Dr. Kenneth L. Feder Department of Anthropology DiLoreto Hall, Room 110 feder@ccsu.edu   832-2615

 

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Virtual Classroom

Click on any of Dr. Feder's courses in the Table of Contents to view that course's syllabus and descriptions of assignments.

Table of Contents

Anth 150	Introduction to Archaeology
Anth 210	The Ancient World
Anth 215	Before History
Anth 318	New England Prehistory
Anth 329	Experimental Archaeology
Anth 330	North American Prehistory
Anth 375	Data Analysis
Anth 450	Field School in Archaeology

Summer Archaeological Field School Photos

Kenny Feder, Department of Anthropology

Office: 110 D DiLoreto

Office phone: 832-2615

E-mail: Feder@ccsu.edu

 INTRODUCTION TO ARCHAEOLOGY

Course Outline 

 I. IN THE BEGINNING

1) Introduction

          2) What archaeology isn't—Read Unit 1 in Feder

          3) Archaeology: definitions and origins

          4) Garbage is truth – Unit 2 and Unit 3

          5) In search of the past; site survey – Unit 4

       ☉6) Digging in the dirt – Unit 5, Unit 9; CD EXTRA: Slideshow: Firetown Meadow

          7) Dating methods in archaeology – Unit 6

          8) More dating methods – Unit 6

EXAM 1

II. ANALYSIS OF PAST SOCIETIES

       ☉1) Gravestone project: CD EXTRA: Slideshow: Gravestones

          2) Reconstructing the environmental context – Unit 8

          3) Material culture; you are what you make – Unit 10

          4) Paleo-economy; you are what you eat – Unit 11

5) Social systems – Unit 12

          6) Settlement patterns – Unit 7

          7) I see dead people – Unit 13

8) Living in the past; archaeology by experiment – Unit 10

          9) Ethnoarchaeology

EXAM 2

III. CASE STUDIES IN ARCHAEOLOGY – Unit 14 and Unit 15

          1) The Glazier Blade Cache

       ☉2) This Old Pyramid: CD EXTRA:Photo Notebook: Egypt

    ☉☉3) Ancestors of the Hopi: CD EXTRA: Photo Notebook: Mesa Verde,

              Photo Notebook: Petroglyphs

       ☉4) The Mystery of the Maya; CD EXTRA: Photo Notebook: Maya

5) Other People’s Garbage

6) A Village of Outcasts: Archaeology of the Lighthouse community

          7) Archaeology and the Search for Columbus

          8) Is there a future for the past?

EXAM 3

Introduction to Archaeology

Gravestone Project

Archaeologists study the material remains of human behavior (sound familiar?). We can study directly the remains of the things that people made and draw conclusions about how they made them. However, as we have seen and will continue to see in this class, artifacts can be analyzed for more than just technological information. They also can be looked at in terms of their economic, social, political, and ideological implications. Remember; archaeologists can directly study only the things that people made. These things are a direct reflection of the technology of the society in which they were made. But artifacts are not made and used in a vacuum. Things are not made and used in isolation from other aspects of the society. Everything that people make or do is accomplished directly or indirectly within the context of the economic, social, political, and even ideological systems of their society.
 

In order for you to understand how archaeologists can reconstruct all this juicy, non-technological stuff about people just by analyzing the garbage they left behind, you are going to become archaeologists of historic American culture--archaeologists without shovels, that is. Specifically, you are going to study a very important artifact of 17th-, 18th-, and 19th-century American culture--gravestones.

Gravestones

Monuments marking the graves of people provide an enormous amount of data. They have particular shapes, designs, and messages (that, luckily, we can read), that provide a great deal of information about the people buried beneath them and about the society in which they lived. Of course, they reflect the technology of the society which made them and we can study how they were made. But, especially for these artifacts, it is easy to understand that they also reflect the religious and social beliefs of the people who made and erected them. As archaeologists, we should be able through careful analysis to reconstruct such "non-material" aspects of culture, and that is the point of this assignment. Your job will be the same as any archaeologist's except your data will be above the ground. You are presented with artifacts (gravestones) and you wish to learn more about the people who made and used them.

