Chapter 10 Taphonomy Experimental Archaeology and Ethnoarchaeology

Chapter 10 Taphonomy, Experimental Archaeology, and Ethnoarchaeology

Outline • • Middle-Range Research: What Is It? Taphonomy Experimental Archaeology Ethnoarchaeology

Middle-range Research • Taphonomy studies the role of natural processes in the archaeological record. • Experimental archaeology uses controlled experiments to replicate the past and look for links between human behavior and archaeological consequences. • Ethnoarchaeology studies living societies to see how behavior is translated into the archaeological record.

Principle of Uniformitarianism • The principle asserting that the processes now operating to modify the earth’s surface are the same processes that operated long ago in the geological past.

Bridging Arguments • Logical statements linking the static archaeological record to the past dynamics that produced it. • Middle-range research, ethnoarchaeology, taphonomy, and experimental archaeology, is generally required to define these links.

Kiva • A Pueblo ceremonial structure that is usually round (but may be square or rectangular) and semi-subterranean. • They appear in early Pueblo sites and perhaps even in the earlier (pre-AD 700) pithouse villages.

Sipapu • A Hopi word that loosely translates as “place of emergence. ” • The original sipapu is the place where the Hopi are said to have emerged into this world from the underworld. • Sipapus are also small pits in kivas through which communication with the supernatural world takes place.

Analogy • An analogy notes similarities between two entities and infers an additional attribute of one is also true of the other: – An archaeological object has attributes A, B, C, and D. – The ethnographic analogy is characterized by A, B, C, and D and has the function E. – Therefore, the archaeological object also has the function E.

Formal Analogies • Analogies justified by similarities in the formal attributes of archaeological and ethnographic objects and features. • Strengthened if many ethnographic cases demonstrate the same pattern and the archaeological and ethnographic cases have many attributes in common.

Relational Analogies • Analogies justified on the basis of close cultural continuity between the archaeological and ethnographic cases or similarity in general cultural form. • Relational analogies can rely not just on cultural continuity but also on “natural” relationships, causal linkages between attributes of a thing and the inference to be made from it.

Middle-range theory • Tries to make an analogy more certain by explaining why there is a necessary relationship between an object’s or feature’s attributes and an inference made from those attributes. • Relying on the principle of uniformitarianism, middle-range theory attempts to explain why an inference should necessarily be true.

Taphonomy • The study of how natural processes contribute to the formation of archaeological sites. • Example: How large animal carcasses decompose on an African savanna. – How long does it take the carcass to disarticulate? – Which bones separate first? – Which ones are carried away by carnivores? And how far?

Bonebed • Archaeological and paleontological sites consisting of the remains of a large number of animals, often of the same species, and often representing a single moment in time—a mass kill or mass death.

Taphonomy at the Hudson. Meng Bison Bonebed • An area in northwest Nebraska, where the remains of about 500 bison and 21 spear points were found in an area 1000 meters square. • AMS dates indicate the site is about 9500 radiocarbon years old. • Paleontologist Larry Agenbroad was the first to dig at Hudson-Meng, in the 1970 s.

Making Inferences • Agenbroad made inferences about: – the presence of humans – hunting strategy – group size – food storage • The inferences were based on patterning, the missing skull tops, in the skeletal assemblage of the bison.

Making Inferences • Agenbroad inferred human behavior: – Plains Indians broke bison skulls open to remove brains and use them in tanning hides. – The hunters drove the bison over a cliff, then dragged 500 of them to a processing area. – The ancient hunters were a large group and with a sophisticated storage system.

Agenbroad’s Inferences • Formal analogy – Relied on the similarity in bison skull form (the missing top of the cranium), and similarities between the site and documented butchering practices. • Relational analogy – Took a known practice of Plains Indians and extrapolated back in time to the ancestors of Plains Indians.

Taphonomic Perspective • Could a natural process create the same pattern? • Why are there no cut marks on the bones? – In butchering it is likely that a knife would have cut to bone, but only carnivore tooth marks appear on the bones. • The skeletal remains are in anatomical position as if the bison had died there and were buried undisturbed.

