tomb of King Tutankhamen, (who reigned about 1334 to 1325 bc), was the richest in content and craftsmanship; most of its treasures are on display in the Egyptian Museum, Cairo. Hundreds of other tombs, from the 1st Dynasty on, display the life-styles of rich and poor alike.
Near the royal tombs in the VALLEY OF THE KINGS, (q.v.) stands a complete village where generations of tomb carvers and artisans lived. Scientifically excavated, its houses supplement the material from the tombs. Numerous discarded notes, scribbled on broken pottery or stone flakes, identify some of the carvers and their houses, telling of their work, their food, and their faith.
The eccentric religious ideas of Ikhnaton, the “heretic” pharaoh, led him to establish a new capital at Akhetaton (now Tell el-Amarna). A chance find of some 400 clay tablets, written in Babylonian, drew attention to the site in 1887. These tablets were letters concerning relations with the Middle East from about 1375 to 1330 bc.. Excavation in the town uncovered workers' cottages, which were better than many modern laborers enjoy, and some fine villas of the wealthy.. Unusually naturalistic art forms characterize the period, as illustrated by the exquisite head of Nefertiti (fl. 1340 bc), Ikhnaton's principal queen. See also TELL EL-AMARNA,.
Studies of the great temples of al-Karnak and Luxor have traced successive stages of building and alteration, frequently leading to the recovery of sculptured blocks reused by later builders. Such reuse created a mystery for modern scholars in the delta area. Ramses II and his successors lived at Pi-Ramesse in the delta. Early archaeologists first sought the town at Pelusium and then at Tanis, where quantities of sculptured stones with Ramses' name suggested it had stood. These monuments were transported to Tanis during the period from the 11th to the 8th century bc, when the city was sometimes used as a capital. Recent research suggests that Ramses II's stones were brought from Qantir, 29 km (18 mi) to the south, where Ramses certainly had a palace; indeed, Qantir has been identified as the site of Pi-Ramesse. See KARNAK, AL-; LUXOR,
Archaeologists have traced imports from the Aegean from the 15th to the 13th century bc; association of Mycenaean pottery with tombs of known Egyptian kings is vital for the study of early Greek archaeology, although not entirely satisfactory. Greek traders, mercenaries, and even tourists were in Egypt from the 7th century bc on, and they left various relics. With Alexander the Great's conquest, the Greek language began to replace Egyptian. Thousands of papyrus documents, dating from the following millennium, have been found in the towns around Fayyum Lake (Birket Qarun) near Cairo, abandoned when the irrigation system failed. Other sites have yielded thousands more. These papyri vividly record every aspect of life in astonishing detail. They are also the source of the oldest copies of many famous Greek books and of the New Testament.
Syria and Palestine.
Discoveries in Syria and Palestine are of particular importance for the study of the earliest settled human life. Remains of Mesolithic cave and terrace sites of the Natufian culture (c. 10,800–8500 bc), have been found on Mount Carmel, where they were excavated by the British archaeologist Dorothy Garrod (1892–1968) from 1929–34, and in the Judean desert. Houses at 'Eyan ('Ain Mallaha) in the upper Jordan Rift Valley and structures in the ruins of Jericho are other examples of Natufian remains. With the advance from the Mesolithic to the Neolithic, farming communities arose, such as that at Mureybet on the mid-Euphrates, excavated in the mid-1960s and early 1970s. In some “pre-pottery” Neolithic centers, clay plaster faces, which were finely modeled on the skulls of the dead, were buried below the floors of houses. During the subsequent “pottery” Neolithic (c. 6000–4000 bc), cultural impulses came primarily from the north and east, a situation that continued in the first metal-using phase, represented in Palestine by the sites of Ghassul in the Jordan Valley and others near Beersheba. Developed cities of the early Bronze Age (c. 3200–2200 bc) have been uncovered in the mid-Euphrates area at BYBLOS, (q.v.) and in Palestine at Tell el-Farah (north) and Jericho. All these cities had walls with closely placed square or semicircular towers. The magnificent mud brick palace at EBLA, (q.v.) in central Syria dates from the end of this period. The royal archives, written in a Semitic language and Sumerian in cuneiform on clay tablets, brilliantly illuminate Syrian history from about 2500 to 2200 bc.. Cylinder seals and objects carved in stone, shell, and wood attest to the high level of artistic production at the court of Ebla.
After a decline, associated by many scholars with movements of Amorite tribes, cities again flourished in the area from about 1900 to 1200 bc.. French excavations since 1929 at Ugarit on the Syrian coast have provided a fine example of a major Canaanite city. Here, pottery from Cyprus, Crete, and Greece demonstrates the westward sea trade; other items show links with Egypt and Babylonia. Scribes wrote Egyptian on papyrus and Babylonian (a dialect of the Akkadian) and Hurrian in cuneiform on clay tablets. To write their own language, Ugaritic (see SEMITIC LANGUAGES,), they used (about 1400 bc) an alphabetic script with 30 signs, considered to be the first alphabet.. In this they wrote documents of every sort, including myths about their gods that give a unique picture of local religion.