Strategy

The class will divide itself into a number of separate groups of between six and eight members. Each person in each group will visit a cemetery in New England containing gravestones dating from before 1880. In a systematic fashion, each of you should record as much information as you can for a minimum of twenty-five gravestones including:

1. Name of the deceased

2. Birth date of the deceased

3. Sex of the deceased

4. Date of death

5. Cause of death (if given)

6. Shape of the stone

7. Size of the stone

8. Raw material of the stone (reddish brown=sandstone; crumbly white=unpolished marble; black-speckled gray=granite; smooth, black=slate)

9. Design on the stone

10. Epitaph

11. Anything else that seems important.

It is important that all members of a group collect the same information since the data within each group will be pooled by them for analysis.

Analysis

Each group will then pool the data collected by all group members. Your total, pooled sample, should be between 150 and 200 stones. Using the pooled data only (all of the stones collected by the members of your group), each person in the group must choose a different one of the following and perform the necessary analysis to answer the question posed:

1. How does gravestone design change through time?

2. Can you analyze the economic make-up of your historic communities based on tombstones (based on, for example, size and raw material of the stones)?

3. Are men and women treated differently in this society?

4. Are young and old treated differently in this society?

5. What was the view of the afterlife and did it change through time?

6. Can you describe the demography of the society?

7. Was there a monthly pattern to the death rate in the society?

8. Is there a pattern to the origin of the first names given people?


Here are a few other important points:

I. Do not attempt to answer all of these questions for just your 25 stones. Each group member needs to chose only ONE of these questions and answer it using the pooled sample from the entire group.

II. On a title page for your individual write-up of this report, you must provide a listing of the names of the members of your group who provided you with information, the number of stones each group member provided you information on, and the total number of stones you used in your analysis. In this way, I can readily tell who, if anyone, in your group did not participate in the project. They (not you) will receive an "F" for the project. No exceptions.

Other Important Stuff

EACH PERSON MUST HAND IN TWO REPORTS.

1. You need to write a detailed description of the cemetery you visited: where is it, how big is it, what is the layout of the stones, how did you choose your sample, how does your cemetery compare to the others in your group, is there anything particularly interesting or outstanding about your graveyard? Appended to this report must be the raw data you collected for each of the 25 or so stones you examined and included in your analysis.

2. You need also to write up your group project analysis. In other words, you need to answer the question you selected and provide a discussion of the analysis you performed to answer that question using the pooled data sample for your group.

Both reports must be typed. Raw data from your cemetery need not be typed.

DUE DATE

Each member of each group will present their analysis of the question they selected (the second of their reports) in class on DECEMBER 5 The entire project consisting of both of your reports is due on DECEMBER 10. The due date is not a vague suggestion. Failure to show up on December 5 for the in-class presentation and/or handing in the final project after December 10 will result in a substantial lowering of your grade (a full grade lower for failure to show on the 2nd, and/or half a grade deduction for each day after the 7th that you hand in the write-up late).

All group members depend on each other to get their data in so the rest of their group will have adequate time to incorporate everyone else's data into their group report. If your raw data cannot be included in the group analysis by other members of your group because you did not get it in to them in a timely manner, then you will not get a passing grade for the project. No one else's grade in the group will suffer. Since all members must list the names of group members who submitted data for their group report, it will be obvious who is trying to slide by.

Your grade will depend entirely on the reports you hand in. NOT ALL GROUP MEMBERS WILL GET THE SAME GRADE.

Most Important

Have fun doing this project. There are only two other rules:

1. don't visit your cemetery at night

2. don't dig anyone up.

Return to Beginning

ANTH 210

THE ANCIENT WORLD--ANTH 210

Kenny Feder

Office: DiLoreto 110 D---Hours: Tuesday/Thursday, 12:30-2:00; Wednesday, 12:00-2:00

Phone: 832-2615; E-mail feder@ccsu.edu

COURSE OUTLINE

I. In the beginning...

          1) Introduction and stuff -- Preface

          2) What do you think? A brief survey-- Chapter 1

          3) Experiments in the paranormal

          4) How to reason; the workings of science -- Chapter 2

          5) A case in point: The Bermuda Triangle

          6) The case of the "psychic detective": You solve it

II. Evolution

          1) Human evolution: the scientific approach

          2) How to spot a fraud: the archaeology of giants -- Chapter 3

          3) Piltdown Man: Whodunnit? -- Chapter 4

          4) Peking Man: Anatomy of an unsolved mystery

          5) Cryptozoology: animals unseen

          6) The Loch Ne$$ Monster

III. Science and Religion

          1) Evolution, God, and the Bible – Chapter 11 (pp. 278-292; 295-310)

          2) Flintstones archaeology -- Chapter 11 (pp. 292-295)

 IV. Who Discovered Columbusland?

          1) Who's on first? Who's next? -- Chapter 5

          2) The Myth of the Moundbuilders -- Chapter 6

          3) Cahokia

V. Ancient Science

          1) How to build a pyramid: Mysterious Egypt? – Chapter 9

          2) The mystery of the megaliths -- Chapter 12 (pp.321-331)

          3) Stonehenge; how did they do it?