Hudson-Meng: Todd/Rapson Hypothesis • A summer storm sparked a prairie fire that drove the bison herd into the swale for protection. • The fire could have jumped the swale and asphyxiated the bison. • The spear points were probably discarded or lost long after the bison died, decomposed, and become buried. • This hypothesis remains to be tested.

Hudson-Meng: Todd/Rapson Hypothesis • Todd and Rapson reconstructed how taphonomic processes created the pattern of incomplete crania: – As the body collapses into a pile of bone, it continues to trap sediment until it is mostly buried, although the skull’s top remains exposed. – The cranium weathers and the small bone fragments that flake off are blown away by the wind.

Taphonomic Processes, at the Hudson-Meng Site

How Were Stone Tools Made? • Heat-treatment - The flint knapping properties of stone tool raw material are improved by heat. • Flake - A thin, sharp sliver of stone removed from a core during the knapping process. • Core - A piece of stone that is worked.

Taphonomy and Experimental Archaeology • Taphonomy is good for understanding the role natural processes play in creating patterns in data at archaeological sites. • Experimental archaeology is useful for establishing how things might have been made in the past or discovering “mechanical” relationships between behavior and material remains, such as tool use and microwear.

Ethnoarchaeology • Ethnoarchaeologists study living societies, observing artifacts, features, and material remains while they still exist in their systemic, behavioral contexts. • Ethnoarchaeology links human behavior with archaeologically observable material remains.

Ethnoarchaeology • A powerful tool for creating middle-range theory when: – It focuses on aspects of ethnographic data that are archaeologically observable – Attempts to explain why a relationship between behavior and archaeologically observable remains should necessarily hold true.

Kelly: Ethnoarchaeology and the Mikea in Madagascar • Mikea live in four major kinds of settlements that differ in how long they are occupied – By recording variables, (trash distribution, number of postholes per house, etc. ) we could place a new settlement into one of the four categories with a high degree of accuracy.

Summary of Differences in Mikea Settlements Settlement Type Distance to House Size Trash (meters) Feature Diversity Villages Various 10 -40+ High Forest Hamlets small 4 -9 Medium Seasonal Hamlets small 3 -4 Mediumlow Foraging camps Lean- tos, if present 1 -2 Low

Quick Quiz

1. Experimental archaeology is a type of middle -range research that studies the role of natural processes in the archaeological record. A. True B. False

Answer: B. False • Experimental archaeology uses controlled experiments to replicate the past and look for links between human behavior and archaeological consequences. Taphonomy studies the role of natural processes in the archaeological record

2. The Principle of _______ asserts that the processes now operating to modify the earth’s surface are the same processes that operated long ago in the geological past.

Answer: Uniformitarianism • The Principle of Uniformitarianism asserts that the processes now operating to modify the earth’s surface are the same processes that operated long ago in the geological past.

3. A kiva is: A. A Hopi word that loosely translates as “place of emergence. ” B. A Pueblo ceremonial structure that is usually round and semi-subterranean. C. The place where the Hopi are said to have emerged into this world from the underworld. D. All of the above.

Answer: B • A kiva is a Pueblo ceremonial structure that is usually round and semisubterranean.

4. A _____ analogy is justified by similarities in the formal attributes of archaeological and ethnographic objects and features. A ______ analogy is justified on the basis of close cultural continuity between the archaeological and ethnographic cases or similarity in general cultural form.

Answer: formal, relational • A formal analogy is justified by similarities in the formal attributes of archaeological and ethnographic objects and features. A relational analogy is justified on the basis of close cultural continuity between the archaeological and ethnographic cases or similarity in general cultural form.

5. ______ study living societies, observing artifacts, features, and material remains while they still exist in their systemic, behavioral contexts and link human behavior with archaeologically observable material remains.

Answer: ethnoarchaeologists • Ethnoarchaeologists study living societies, observing artifacts, features, and material remains while they still exist in their systemic, behavioral contexts and link human behavior with archaeologically observable material remains.