Burned and ruined buildings bespeak the violent destruction in the early 12th century bc of Ugarit and other late Bronze Age cities by the invaders known in the Egyptian texts as the Peoples of the Sea, among them the Philistines, and others (see BIBLICAL ARCHAEOLOGY,). The following Iron Age has been much more intensively studied in Palestine than in Syria. At Hamah (Hamath) on the Orontes (Asi) River, a Danish expedition in 1931–38 uncovered citadel buildings destroyed by Assyrian troops in 720 bc; the expedition found carved ivory and stone sculpture. Farther north, British Museum work at Carchemish on the Syrian/Turkish border produced stone slabs and a statue of the neo-Hittite style probably carved in the 9th century bc.
Monumental buildings of the Hellenistic-Roman age, still standing above ground in Syria-Palestine, have long drawn scholarly attention.. At Petra, in Jordan, carved rock tombs exhibit a fusion of Oriental and Greek motifs in the capital of the NABATAEANS, (q.v.). Other mixtures can be seen in Palmyra, a trading center in Syria, where extensive excavations have been made; Roman town planning is evident here, as it is in numerous other towns of the region. Late Roman buildings, early Byzantine churches and synagogues, and later Muslim buildings are often adorned with pictorial mosaic floors. The Great Mosque of Damascus is built on the site of a Roman temple and early Christian cathedral. Its courtyard is decorated with exquisite mosaics depicting gardens and buildings by a river. Early Muslim princes utilized the skills of local artisans, as found in the mosaic and stonework of the Umayyad villa (c. 740) at Khirbet al-Mafjar, near Jericho. Other villas and castles in the Syrian desert exemplify early Islamic architectural skills.
The state antiquities organizations of Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, and Israel sponsor excavations by their own staffs and qualified foreigners. Excavations are continually revealing new discoveries.
Other Middle Eastern Areas.
Turkey was the scene of one of the first famous archaeological excavations, when Heinrich Schliemann worked at TROY, (q.v.). Gold jewelry found by Schliemann, as well as some remarkable gold plate from tombs at Alaca Hüyük, attest to the high skills of early Bronze Age Anatolians. Observations by travelers led to the discovery of Hattusha (now Bogÿazköy, east of Ankara), the capital of the Hittite Empire (c. 1800–1200 bc). German archaeologists began excavations there in 1906, and work continues. Within the heavily fortified city were elaborate palaces and temples, some yielding thousands of clay tablets bearing texts in the Indo-European language of the Hittites.
Far older than Troy is Çatal Hüyük, investigated in 1961–65. Here, cattle-farming Mesolithic and Neolithic people built a town of small houses that were huddled together and could be entered by way of the roof. Several small shrines were adorned with plaster reliefs of mother-goddess and animal figures, and wall paintings showed hunting scenes. This and subsequent work, aided by advanced techniques for recovering plant remains, has opened a new stage in understanding early human settlement in Anatolia.
Arabia is archaeologically the least-known area. Paleolithic flints have been collected in many places, but little subsequent material has been found that predates pottery of the Mesopotamian Ubaid type (c. 4000 bc). A gap of some 3000 years intervenes before the next known era, when cities in the southwest grew rich on the trade in incense. Excavations in Aden and Yemen have revealed fine stone temples, South Arabian inscriptions, and metalwork, showing trade with Rome and India. A.R.M., A. R. MILLARD, M.A., M.Phil., F.S.A.
EUROPE
The sequence of periods called the Neolithic (or New Stone Age), Copper Age, Bronze Age, and Iron Age describes an evolution of European civilization on the basis of the material most conspicuously in use during each of them. This evolution took place at a somewhat faster pace and under different circumstances in the Greek-Aegean region than in the rest of Europe. The history of the former provides the correlative dates for the latter, where the Bronze Age lasted from about 2000 bc to roughly 700 bc.
Greece.
The archaeology of Greece includes the study of the Bronze Age and still earlier phases (see AEGEAN CIVILIZATION,; MINOAN CULTURE,; MYCENAE,). The Iron Age developed in Greece after the collapse of the Mycenaean culture, and is divided into five archaeological periods: the Protogeometric (c. 1050–900 bc) and the Geometric (c. 900–700 bc), after the style of pottery produced; the Archaic (c. 700–500 bc), named for the style of its art in comparison with that of the following period; the Classical (c. 500–330 bc), a period that saw remarkable achievements in art, architecture, and literature, so much so that its culture became the classical reference point for many subsequent civilizations; and the Hellenistic (c. 330–50 bc), when Greek culture spread throughout much of the central and eastern Mediterranean, carried initially by the conquests of Alexander the Great and affirmed by his successors. During these periods, spanning about 1000 years, Greek civilization developed artistic, architectural, literary, and governmental forms that have had a lasting impact.
Geographically, the Protogeometric and Geometric periods encompass Greece proper and the Ionian (west) coast of Asia Minor. Near the end of the Geometric and during much of the Archaic period, the Greek city-states, prompted by an expansion of trading activity and perhaps by overpopulation at home, founded colonies in Sicily; southern Italy, which was known in antiquity as Magna Graecia (Lat., “Greater Greece”); and the Black Sea region. Archaeologists have been able to construct the chronology of this whole period by matching the foundation dates for these colonies in ancient literary sources with material found through excavations, particularly in Sicily and Magna Graecia. The chronologies of the Classical period and later are helped even more by literary sources as these become more and more abundant. While the focus of archaic and classical Hellenic civilization lay in mainland Greece, principally in cities such as Athens, Sparta, and Corinth, the Hellenistic period saw the focus shift eastward and westward, with the dramatic growth of cities such as Ephesus, on the coast of Asia Minor; Alexandria, in Egypt; Syracuse, in Sicily; and Rome itself.