 VI. Just Weird

          1) The archaeology of flying saucers: Roswell

          2) The archaeology of Mars: The Mars Face(less)

VI. Civilization

          1) The Lost Continent of Atlantis -- Chapter 7

          2) The case for ancient astronauts -- Chapter 8

          3) Crash go the chariots

          4) And the moral is... Chapter 12 (pp. 311-321, 331-333)

 Text: Frauds, Myths, and Mysteries, 5th edition; by Feder

Grading: Two exams (30% each), media journal (30%), psychic detective assignment (10%), class participation.

The Ancient World -- Running Journal

 

Your term project in this course is a "running journal." This journal should consist of a compendium of critical reviews of popular media presentations of issues that relate to the human past. Popular media here includes: regular newspapers, supermarket tabloids, magazines, books, radio, television, movies, and restroom walls. During the course of the semester you should accumulate about ten such accounts (the number depends on the length of the individual accounts).

Your job is to critically assess each of the stories -- to, in essence, review them. Whenever you encounter a popular media presentation concerning the human past -- for example, EARLY HUMANS WERE TRANSVESTITE EXTRATERRESTRIAL ALIENS -- photocopy or cut the article out of the paper or magazine or take notes during the t.v. show. Include a copy of the article in your journal. Your review should include or answer the following:

I. A complete bibliographical reference: name of newspaper or show, date, writer, etc.

II. A summary of the story in your own words.

III. Does the discussion or claim seem to follow standard scientific thinking as we discussed it in class and as presented in that absolutely fabulous book of ours?

IV. Who is the source of the story: A scientist? A convicted felon? A transvestite, extraterrestrial alien?

V. Are other experts consulted?

VI. Are alternate points of view aired, are other interpretations presented?

VII. Are there unanswered questions?

VIII. Is enough information presented for the reader (you) to make an informed decision concerning the legitimacy of what is being asserted in the article/show?

IX. What questions do you have that remain unanswered?

Do not simply follow the above in a cookbook fashion, but these considerations should be in your mind when you collect your information and when you write your journal. Do not select articles only from supermarket tabloids (one or two articles from the Weekly World News o r the Sun is fine, but not much more than this). The journal is due on the final day of classes before finals week. It must be typed.

Return to Beginning

 

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Anthropology 215

Before History -- Anthropology 215 -- Feder

1. On Origins

            1.1: Where do we come from? The Past in Perspective (PIP) 1

            1.2: Creation stories

            1.3: The roots of a western concept of antiquity: John Ray

            1.4: The roots of a western concept of antiquity: Charles Darwin

            1.5: The first 4.995 billion years (at 66,600,000 years per minute)—PIP 2

            1.6: Miocene Perpspectives—PIP 3: pp. 65-70

 2. Hominid Evolution

            2.1: Walking upright—PIP 3: pp 71-83

            2.2: Making tools – PIP 3: pp 83-104

            2.3: Populating the world—PIP 4

            2.4:The Neandertals - PIP 5

2.5: The evolution of us — PIP 6

            2.6: Evolution: Replacement or multi-regional?

 3. Cultural Developments

            3.1: The artistic explosion: Paleolithic cave-painters of Europe -- PIP 7

            3.2: New Worlds: Populating the Americas -- PIP 8

            3.3: New Worlds: Populating the Pacific -- PIP 8

            3.4: The Mesolithic: Prelude or interlude? -- PIP 9

4. The Neolithic

            4.1: The food producing revolution: hypotheses-- PIP 10

            4.2: The Near East

            4.3: The Far East

            4.4: Mesoamerica and South America

            4.5: Europe

            4.6: Africa

            4.7: North America

5. Civilization

            5.1: The urban revolution: hypotheses -- PIP 11

            5.2: Mesopotamia — PIP 12

            5.3: Egypt

            5.4: India

            5.5: China

            5.6: Mesoamerica — PIP 13

            5.7: South America

            5.8: Europe

            5.9: Africa

            5.10: North America—PIP 14

            5.11: Southeast Asia

6. Epilogue: PIP 15

 Required Texts: The Past in Perspective (3^rd  edition) by Feder

Grading: Origin Myth Paper (10%); Mid-term (30% of your final grade), final (30%), term paper (30%). 

