A BRIEF HISTORY
OF NORTH AMERICAN ARCHAEOLOGY
‚
Thomas Jefferson and the first stratigraphic excavation, Virginia 1782
‚
The Mounds and the Moundbuilders
- a controversey that lasted more than a
century: who built these mounds?
- mostly located in American Mid-west,
especially southern Illinois, Ohio
- included mounds, platform mounds, and Aearthworks@, some very large
- fanciful theories about the moundbuilders,
constrained by biblical teachings and current condition of Native Americans
- mound mappers; E.G Squier and E.H.
Davis, 1840s -- despite detailed maps, they still believed in lost race of
moundbuilders
- mound realists: Samuel Haven, John
Wesley Powell, Cyrus Thomas, 1850-1890s, slowly but steadily showed that
moundbuilders were ancestors of Native Americans
‚
Classificatory-Descriptive Period (1840-1914)
- characterized by systematic classification
and description of archaeological sites, features, artifacts across North America
- beginning with Squier/Davis mapping of
earthworks
- furthered by establishment of Bureau of
Ethnolgy (at Smithsonian) by J.W. Powell, 1870s
- other highlights: W. H. Holmes,
first ceramic classification, from Southeast
- A. Hrdlicka, studies of human
skelatal remains
- Powell, Holmes, Hrdlicka: the joing of
ethnology/archaeology/physical anthropology in North America
- in the west: Frank Cushing at Zuni; G.
Nordenskiold at Mesa Verde (Cliff Palace); M. Uhle at Emeryville
Mound, Bay Area
‚
Franz Boas and Historical Particularism
- a rejection of late 19th C.
uniliner evolutionism
- an emphasis on fieldwork and collecting
data from all areas
- data to include: ethnographic, linguistic,
archaeological, biological -- A4-field anthro@
‚
Classificatory-Historical Period (1914-1960)
- a concern with chronology and
classification of North American cultures through time and space
- importance of stratigraphic excavation -- A.V.
Kidder at Pecos Pueblo
- development of seriation as a
chronological tool (A.L. Kreober)
- importance of artifact (especially pottery)
typologies as aid to seriation
-
the Direct
Historical Approach
‚
The Modern Period (1960-present)
- a concern with understanding Aculture process@ and scientific explanation (The
New Archaeology)
- materialist/ecological paradigm
- investigating settlement and subsistence,
social organization, even ideology
- the guru: L.R. Binford
‚
The Post-Modern Period (1980-present)
- a rejection of science and positivism
- emphasis on gender, Aagency@ and hearing other voices
- guru: Ian Hodder