Recent excavations on the island of Crete have yielded extensive material evidence about the earliest years of the Iron Age, which, in the absence of written records, has been sometimes referred to as the Dark Ages. Research here and in other prehistoric and classical sites throughout the Mediterranean has been aided by the development and application of extensive topographical surveys, laboratory analyses of plant and animal remains, and extensive computerization at all phases of research.
Excavations in Sicily, particularly in its eastern shores, and in Italy, from Naples south, have revealed pottery and other objects that show clear connections with mainland Greek culture from the late Iron Age on. Pottery from Corinth and Athens is particularly abundant, obviously prized items for trade. The city of Athens in particular dominates our knowledge of mainland Greece because its citizens left such a copious literary record, in thousands of carved inscriptions as well as many books and plays handed down through the ages. Athens has also been the focus of archaeological exploration for over a century and a half, since it was named capital of modern Greece in 1834. The work of Greek and, later, American archaeologists, has unearthed a plethora of objects, such as sculpture, figurines, pottery, jewelry, coins, and everyday utensils, as well as architectural remains that illustrate Athenian civilization in great detail. Other Greek sites have been explored as well, including Corinth and Sparta, two of the most powerful of the many Greek city-states, and the great sanctuaries, or holy places, at Olympia and Delphi, excavated since the late 19th century by German and French teams, respectively. Recent excavations by Greek archaeologists in northern Greece, particularly in the vast necropoli (“cities of the dead”) in and around Vergina, and in the city of Pella, have revealed much new information about the rise of the kingdom of Macedon, whose kings Philip and, his son, Alexander spread Hellenic civilization throughout the eastern Mediterranean and all the way to northwest India. See also GREEK ART AND ARCHITECTURE; HELLENISTIC AGE.
Rome.
The archaeology of Rome, and later, the Roman Empire, has been divided into phases: the Iron Age in Rome, which embraces roughly the same chronological span as in the Greek world; the Archaic period, when Rome was ruled by kings; the period of the Republic, or Republican period; and the Empire. The Archaic period came to an end in the late 6th century bc, traditionally in 509 bc, when the monarchy yielded to the Republic. The end of the Roman Republic, and the beginning of the Roman Empire, is dated conventionally to 31 bc, with the total victory of Octavian, the future Emperor Augustus, over his rivals and the consolidation of power in the hands of one man.
For centuries the extensive ruins of imperial Rome plus a vast literary record focused archaeological attention on Rome's later history, but 20th-century exploration in particular has revealed the archaeological record of Iron Age and Republican Rome. Excavations on the Palatine, one of the Seven Hills of Rome, have revealed a modest Iron Age settlement characterized by houses so simple they have been termed huts. Archaeology has also revealed the process by which this settlement and others nearby united to create a city that eventually displaced Etruscan rule in central Italy (see ETRUSCAN CIVILIZATION,). What would be equivalent to the Greek archaic period saw in Rome the rise of monumental architecture and the initial phases of a planned central urban area, including a sophisticated drainage system.
The period of the Republic saw Rome subjugate all of Italy and Sicily and gradually expand its power, during the Hellenistic Age, into the eastern Mediterranean. Archaeology has traced the growth of Rome in the increasing monumentalization of the city itself, where a distinctive architectural style blending local forms with those adopted from the Greek world made its appearance. One of Rome's major contributions to architecture was the invention of concrete, a material that freed builders from the constraints of the rectilinear post-and-lintel system and allowed them to construct structures with curves, such as the vaulted dome of the PANTHEON, (q.v.).
Perhaps the most remarkable and complete archaeological record of the late Republic and early Empire comes from the buried cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum, south of Naples. Destroyed by the eruption of Vesuvius on Aug.. 24–25, 79 ad and buried in volcanic matter, these cities were rediscovered in the 18th century. They are still being excavated, although in a much more painstaking and scientific manner than was undertaken 200 years ago. These cities have provided a precious record of every aspect of life not only in these provincial towns but in the capital itself. Of great importance to the history of art are the wall paintings of Pompeii, which archaeologists have used to establish the classification and chronology for Roman painting of the late Republic and early Empire.
The emperor Augustus and his successors continued to expand the borders of the Roman Empire, which eventually encompassed most of the territory from the British Isles to the Caspian Sea. Roman legions built new cities in every corner of the empire. The archaeological exploration of many of these cities has revealed a startling uniformity in plan, in spite of local variations. Based on a grid layout, a typical Roman city contains a governmental complex utilizing the ubiquitous basilica form (an all-purpose rectangular roofed building); temples on elevated terraces; often enormous bath houses; gymnasia; stadia (sports arenas); theaters; libraries; market areas, both open-air and covered; and often extensive public water and drainage systems. While the overall form and appearance are Roman, there is a strong admixture of local elements. The exploration of these cities has provided information on life and society through to the end of antiquity and the beginning of the Middle Ages. See also CITY PLANNING,; FORUM; ROMAN ART AND ARCHITECTURE,.