Anth 215: Before History Term Paper

The purpose of this paper is for you to select a question(s) from the following list that you find interesting, to conduct a bit of research on that question, and to write a short (10 page paper) in which you attempt to provide an answer to the question(s).

1. How was Stonehenge built and what was its purpose?

2. How were the cave paintings of the European Upper Paleolithic rendered? What was their purpose?

3. What happened to the Neandertals? Are they our direct ancestors or an extinct offshoot of the hominid line?

4. How were Egyptian pyramids constructed?

5. What caused the collapse of the Maya civilization?

6. What caused the extinction of large game animals at the end of the Pleistocene in North America?

7. When was the New World first settled by human beings?

8. Was Minoan Crete the historical model for Plato's Atlantis?

9. How were the Easter Island statues constructed?

10. How old is the Sphinx and how was it made?

11. Was the prehistoric Native American community of Cahokia a true city?

12. Who was Tutankamun and what is his historical significance?

13. Who were the Olmec and how do they relate to Mesoamerican civilization?

14. How do the Indus cities of Harappa and Mohenjo-daro reflect concepts of urban planning?

15. How did the Inca maintain their enormous empire without a written language?

16. How is bipedalism advantageous?

17. Do the Venus Figurines of the European Paleolithic imply the existence of a mother goddess or a fertility cult?

18. In their artistic depictions, do books published about human prehistory in the last twenty years convey stereotypes about the sexual division of labor among our ancient ancestors?

19. When did our ancient human ancestors first begin to depict celestial phenomena? What was their purpose?

20. When and how were the Pacific Islands populated initially by a people with no navigational devices?


Your paper must be typed, double-spaced, at least 10 pages long (but no more than 12 pages), and your bibliography must contain no fewer than five references.

Chronology

ERA	PERIOD	EPOCH	TIME	EVENTS
CENOZOIC	QUATERNARY	HOLOCENE	10 Thousand
		PLEISTOCENE	2 Million years ago
	TERTIARY	PLIOCENE	5 MYA	Hominids
		MIOCENE	25	Apes
		OLIGOCENE	38	Monkeys
		EOCENE	55
		PALEOCENE	65	Mammals
MESOZOIC	CRETACEOUS		135
	JURASSIC		200
	TRIASSIC		250	Dinosaurs
PALEOZOIC	PERMIAN		280	Reptiles
	PENNSYLVANIAN		310
	MISSISSIPPIAN		345
	DEVONIAN		405	Amphibians
	SILURIAN		425	Land plants
	ORDOVICIAN		500	Vertebrates
	CAMBRIAN		600
PRECAMBRIAN			700	Multi-celled life
			3400	First life
			4000	Oldest rocks
			4500	Age of Earth

Return to Beginning

Anth 318

New England Prehistory

 Syllabus

Feder: DiLoreto 110D

832-2615: feder@ccsu.edu

I. Contexts:

      1. Introduction

2. First Contact: Historical explanations for the origin of the native peoples of the        New World

3. Scientific explanations for the origin of the native peoples of the New World: The    history of prehistory in America

4. The history of prehistory: New England

5. New England natural history: Geological History of The Farmington Valley--a         case in point

6. New England natural history: The palynological record

7. Eco-regions, habitats, and micro-environments: Modern analogs for New England's past – PALEOENVIRONMENT ASSIGNMENT

8. Models of the past: The Southern New England Ethnohistory Project (SNEEP)

II. Culture History:

 9. Who's on first?

10. Paleo-Indian adaptations

11. The Paleo-Indian period in Connecticut: 6LF21

12. Post-Pleistocene change

13. Archaic adaptations: Early and Middle

14. Alsop Meadow

15. Firetown Meadow

16. Archaic adaptations: Late

17. Woodchuck Knoll

18. The Woodland Period: Continuity and change

19. Wood Lily

20. Firetown North

21. Tulmeadow

22. Glazier Blades

III. History

23. First contact

24. Acculturation

25. Trade and warfare in the Woodland

26. SNEEP reports

27. Reservations, renewal, and slot machines: The future

Grading:  Mid-term (20%) and final exam (20%).  Paleo-environment assignment (in class presentation and short written report - 20%) and SNEEP term project (40%). There is no textbook for this class.

