CLA 2110: Archaeological Methods and Techniques

1. CLA 2110:Archaeological Methods and Techniques by Jitse H.F. Dijkstra

3. “Archaeology is the search for fact. Not truth. If it's truth you'reinterested in, Doctor Tyree's Philosophy class is right down the hall. Soforget any ideas you've got about lost cities, exotic travel, and diggingup the world. We do not follow maps to buried treasure, and 'X' never,ever marks the spot. Seventy percent of all archaeology is done in thelibrary. Research. Reading.” Indiana Jones in: The Last Crusade (1989)

4. Uffington White Horse

7. Francavilla Marittima

9. What is Archaeology? 1. Anthropology (social sciences): • Physical anthropology • Cultural anthropology • Archaeology Ethnoarchaeology 2. History (humanities): • Ancient history (historia: ‘research, inquiry’) • ‘Classical’ Archaeology (archaio-logia: ‘ancient history’) 3. Science (natural sciences)

10. Man on Earth____________________________ Prehistory: 99 % History: 1 % Archaeology: 100 %! Archaeology: 100%

14. Dakhleh Oasis Project • The Dakhleh Oasis Project (DOP) is a long-term regional study of the interaction between environmental changes and human activity in the closed area of the Dakhleh Oasis, Western Desert of Egypt, but including the larger area of the Palaeoasis. The study includes all the time since the first incursion of man in the Middle Pleistocene, perhaps 400,000 years ago, down to the 21st century oasis farmers, and all the human activity and all the changing environmental conditions for which there is evidence within the time period. • To achieve such an assessment, it is necessary to gather data on the modern environment and all past environmental conditions. The environment is seen as one of the most important influences on all human activity. The evidence for this is sought in the geological, geomorphological, the botanical and the faunal records. These data are collected by various field workers, specialists in their particular fields, who ultimately will provide a consensus of the environmental history of the region. The DOP environmentalists to date are Professor R. F. Giegengack, Jr., Dr. Jennifer Smith, Professor C. S. Churcher, Dr. Ursula Thanheiser and Mag. Johannes Walter. Formerly, there have also been Professor J. C. Ritchie and Professor I. A. Brookes. • Man’s activities within these environmental settings must be investigated by a wide range of expertise. The settling and development of cultural evolution within the oasis area, the expansion into and from other Saharan regions and, of course, connections with the Nile Valley are all of interest. These studies are performed by geoarchaeologists, Old Stone Age African specialists, Holocene-Neolithic archaeologists, historical periods specialists – Pharaonic, Ptolemaic-Roman-Christian archaeologists, Islamic archaeologists; by physical anthropologists, and by linguists. So far, no social or cultural anthropologists have participated in the DOP. These investigators include Professor M. R. Kleindienst, Dr. M. M. A. McDonald, Dr. C. A. Hope, Professor A. J. Mills, Professor F. Leemhuis, Dr. O. E. Kaper, Professor R. S. Bagnall, Professor J. E. Molto, Professor M. Woidich, Professor K. A. Worp, Professor I. Gardner, and a great number of field assistants and experts brought into the project to study specific specialized aspects of our finds. http://www.arts.monash.edu.au/archaeology/excavations/dakhleh/