Other European Areas.
The Neolithic and Copper Ages mark the periods when agriculture and animal husbandry were first introduced to Europe and then were adapted to the temperate environment of the transalpine European territories. As in Greece and Italy, the Bronze Age elsewhere in Europe was the great formative stage out of which patterns of later, more diversified cultures emerged. Owing to the absence of written records, the identification of specific peoples and cultures remains speculative. The group names used by classical authors for contemporary peoples, while probably of only limited significance to the tribally organized ancient Europeans, are still useful: Celts for the inhabitants of western Europe, Germans for the inhabitants of central Europe, and Scythians for the tribes living on the steppes of southern Russia between the Carpathians and the Caucasus. Such architecture as these people had, even their fortifications, was of wood and proved to be ephemeral by Mediterranean standards. Painting and sculpture lay outside their interests, but artistic competence in metal artifacts was traditional and, by the later first millennium bc, of impressive artistic quality. See also CELTS,; GERMANIC PEOPLES,; SCYTHIANS,.
The type name Hallstatt (after a village in Austria) is used to designate the first stage (c. 750–450 bc) of Iron Age civilization in central and southwestern Europe. Excavation of barrow-type graves, or mounds, has revealed elaborate burials, richly defined by bowls, jewelry, and weapons made of metals, including luxury products imported from as far afield as Greece, and even chariots. Such burials suggest ostentation as well as social stratification and the beginnings of a relatively sophisticated European mercantile economy.
The next stage, covering central and northwestern Europe, is called La Tène (c. 450–58 bc) after a lake site in Switzerland, where a cache of weapons, tools, and jewelry was found. Decoration on La Tène artifacts is often nonrepresentational, with complex curvilinear motifs that are in many instances derived from Mediterranean prototypes. Together with expressionistic animal forms derived from Scythian art, these constitute a style important as a precursor of the “Barbarian” style that flourished in the folk migration period during the early centuries of the Christian era. J.L.B., JACK L. BENSON, M.A., Ph.D.
ASIA
In some regions of Asia archaeological research dates from more than a hundred years ago, whereas other regions remain archaeologically unknown. Consequently the quality and quantity of archaeological data are regionally and chronologically variable.
Southwest Asia.
Early humans may have migrated into the Indian subcontinent from the northwest, across the Iranian Plateau, or entered by way of a southwestern coastal migration from Africa. The earliest human remains, an archaic Homo sapiens skull fragment, were found in the Narmada River valley in central India. Although the Narmada skull was not found among cultural remains, there are several archaeological sites that potentially date it later than 300,000 years ago. India and Southeast Asia represent the easternmost distribution of the Acheulean, a cultural stage of the Lower Paleolithic, also found in Africa, Europe, and the Near East. Acheulean sites are characterized by numerous stone tools such as hand axes, choppers, cleavers, and a variety of stone flakes used for cutting and scraping. Animal and plant remains are rare, but undoubtedly these groups practiced a gathering-hunting way of living. In northern regions sites lacking hand axes are designated as belonging to the Soan culture, but these sites otherwise possessed similar objects. Middle and Upper Paleolithic stages of cultural development exist throughout South Asia, but little is known about their cultural patterns because habitation sites and ecological data are rare. Dates from many sites suggest Paleolithic technologies and gathering-hunting life styles in South Asia persisted quite late, until about 10,000 bc, and even into the modern era.
About 25,000 years ago the emphasis in stone tool technology shifted to making small geometrically shaped tools, or microliths, used for cutting, scraping, piercing, and engraving. Sites in which microliths are found are in all available econiches and in temporary encampments as well as seasonal settlements occupied long enough for multiple burials to occur. Structures varied regionally from tents to mud-coated thatch dwellings, made with either wood or bamboo, or both; by 5000 bc personal ornaments, such as bangles and rings, and pottery are found in the Ganges River valley. The association of iron tools with later gathering-hunting groups, such as at Langhnaj near Ahmadabad, India, indicates that they interacted with others who were technologically and socially more sophisticated. Indeed, some people may have engaged in limited food production; there are indications of domesticated rice at Koldihwa in the Ganges River valley earlier than 5000 bc.
At Mehrgarh, near Sibi, Pakistan, domesticated plants, such as wheat and barley, and animals, especially cattle but also sheep and goats, were identified in an ancient (earlier than 6500 bc) village with mud-brick structures. Villagers also engaged in a variety of craft activities such as basketry, the manufacture of semiprecious stone and copper ornaments and, after 5000 bc, pottery. Their cemeteries were located within the village; some burials have been found to contain craft objects and the remains of young, domesticated goats.
The early Bronze Age (5000–2500 bc) in the northwest witnessed the emergence of several distinct agricultural groups, of the Amri, Sothi, and Kot Diji cultures, named so after their respective sites in Pakistan. Each had its own style of pottery, and each made a variety of stone, bone, shell, metal, and ceramic objects. Most people lived in mud-brick villages; only a few settlements were large enough to be called towns. Contact between cultures was maintained, in part, by trade involving marine shells, metals, and semiprecious stones, but other types of social interaction surely existed. Although each culture shared traits in common with the Indus Valley civilization, no scholarly consensus exists to confirm that any particular one was the direct precursor; furthermore, some of these cultures persisted and were contemporary with the Indus Valley civilization.