SOUTHERN NEW ENGLAND ETHNOHISTORY PROJECT

Goal:

The overall goal of the Southern New England Ethnohistory Project (SNEEP) is to produce a model of aboriginal culture that will be useful in describing and explaining the prehistoric societies of New England.

Approach:

The approach in SNEEP is ethnohistorical. The ethnohistorical record of New England provides a data base from the sixteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth centuries consisting of descriptions of aboriginal lifeways. Our (in other words, your) job is to collect ethnohistorical information and use it as the basis of our model of prehistoric culture.

Methodology:

Your job in the SNEEP project will be to read an ethnohistorical source from the sixteenth, seventeenth, or eighteenth centuries. This will not be a casual or informal reading. In essence, your task will be to read each sentence of the work and assess its significance and meaning regarding aboriginal lifeways. Different works contain different quantities of information -- obviously, not every sentence will be of interest or value to us here. When you find information relating in any way to the aboriginal cultures of New England, you must copy the phrase, sentence, or paragraph (write it, type it, or photocopy it) and place it on a SNEEP sheet (copy appended -- you'll get lots of these). You need to code the information based on the SNEEP codes provided here. These codes are similar to those used in the Human Relation Area Files except that the SNEEP codes are focused on material culture -- the kinds of things archaeologists are likely to find. The rest of the SNEEP sheet is to be filled out as well (it is largely self-explanatory).

Biographical report:

To best assess the value of a particular ethnohistorical work, we need to know about the source of the information. Therefore, you will need to provide a brief biographical report concerning the author/explorer/colonist/missionary who is the source of your information. Based on your investigation of the source, you should be able to come to some conclusions regarding the reliability of the author particularly concerning his discussion of native lifeways.

Results:

By the last class of the semester you should have a huge pile of SNEEP sheets, a biographical report, and a pretty good understanding of the culture of aboriginal New England as described by your source. Putting the work of the entire class together, we should be able to begin to put together a model of aboriginal culture that will help us understand the lifeways of their more ancient ancestors.

Return to Beginning

North American Prehistory

1. First impressions:
1.1 The world before 1492
1.2 The "new world" of Columbus -- Fagan 1

2. Archaeology
2.1 A period of speculation -- Fagan 2
2.2 A scientific approach to the past -- Fagan 3

3. The first Americans
3.1 It's all in the timing -- Fagan 4
3.2 Who's on first? -- Fagan 4
3.3 Siberia: Archaeology of the source
3.4 Asians in Alaska: Nenana and Denali
3.5 The Paleoindians -- Fagan 5
3.6 Paleoindian adaptations
3.7 The Lindenmeier site, Colorado
3.8 The Vail site, Maine -- Fagan 6
3.9 Megafauna extinction: whodunnit?

4. Post-Pleistocene Adaptation
4.1 The Archaic period
4.2 Eastern Archaic -- Fagan 16 & 17
4.3 Desert Archaic -- Fagan 12 & 13
4.4 Central Archaic -- Fagan 7
4.5 Arctic Archaic -- Chapter 8 & 9
4.6 The Koster site, Illinois
4.7 Connecticut's Archaic

5. Cultural Complexity
5.1 The Woodland Period
5.2 Adaptation to the Eastern Woodlands
5.3 Adena/Hopewell --Chapter 18 & 19
5.4 Temple Mound builders -- Chapter 20
5.5 Cahokia; a pre-Columbian city on the banks of the Mississippi
5.6 The American Southwest -- Chapter 14
5.7 Pueblos and cliff dwellers -- Chapter 15

6. Historical Contacts
6.1 De Soto in the American South -- Chapter 22
6.2 Jesuits and Hopi
6.3 Pilgrims and Pequots
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Text: North American Archaeology, by Brian Fagan
Grading: Mid-term (30%), Final (30%), and term paper (40%)

Anth 330

North American Prehistory

Term Paper

The purpose of the term paper in this course is to have you research a topic of controversy in North American prehistory. I want you to chose (either from the list I will provide here, or a topic of your own choosing) some issue that archaeologists disagree about. Your job is not to choose sides (although I do ask that you come to a tentative decision), but to research both (or more than two) sides of the issue, fairly present various opinions, and only then come to some conclusion of your own.

