Anth 321W Intellectual Background of Archaeology

1. Anth 321WIntellectual Background of Archaeology MWF 9:00-9:55AM 008 Life Sciences Bldg

2. Egypt and Mesopotamia • Objects out of time came to be valued as sources of information about the past. • Egypt 1900-1700 BC Twelfth Dynasty craftsmen emulated earlier art styles. Khaemwesc later cleared ancient religious buildings near Memphis to restore old cults. • Iraq: King Nabonidus (556-539 BC) excavated and studied ruins to restore ancient cults. Bel-Shalti-Nannar, the daughter of Nabonidus established the earliest museum of antiquities. • In both cases, the interest was in the recovery of information about a glorious past. • Eras closer to the time of creation, sacred prototypes of civilization, closer to the cosmic drama of creation.

3. Bel-Shalti-Nannar, daughter of Nabonidus, developed the first “Museum” Excavated by Leonard Woolley British Museum, University of Pennsylvania Inside the room were artifacts “out of time”. Associated with these were clay cylinders that showed text in three languages. These are interpreted as “museum labels”

4. Greeks distinguished Historia from Archaiologia. • Historia entailed a recording of events from the recent past based on recollections of living individuals. Documentation of the Persian Wars. • Archaiologia involves the study of the remote past based on myths, legends, and material remains. • Accurate memories of the bronze age • Speculative chronologies about the origins of the universe. • Cyclical, steady state, degeneration, and progress. • No systematic efforts to recover and study remains “out of time”

5. Medieval Period • Fall of the Western Roman Empire AD 476 • Roman remains in Italy and France • Some buildings preserved • Many buildings and cemeteries looted • Some cases destroyed or defaced. • Early Medieval “bursts of interest” in Roman art. • Lombard kings of northern Italy (AD 568-774) imitated Roman coins. • Merovingian rulers of France (AD 476-750) looted Roman burials for grave goods. • Charlemagne (AD 768-814) claimed to be a successor of the Roman emperors and revived Roman art. • Major pulse of population growth during Middle and Late Medieval • Resulted in more widespread destruction of Roman remains during 12th-13th centuries. • Intensified the interaction of the living with “objects out of time”. • Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II (AD 1220-1250) • excavated and collected antiquities • Imitated roman coins and built architecture reminiscent of Roman styles.

6. Trigger’s Take on Medieval World View • 1) World of recent origin • 2) Physical world in a state of degeneration and decay from God’s creation. • 3) Humanity created in Garden of Eden, located in Middle East. People spread to other parts of the world after expulsion from Garden and after Noah’s flood. • 4) Natural for standards of human conduct to decline over time. • 5) History of the world was a succession of unique events. • Medieval scholars and artists not aware of changes in material culture since classical time.

7. Feudal organization of the Medieval gave way to mercantile cities • This resulted in the revival of city-states, similar to those of antiquity • Scholars began to search for classical texts to provide “pedigrees” that linked to the past. • Also an interest in being free from the Holy Roman Empire (Centered in Germany).

8. The poet Petrarch (AD 1304-1374), the father of Humanism, made clear distinctions between Ancient Rome and the era of cultural deprivation that followed. • Early Renaissance scholarship focused on the recovery of texts. • Early interest in Latin texts • Later greater attention paid to Greek texts. • Italy saw great interest in reconstructing aspects of ancient Rome. • Based on ancient descriptions rather than an investigation of the actual sites. • Images of buildings on coins provided models • Leon Battista Alberti (AD 1404-1472) argued for the importance of studying ancient architecture in addition to reading about it.

9. FlavioBiondo (1392-1463), Roma instaturata, based on texts and material remains. The first comprehensive guide to the buildings of the ancient city. Biondo's book was not illustrated. • Dominican friar, AnniodaViterbo (1432-1502) produced one of the first printed depictions of ancient Rome. Features "VicusTuscus,“ home of the Etruscans whom Annio and claimed as his ancestors. OnofrioPanvinio (1681) De lvdiscircensibvs, libriII BartolomeoMarliani(1544) VrbisRomaetopographia

10. Intense interest in replacing Gothic style with a new style. Classical styles provided this template. • Emerging elite linked themselves with ancient times, and employed classical styles in the process. • Cyriacusof Aconca, Italian merchant. Traveled Greece and Mediterranean collecting information about ancient sites. Copied inscriptions, made drawings, and collected objects. • Popes Paul II and Alexander VI collected and displayed ancient art works and began sponsoring excavations. • Rome produced an abundance of materials. These remains inspired Italian artists, sculptors, and architects.