The Indus Valley, or Harappan, civilization (2500–1700 bc) occupied the entire Indus River valley. A major Harappan site, south of present-day Larkana, Pakistan, is the city called Mohenjo-daro. It was excavated by the British archaeologist Sir John Marshall (1876–1958) in the 1920s. Harappan urban centers are characterized by similarities of artifacts, such as black-on-red pottery, jewelry, metal tools, stone weights, and stamp seals with a distinctive, but undeciphered, script. All settlements featured public buildings and had an organized layout, although no definite examples of temples, palaces, or royal cemeteries have been found. After 2000 bc ecological changes forced abandonment of many Indus Valley settlements, especially the cities. During this period a major demographic shift eastward occurred into the western Ganges River valley and southeastward into the Gujurat region. Late Harappan culture was characterized by small farming villages; although some large settlements are known, no excavations have been made yet. The typical Harappan artifacts were still made and show increased regional variation, but stamp seals and the Harappan script seem to have become rare; and no undisputed late Harappan cities have been found.
The early historic period is characterized by emergence of state-level organization, iron tools, and at least two new pottery types: Painted Gray Ware (1100–300 bc) and Northern Black Polished Ware (500–100 bc). The people who made the gray pottery lived mostly in villages, inhabiting wattle-and-daub and mud-brick houses. At some sites their culture was initially contemporary with the late Harappan, and thus links the late Bronze Age to the early Iron Age. During the Northern Black Polished Ware period the Mauryan Empire was established, and historical records supplement archaeological data.
China.
Remains of the protohuman called Homo erectus, found at Zhoukoudian (Chou-k'outien), near Peking, in association with animal bones, stone tools, and hearths, have been dated up to 500,000 years old. Stone tools were used for chopping, cutting, and scraping; most animal bones found at the site probably reflect activities of nonhuman carnivores, such as cave hyenas. The simple hearths at this site represent the earliest evidence for the use of fire by humans, excluding some limited and controversial data from Africa. Humans migrated to the Far East by way of central Asia or entered from southeast Asia, where earlier (about 900,000 years ago) examples of Homo erectus were found. Homo erectus populations may have persisted until 250,000 years ago in China, much later than elsewhere.
Evidence of later Pleistocene gathering-hunting groups in China is limited. Only a few sites, such as Sjaraosso-gol, have been found in the north. Some 30,000 years ago this area was occupied by groups that established camps near open water sources. These people probably lived in tents. They used stone tools for scraping and cutting; some animal remains have been preserved. During the post-Pleistocene epoch sites along rivers and lakes proliferated, especially in the south. People who lived on these sites exploited river and lake plants and animals and ultimately planted their own crops.
The earliest period for food production is 7000–5500 bc, at Pengtoushan in the middle Yangtze Valley, where archaeologists have identified domesticated rice grains. Between about 5000 bc and 3000 bc the food-producing Ma-xia-pang culture emerged in the Lake T'ai-hu region in the lower Yangtze Valley east of Shanghai. There, villages of rectangular, timber houses were located either on high ground or on artificial mounds adjacent to water resources. The principal crops were rice, water caltrop, and bottle gourds. Domesticated dogs, water buffalo, and pigs were kept, but gathering and hunting continued to be important. In addition to the usual stone tools, archaeologists have found stone axes and adzes, bone hoes, and a variety of wood, bamboo, antler, and bone tools, as well as pottery. A parallel and contemporary development was the so-called Ho-mu-tu culture, located south of Shanghai in a marshy region. This group constructed wooden pile dwellings and made primitive, cord-impressed pottery, regional varieties of which are found in early agricultural villages throughout eastern and southern China. By 5000 bc a similar group in Taiwan engaged in intensive fishing, shellfish collecting, and gardening. Comparable agricultural groups were widespread throughout south and east China by 3000 bc.. Excavations at burial places in this area indicate the emergence of ranked societies, which continued into the Bronze Age, when the first states developed. Not a great deal of additional archaeological data on these groups is available.
In northwestern China, perhaps as early as the 5th millennium bc, food-producing villages of the YANG-SHAO CULTURE, (q.v.) were located in the Huang He (Huang Ho, or Yellow River) valley. These villages were also associated with cord-impressed pottery. Scholars remain uncertain about the extent of agricultural development in this culture. The villagers exploited wild plants and animals in addition to growing foxtail millet and keeping domesticated dogs and pigs. The Banpocun (Pan-p'o-ts'un) site in Shaanxi (Shensi) Province, which exemplifies these early villages, was surrounded by a ditch and contained many wattle-and-daub dwellings that were partially underground. In the village center was a large, elaborate structure that may have been the home of an important person or perhaps a public building. Besides agriculture, the villagers practiced silkworm cultivation, wove textiles, carved jade, and, in the later phases, manufactured a distinctive painted pottery. Based on the high degree of artifact similarity some scholars argue that distinct social-economic groups of craft specialists were emerging.