Appropriate topics/questions include:

When was the New World first settled?
What role, if any, did the Paleoindians have in the extinction of North America's megafauna at the end of the Pleistocene?
How did the prehistoric inhabitants of the New World readapt to changing environments at the end of the Pleistocene (focus on one area of North America)?
How important a resource was soapstone (steatite) to Indians in northeastern North America?
Was a sedentary way of life possible in North America only after the development of an agricultural economy?
Was the agricultural revolution in North America independent or derived from Mesoamerican developments?
Was Mississipian culture (the Temple Mound Builders) derived from Mesoamerica, or did it develop independently?
How widespread was the Norse incursion into North America in the period A. D. 800 to A.D. 1400?
Why can't Native Americans and archaeologists "just get along." Can the two groups work together and how?
Who "owns" the past of North America?

The term paper is due on the date scheduled for the final exam for this class. The final two weeks of the semester before finals week will be given over to you for the presentation of your report (each presentation should last about 30 minutes or so).

The paper must be typed. It should be no more than twenty-five pages in length. It should be at least twenty pages. You must adhere to the standard bibliographic format for anthropology papers (we'll go over that in class and I will provide you with a short handbook).

Return to Beginning

Anthropology 329

EXPERIMENTAL ARCHAEOLOGY

Syllabus

Experimental Archaeology Project

Experimental Archaeology Project Photographs

Lithic Vocabulary List

This course will prepare you for two things: to conduct scientific experiments in material culture and to survive after World War III. The course consists of laboratory/lectures. Most of the course consists of hands-on work so missing classes and "getting the notes" will not suffice. Plan on showing up to all of the classes or don't take this course.

Syllabus

EXPERIMENTAL ARCHAEOLOGY

Feder

Office: DiLoreto 110D

Office phone: 832-2615

Office hours: Tuesdays and Thursdays. 12:30-2:00; Wednesday, 12:00-2:00

e-mail: feder@ccsu.edu

This course will prepare you for two things: to conduct scientific experiments in material culture and to survive after World War III.  The course consists of laboratory/lectures.

 Most of the course consists of hands-on work so missing classes and "getting the notes" will not suffice.  Plan on showing up to all of the classes or don't take this course.

 We will adhere only vaguely to the following course outline:

 WEEK                    TOPIC

1         Material culture: Introduction

2         Experimental Archaeology: Term Project

3         Introduction to stone tools: A dictionary of concepts I

(read all of Crabtree)

4         Introduction to stone tools: A dictionary of concepts II

          (read all of Crabtree again)

5         Lithic Replication—Oldowan

6         Lithic Replication—Acheulean

7         Lithic Replication—Acheulean

8         Lithic Replication—Mousterian

9         Lithic Replication—Anatomically modern Homo sapiens and Pyramid

10        Lithic Replication—Anatomically modern Homo sapiens and Obelisk

11        Experimental analysis of tool use I and Stonehenge

12        Experimental analysis of tool use II and The Inca

13        Experimental analysis of debitage and The Coliseum

14        Projects

15        Projects

Text: Donald Crabtree: An Introduction to Flintknapping

Grading: Mid-term, final exam (each worth 25% of your final grade) and a term project (worth 50% of your final grade).

EXPERIMENTAL ARCHAEOLOGY PROJECT

A major part of this course will be your term project - done either singly or in a group of no more than two. The project involves your conducting an archaeologically relevant experiment of your own choosing. The steps involved in this project should include:

1. choosing a question or issue in archaeological analysis or material culture studies,

2. formulating an hypothesis (or hypotheses) regarding the issue you have chosen,

3. formulating a procedure for testing the hypothesis,

4. researching relevant archaeological and/or ethnographic literature,

5. designing the experiment,

6. conducting the experiment,

7. writing up the results of your experiment and formulating the conclusions that can be drawn from the results of your research and experiment.

While your experiment will almost certainly involve replication, merely attempting to copy an ancient technology is not sufficient rationale for the project you have selected. Archaeological experiments, including your own are conducted to answer questions. The following are examples of reasonable experiments for your consideration; you are not bound to do any of these.

I. The invention of ceramic technology. Was pottery invented through the accidental burning of clay lined basketry?

II. Projectile accuracy and efficiency. A comparison of accuracy and deadliness of the spear, spear with spear thrower, and bow and arrow.