11. Reims Cathedral, France Cathedral of Lisbon Temple of Vesta, Rome, 205 AD. It became the model for Bramante's Tempietto Tempietto di San Pietro in Montorio, Rome, 1502, by Bramante

12. Up to AD 1400, “antiquitates” referred to compilations of written texts. • “Antiquary” or antiquarian was used by 1500. • By 1600 • Increasing interest in the study of material evidence. • Antiquarian was an official appointment.

13. Jacob Spon (AD 1647-1685) antiquary, first person to use the term archaeology to refer to the study of material remains of former societies. • Calvinist banking family, members of the bourgeois elite. • Traveled to Greece, Constantinople, and the Levant in 1675-1676 • Was among the first Western European antiquaries to observe Greece first hand. The frontispiece to Recherchescurieusesd'antiquité. The compressed landscape, anticipates the museums of the 19th century. Several modern antiquarians engage in learned conversation

14. EzechielSpanheim (AD 1629-1710) asserted that ancient inscriptions were more reliable sources of information than texts that had been recopied repeatedly. • Francesco Bianchini (1662-1729) began to study how inscriptions deviated from or complimented texts. • French aristocrat Caylus (1692-1765) published a seven volume work on Roman antiquities. The work emphasized comparison between artifacts and with texts. Caylus emphasized the expression of cultural differences in material culture. • German antiquarian Johann Winckelmann (1717-1768) dated Greek sculpture based on references in classical texts. Then he analyzed the stylistic traits in the dated works and established distinct periods. Constructed four periods, based on these statues that lacked inscriptions could be dated. Geschichte derKunst des Altertums (History of Ancient Art) published in 1764. • Old or primitive • High style • Refined style • Imitation and Decay (Associated with Romans) • Key interest in Genre not Provenience

15. 1700’s saw the development of systematic archaeological excavation • Herculaneum and Pompeii • Rocque Joaquín de Alcubierre (1702 - 1780) • Began excavations with the backing of Charles III • Karl Weber (1712-1764) and Francesco La Vega (from 1764) began studying public architecture and private residences. • La Vega continued with excavations at Pompeii until 1797. • Was one of the fist to encourage public visits to archaeological work.

16. Karl Weber plan of the central complex at Herculaneum.

18. Possibilism and Determinism • Trigger describes how geographic possibilism helped him avoid the trap of environmental determinism that plagued early processualism. Environment sets limits and offers possibilities for personal and cultural development. Yet, humans can selectively respond to any factor in a number of ways. How a people react and develop is a function of the choices they make in response to their environment. Paul Vidal de La Blache(1903) Tableau de la Geographie de la France

19. Comparison and cross-cultural research • Early comparisons focused on a search for regularities between cultures. • Kingship • Irregular aspects of culture were essentially ignored. • Variation in the nature of rulership

20. Trigger’s Conclusion • No theoretical formulation involving a narrow range of causal factors will likely account for the totality of human behavior or material expressions • Comparative approach required consideration of idiosyncrasies and similarities • Theoretical conclusion: processual and postprocessual approaches based on antithetical positions, but they are complementary

21. Classical and Other Text-based Archaeologies • Where to place the beginnings of archaeology? • Interest in material remains • Deliberate use of material culture to learn about the past • All human groups seem interested in their own past. • Yet different cultures perceive of time in distinct ways. • Even different archaeologists exhibit distinct conceptualizations of time. • British place older periods on top • US place older period on bottom • We cannot assume that all cultures conceive of time in the same way. • Perhaps we also need to consider other conceptualizations of time when making interpretations?

22. Objects “out of time” • Projectile points, stone pipes, and native copper tools found in 15th and 16th C eastern North America. • Medieval European peasants collected stone celts and projectile points discovered while farming. • Maya kept jade heirlooms recovered from old tombs. • Aztecs kept Olmec figurines.

23. People seek to explain their landscapes • This includes monuments • Medieval Europe: Burial mounds associated with supernaturals, giants, and historical people • Aztecs: performed rituals at Teotihuacan. Where the gods established cosmic order. • Inca: large stones were deities and ancestors transformed into stones. • Egyptian priests: interpreted a fossilized forest as charred bones of a giant serpent. • While there is a common recognition and explanation of “objects out of time” there is not a consistent interest in attempting to learn from these things.