Following a series of complex social, political, and economic changes affecting the Yang-shao type groups, the Lung-shan culture emerged in northern China. As in the Yang-shao culture, a great similarity is found in the artifacts of Lung-shan villages, especially their fine black pottery. Villages became larger and were occupied longer. Cultivation of the original crops continued, and rice was introduced from the south. Large walls around settlements, as well as evidence of the manufacture of weapons and of violent deaths, suggest more frequent social conflicts. Writing appeared for the first time in the form of scapulimancy (so-named because the texts were incised on animal bones). The excellence of crafted artifacts, writing, village walls, and varying wealth of goods in graves suggest that the Lung-shan culture was socially stratified.
Through internal changes the Lung-shan culture gradually developed into the first Chinese civilization, which includes the Hsia and Shang dynasties. Most information about this period comes from sites near Zhengzhou (Chengchou). During the Shang period the first written records appeared, as did monumental architecture, craft specialization, cities, and gross differences in social and political prestige. The Shang capital, Ao, had city walls enclosing noble residences; artisans and farmers lived outside. It was these suburban artisans who made the craft objects characteristic of the period, among them elaborate articles of bronze.
Near Anyang, the administrative and ceremonial center of Xiaotun (Hsiao-t'un) and the royal cemetery at Xibeigang (Hsi-pei-kang) have been excavated. These Shang sites had thousands of oracle bones, which contained qualitatively new types of information about the culture. Spectacular art objects and other wealth, as well as the many human sacrifices associated with the royal cemetery, demonstrate the nobility's political and economic power. All essential traits of Chinese civilization had been established by the time the Shang dynasty was replaced by the Chou, late in the 1st millennium bc.. See also CHINESE ART AND ARCHITECTURE,; LUNG-SHAN CULTURE,; YANG-SHAO CULTURE,.
Other Asian Countries.
Fossils of Homo erectus found in Southeast Asia, especially Java, Indonesia, have been dated at sometime after 900,000 years ago; cultural remains from this and subsequent periods are limited to scattered finds of hand axes, choppers, flake scrapers, and knives, showing a gathering-hunting way of life. Between 15,000 and 10,000 years ago, wild plant and animal resources that included yams, taro, and wild rice, seem to have been intensely used. At Spirit Cave in Thailand one such gatherer-hunter group, about 7000–5700 bc, made stone adzes, pottery, and a type of slate knife, that, in later periods, was associated with rice cultivation. No direct evidence for any cereal cultivation, however, has been identified. Other sites in Thailand indicating possible early cultivation of rice are Khok Phanom Di on the coast, about 2000–1400 bc; Banyan Valley Cave in the north, in deposits that may date as early as 5500 bc and as late as ad 800; and Non Nok Tha on the Mekong River, about 3000–2000 bc, where evidence also exists for domesticated cattle. Controversy also surrounds evidence for early metallurgy in Thailand. Sophisticated bronze axes in the Non Nok Tha cemetery, initially dated at 3700 bc, are now dated at about 2000–1000 bc.. Similarly, sophisticated bronzes in the Ban Chiang cemetery, northern Thailand, were initially dated to at least about 2100 bc but these dates have also been questioned. Recent excavations at Non Pa Wai, northeastern Thailand, revealed extensive copper smelting activities that dated prior to about 2000 bc.. Comparable bronze objects have been recovered at sites in Vietnam dating to the 2d millennium bc.. Clearly much remains to be discovered about Southeast Asian cultural development.
Japan was inhabited during the Pleistocene, and many sites have stone tools similar to those in Asian cultures of that time. By the late Pleistocene, gathering-hunting groups intensely exploited marine and wild plant resources, a pattern that persisted until domesticated rice and barley were introduced in the south sometime after about 1100 bc.. Designated the Jomon culture, these people lived in small villages of semiunderground houses associated with shell middens. The earliest dated pottery in the ancient world, 11,000 bc, was found in these Jomon villages. After about 5000 bc on Honshu island very sophisticated Jomon pottery was found among large clusters of well-constructed wooden houses. The Jomon period persisted until about 350 bc; it was followed by the Yayoi period, during which traditional Japanese culture was formed. See also JAPANESE ART AND ARCHITECTURE, J.G.Sh., JIM G. SHAFFER, M.A., Ph.D.
THE AMERICAS
Archaeological studies in the New World have revealed five generally successive, although sometimes overlapping, stages of human life on the continents—the Lithic, the Archaic, the Formative, the Classic, and the Post-Classic.
The Lithic Stage.
This earliest stage began with the first arrival of Asian hunters in the New World. Probably Mongoloids, the earliest arrivals began crossing the Bering Strait over an ice-age land bridge, possibly about 50,000 years ago. Archaeological evidence suggests four waves of migration, although linguistic studies of modern tribes suggest three.
Archaeologists have been sharply divided over when these earliest people first arrived. Some maintain that there is no firm evidence of a human presence before 11,500 years ago, the age of spearpoints found near Clovis, N.Mex. Others consider that archaeological evidence from places such as the Meadowcroft Rockshelter in Pennsylvania and Monte Verde in Chile, which they date at 16,000 and 13,000 years ago respectively, establishes a pre-Clovis presence and lends credence to even older dates attributed to other artifacts of a more fragmentary nature.
