THE NATURE OF ARCHAEOLOGY
Time required: 4-6 hours
A. Overview: This module introduces the students to basic archaeological principles. At the beginning of class, a current events article is discussed: if a student has brought in the article, they introduce it to the class; the instructor then encourages discussion of what has been learned by this article and what information may be lacking. The instructor lectures to the students to introduce basic concepts and then allows students time to review the computer module on archaeology entitled "Indiana Jones Meets Reality: Adventure into Archaeology" (Effland and MCC 2004). During the lecture the instructor may also refer students to the Society for American Archaeology (SAA) Web area on ethics. Alternatively, the instructor could use both the Adventure module and SAA Web area in their lecture, rather than have students independently explore them. At the completion of the lecture, the students will complete the "Los Hornos" computer module activity, in class, with partners. This computer module will test their skills in reading and interpreting archaeological data gathered from a cultural resource management project. If computers are not easily accessible, they may try the alternative module, which is done outside the classroom. This alternative requires the students to relate artifacts to activities.
B. Lesson Objectives:
1. Identify the goals of archaeology.
2. Identify the ethical responsibilities of archaeologists.
3. Describe what archaeologists do.
4. Define archaeological terminology.
5. Define scientific explanation and archaeology.
6. Identify principles of basic archaeological skills, ethics and values, diverse interests, real-world problem solving, and communication.
C. Matrix Principles:
1. Basic archaeological skills: students learn basic skills, including reading an archaeological report, interpreting data, and writing site descriptions.
2. Ethics: emphasize how archaeologists conduct themselves in the field, working with descendant communities and other interested parties; their responsibilities to the public and their profession; avocational archaeologists; looters.
3. Diverse interests: partnerships and variation in interests with descendant communities, local communities, agencies, landowners, governments, developers etc.; cultural resource management.
4. Real-world problem solving: Los Hornos example—real archaeological project, why it occurred, results of archaeological research; cultural resource management projects.
5. Communication: current events discussion, written reflections.
D. Instructional Procedures: This module is primarily lecture and student activity. The current events portion is introduced to tie in archaeology to today's world. Throughout the lecture, students are asked questions to ensure they are grasping the concepts introduced. It is important to tie in real-world experiences to the content, so the questions ask the students to think of some of the concepts in the context of today's world. PowerPoint is useful to help identify concepts, but the lecture can be taught with traditional technology (whiteboard, etc.). At the conclusion of the lecture, students are given access to computer modules from which they learn additional concepts using a question and answer sheet. They conclude this section with the Los Hornos activity, which tests whether they understand the concepts introduced in class.
E. Assessment: Students are assessed on this topic in two ways. They complete two short reflections addressing some of the objectives in this topic, and they complete the Los Hornos activity.
F. Lecture Outline:
1. Current events: discuss recent news article on anthropology; what did you learn from this article? What information do you still want to know? Are there any biases in the reporting?
2. Goals of archaeology: study of past ways of life; reconstruction of behavior using material culture; study of culture and cultural change; explanation of past behavior.
3. Archaeological ethics: SAA Principles of Archaeological Ethics. Define the eight principles of archaeological ethics. Why are they important to archaeologists? Why are they important to the public and those with interests in archaeological data?
4. Archaeology as a science: scientific method, including identification of research problem, theoretical basis for research, hypotheses, test implications, confirmation, testability, and explanation. Science involves rigorous analysis of a fair test of alternative explanations using specific criteria; explanations are confirmed by multiple lines of evidence. Archaeology seeks to understand social or cultural behavior through a scientific method. Have students think of and discuss examples where they have used the scientific method (e.g., research papers with data).
5. Archaeological work: research design (goal-directed research plan), sampling strategies, survey, excavation, laboratory analysis, and report preparation—this is an overview that introduces the next eight topics. Using the "Indiana Jones Meets Reality: Adventures into Archaeology" Web area (Effland and MCC 2004) helps to illustrate many of these points. The page number of the Web area is indicated below where it is relevant.a. Who funds archaeology? How is it done? Grants, academia, cultural resource management.
b. Provide examples of research designs; have students identify research problem and approach to solving it (does not have to be archaeology).
c. Sampling strategies; examples of different strategies; have students discuss sampling from a modern perspective (e.g., sample surveys for elections).
d. Survey: pedestrian and aerial examples; locate archaeological sites—areas with evidence of past human activities; mapping; surface collections (if necessary) (Web area 10, 4).
e. Testing and Excavation: recovery of artifacts and ecofacts; trenches; identification of subsurface architectural evidence and human occupation (Web area 10).
f. Material culture: artifacts, features; bring into classroom examples of artifacts (pottery, stone tools, historic glass, historic square head nails, etc.) (Web area 1, 2, 3).
g. Laboratory analysis: document materials collected—attributes, analysis, classification, etc.
h. Report generation: bring in examples from CRM projects.
i. Context: location of an artifact or feature in relationship with all other artifacts and features in three-dimensional space; reconstructing context; stratigraphy, formation processes (Web area 5).
j . Reconstructing the archaeological record (Web area 7,8,9).
k. Space and Time: chronological methods (Web area 8).
l. Analysis and interpretation.
m. Multidisciplinary nature of archaeology: diet, environment, disease, etc.6. Relevance of archaeology to today's world: use of information about subsistence practices, environment, social structure, etc. Ask students to think about where we have used the past to help us in the present. The examples do not have to be based on archaeology but can be historical in nature.
7. Introduction of laws that protect archaeological sites. Instructor should also refer to the following Web areas: Archaeology and the Law (Stuart and McManamon 2000b) and the National Park Service's Links to the Past: Laws, Regulations, and Standards (NPS 200b).
*In-class activity" Los Hornos—should take three hours or so. Using archaeological evidence available from this actual excavation, interpret the data and determine the functions of various features on the site. Students are required to analyze the artifact distribution within each house to determine the following: possible function of house; chronological ordering of houses based on artifacts and chronometric data; and a summary of occupation of the site. See additional information on the Los Hornos: A Case Study in Chronology site (Effland and MCC 2004).