From sparse, scattered finds, the tools of the Lithic stage show a general progression, over the course of some 20,000 years, from unifacial chipped stone and bone to bifacial leaf-shaped points and blades, to the fluted projectile points used by the Clovis people. Clovis points were used in killing mammoths and other big game until the close of the Pleistocene epoch, but in some places, such as Tierra del Fuego, the Lithic stage lasted into the Recent epoch, that is, until historic times.
The Archaic Stage.
With the extinction of the megafauna and other Pleistocene animals, many groups abandoned big-game hunting and became collectors. This afforded them many choices for subsistence that often led to a seasonally scheduled way of life. Perhaps the most typical way of life at the Archaic stage was that adopted in the eastern U.S. between 9000 and 4000 years ago. Here, groups often settled along rivers, developing special techniques for hunting small and big game with darts propelled by spear-throwers. They also made use of aquatic resources, frequently using gill nets with sinkers. Seeds were collected as well and ground with milling stones. Many kinds of thumbnail end scrapers were used for a variety of tasks.
Somewhat akin to these specific groups were the collectors in the boreal forests of Canada and Alaska and along the Arctic coast as far as the Bering Strait. Invaders from Asia, they represented a new way of life in northern North America. Characteristic among their implements were various microblade tools made from tongue-shaped cores, similar to those often found in Siberia, Mongolia, and Japan. They hunted big game with spears and darts, garnered small game in traps, and fished in the lakes. People of this “Northwest Microblade” tradition, who lived mostly inland, contrasted with those living on the coast, who were of the “Small Tool” tradition. The latter also used delicately made microblade tools, arrow points, and other implements, but adapted them both to inland caribou hunting and to harpooning of marine animals.
During this stage, throughout both North and South America, many peoples adapted themselves to life on the seacoasts, and great shell mounds were formed. Obviously, however, many regional differences existed among these coastal Archaics. Groups on the northwest Pacific coast used ground slate and developed watercraft; those in California became seed and shellfish collectors; people on the U.S. Atlantic coast used decorated bone daggers, as well as ground slate, and buried their dead with elaborate ceremonies featuring red paint. In Mesoamerica some groups began making boats that may have brought them to the Antilles.
Others, such as those in Peru, exploited the inland coastal regions (lomas) in one season and the sea in another.
In general, the Archaic peoples of the U.S. southwestern desert, highland Mexico, and highland Peru contrasted sharply with the collectors described above. Although they too may be considered plant collectors, their environment contained potentially domesticable plants, and their seasonal round of activities, exploiting different environments, necessitated storage. Some of these peoples, consequently, began to cultivate and domesticate plants. Eventually, such horticultural practices led to agriculture and, with it, village life and pottery, all characteristics of the next stage—the Formative. In many areas, however, such as the tropical lowlands, California, the Great Basin of the U.S., and the pampas of Chile and Argentina, as well as the forests of northern Canada, people never developed the agricultural village life of the Formative but remained in an extended Archaic stage.
The Formative Stage.
An early substage of the Formative is a period called Woodland, which lasted from about 500 bc to roughly ad 1000 and was characterized by ceremonialism; people of this period made burial mounds and used crude, often cord-marked pottery. The Woodland was followed, especially in the U.S. South and Southeast, by a second substage, distinguished by temple mounds, more advanced agriculture, incised pottery, and large palisaded villages, similar to those of the later Classic stage.
Perhaps the most typical culture of the Formative stage, however, is that of the Pueblo of the U.S. Southwest and their various predecessors, including the Cliff Dwellers (agricultural villagers, who planted corn, beans, and squash and made beautiful black-and-white and polychrome pottery with geometric designs). Among the Pueblo the Formative stage lasted from about the beginning of the Christian era up until the present. See also CLIFF DWELLER,.
Contemporaneous with the Pueblo in the eastern U.S. were people who used unpainted pottery and practiced subsistence agriculture. Although they grew the same plants, their farming was less intensive, and their villages were not built of stone or clay but of wood and bark.
Among the peoples of the Great Plains of the U.S. and Canada, the Formative stage started later than elsewhere, even after the time of Christ. These people also made crude, unpainted pottery, but many of them had little or no agriculture; their economy was based on buffalo hunting. Only along the Missouri River did large villages and agriculture develop just before historic times.
Farther north were other groups that appeared to be of the Formative stage but really were not. The Inuit, for example, used pottery, and both they and the Aleuts lived in villages, but instead of agriculture they developed a maritime economy based on whale hunting. The people on the northwest coast also looked toward the sea for their subsistence; they used even better seacraft and lived in plank-house villages. They had no pottery but are famous for their totem poles and other carved wooden objects.. Because none of these groups had any agriculture—the major trait of the Formative stage—they were actually highly developed Archaics.
The real Formative stage was found mainly in and on both sides of Central America, in the nuclear area from Mexico to Peru. The peoples of this area developed village life, with permanent houses, distinctive pyramids, well-painted pottery, and clay figurines. They practiced a subsistence agriculture that included many other species besides their staples—corn, beans, and squash. In Mexico they grew amaranth, avocado, runner beans, and several other plants. In Central America, northern South America, and the Antilles manioc, or tapioca, was added to the three basics. In Peru potatoes, peanuts, and quinoa were cultivated, and the llama, alpaca, guinea pig, and Muscovy duck were all domesticated.
In the nuclear area all these developments of the Formative stage ripened in the more complex cultures of the later stages, but outside it—for example, to the south, in the Amazon, northern Chile, and Argentina—villagers remained who maintained the Formative way of life up to historic times.
The Classic Stage.
Only in the nuclear area mentioned above did Formative peoples evolve into more complex cultures, forming not only villages but towns and occasional cities that required political organization of the chiefdom type. This demanded further division of labor, producing full-time specialists, not only in weaving (as in Peru), but in metallurgy (Colombia and Central America) and ornate stone architecture and sculpture (Guatemala and Mexico). Most of these advances were made from just before the time of Christ to ad 700–1100, but in Central America and northern South America this Classic stage lasted until the Spanish conquest.
The Post-Classic, or Imperial, Stage.
Only in Mesoamerica (Mexico and Guatemala) and the Andean nuclear area (Peru, northern Bolivia, and southern Ecuador) did native development reach the final stage, characterized by the rise of a state, or empire, and real civilization. The two best-known examples of this stage are the AZTEC, (q.v.) of Mexico and the INCA (q.v.) of Peru, but both had civilized predecessors and neighbors. The predecessors of the Aztec empire were the OLMEC, and the TOLTEC, (qq.v.); among the other civilized groups living in Mesoamerica around this time were the MIXTEC, and the MAYA, (qq.v.).In Peru the Huari and CHIMÚ, (q.v.) empires preceded the Inca. All displayed the basic characteristics of the Post-Classic stage: national states, cities, full-time specialists, class systems, complex economic and exchange machinery, monumental architecture, numbering systems, and intensive agriculture. Theirs was an urban civilization, the apogee of development in the New World that the Spanish saw and conquered in the 16th century. See also AMERICAN INDIANS,; CHAVÍN DE HUANTAR, CHICHÉN ITZÁ, MONTE ALBÁN, PALENQUE, PRE-COLUMBIAN ART AND ARCHITECTURE, TENOCHTITLÁN, TEOTIHUACÁN, TIAHUANACU, TULA,.. R.S.Ma., RICHARD STOCKTON MacNEISH, M.A., Ph.D.
AFRICA
Sub-Saharan Africa confronts archaeologists with a vast area, thousands of known living sites going back to the earliest human existence, and a host of problems concerning the genesis of human beings, tribal migrations, and manifold cultures. Yet an important source of data is lacking: Africans built with perishable wood and mud brick. Except in Ethiopia, Zimbabwe, and East Africa, archaeologists must work with only a portion of the evidence available to colleagues working, for example, in the Middle East.
Archaeologists working in East Africa, among whom the most prominent have been the paleoanthropologists Louis, Mary, and Richard Leakey, have uncovered evidence of the earliest known direct ancestors of modern humans. Among the most notable discoveries have been the 3.7 million-year-old partial skeleton of “Lucy,” a female Australopithecus afarensis, the first humanlike species, found in Ethiopia in 1974; and the 1.8 million-year-old skeletal remains of a female Homo habilis, the first truly human species and the earliest to use tools, found in Tanzania in 1986. Hundreds of Stone Age sites have been identified throughout Africa; only a few have been thoroughly studied and dated. The potassium-argon dating method has been used in East Africa to determine the age of the early stone tools and hominid remains from the Olduvai Gorge (near Lake Victoria), Tanzania, and Hadar, Ethiopia.
In only a few late Iron Age locales in Africa are remains of stone buildings, monuments, and stelae preserved. One such is the ancient kingdom of Aksum. Elsewhere in Ethiopia structures of stone bear witness to a 1500-year evolution of society. Another area is southern Zimbabwe, where remnants of stone fortresses and villages are displayed on many hilltops. Great Zimbabwe, built by the Shona and Rozwi peoples (11th–18th cent. ad), with its huge dry stone walls, interconnected buildings, and conical towers, is the finest example of stone craft south of the Sudan. Muslim builders in East Africa have also left behind a history in stone, such as the abandoned city of Gedi (11th–16th cent. ad) in Kenya.
Archaeological finds elsewhere are more modest. Foundations of buildings have been uncovered in sites suspected to be the capitals of the Ghana and Kanem empires. Some of the many stone circles found in the Senegambia area have been excavated and human remains and artifacts discovered, dating from the 14th century. Pottery shards from many sites have enabled researchers to speculate about Bantu migrations. Nigeria has yielded much information and some of the world's great art. The Nok culture (c. 500 bc–ad 300) has been partly reconstructed on the basis of discoveries on the Jos Plateau in northern Nigeria. Many terra-cotta, stone, and bronze statues in a naturalistic style, along with numerous artifacts unearthed at Ife, confirm the high culture of the Yoruba. Bronzes from Benin provide a distinct record of that kingdom's past from the 14th century onward. Discoveries at Igbo-Ukwu in 1959 revealed the existence of a powerful forest kingdom in southern Nigeria as early as the 9th century ad.. H.A.G., HARRY A. GAILEY, M.A., Ph.D.
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