III. Diagnostic wear patterns. Can the wear patterns left on stone tools be used to accurately assess tool use?

IV. Ceramic manufacture. Can different techniques of ceramic manufacture be determined from fragmentary pottery remains.

In two weeks (September 18), you should have an idea for a project. On September 25, you will hand in a one page description of what you plan to do with a least a general discussion of the question to be approached or hypothesis tested, your planned experimental procedure, and a short description of where you intend to obtain the background information necessary for conducting your experiment.

During the course of the semester I will ask for updates in class for how things are coming. You will discuss the results of your project on the last day of class. The final write-up is due on the last day of class.

Experimental Archaeology Projects

Following are images of some of the completed term projects produced by students in the course in the fall semester, 1996. Each project involved researching the material culture of a particular group of people, obtaining authentic raw materials, and then replicating some aspect of ancient technology.

Art major Aaron Foster using the lacrosse stick manufactured by anthropology student Shawn Wood. Shawn researched Iroquois tool making and investigated the significance of the game of lacrosse to the original inhabitants of what today is New York State. Shawn used only authentic raw materials and tools.

Anthropology major Erik Bouchard displaying the Native American pipe he manufactured using wood for the stem, fur and feathers for decoration, and alabaster for the bowl. Erik produced the pipe using all authentic materials and tools available to the makers of such pipes.

Aaron Foster produced this rather spectacular warclub based on the style of the native people of New England. The metal studs indicate that the style of the club dates to after the period of European contact. Warclubs such as this one were meant for close combat. Historical records indicate that they were quite deadly.

J.P. Thompson manufactured a toggle harpoon based on the style of the Inuit (Eskimo) people of the American Arctic. He can be seen here on the left, attacking a big ball of ice. The ice won, but you can see how the toggle is intended to work (on the right); the business part of the weapon pierces the hide of an animal, and then detaches from the shaft. The sharp, barbed point remains in the animal and it attached to a sinew or rawhide line which is held by the hunter.

Cris Wibby made snowshoes by bending wood to form and then weaving a rawhide web. Notice how the snowshoes serve their purpose, keeping Cris on top of the snow as she walks, rather than sinking down into it.

Lithic Replication Vocabulary

Acheulian
angle of applied force
anvil technique
Aurignacian
basalt
blade
bulb of applied force
bulb of percussion
burin
chert
conchoidal fracture
cone of force
core
cortex
cryptocrystalline
distal
dorsal
elastic limit
elastic rebound
elasticity
eraillure flake
feathering fracture
flake
flint
fluted point
graver
gremlins
half-moon scars
hammerstone
hand axe
Hertzian cone
hinge fracture
inclusions
indirect percussion
isomorphic
isotropic
lipping
Mousterian
negative bulb of percussion
object piece
obsidian
Oldowan
percusion flaking
platform
platform angle
preparation
pressure flaking
projectile point
proximal
quartz
quartzite
ridge
ripples
scalar scars
scraper
step fracture
striations
ventral
wear patterns

 

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Anth375

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Anth 450

 

Field School in Archaeology

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FIELDSCHOOL

 

HANDBOOK

 

 

McLean Game Refuge

Archaeological Survey 1996

 

 

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The Questions of Archaeology:

 

I. Where?: Archaeological Site Survey

A. Local histories

B. Local collectors

C. Test pitting

D. Aerial photography

 

II. What?: Archaeological Data

A. Artifacts

B. Ecofacts

C. Features

D. Sites

 

III. When?: Chronology

A. Absolute methods

1. radiocarbon

2. potassium/argon

3. dendrochronology

4. historical records

 

B. Relative methods

1. stratigraphy

2. seriation/style

 

IV. How?: Paleoethnography

A. Technology

B. Diet

C. Social systems

D. Ideology

E. Trade

 

V. Who?: Demography

A. Species

B. Age

C. Sex

D. Race

E. Health/Nutrition

 

VI. Why?: Explanation

 

Chronology for Native America

 

 

I. Paleo-Indian: 12,000 to 9,000 years ago

 

 

II. Archaic: 9,000 to 3,000 years ago

 

A. Early Archaic: 9,000 to 8,000 years ago

 

B. Middle Archaic: 8,000 to 6,000 years ago

 

C. Late Archaic: 6,000 to 4,000 years ago

D. Terminal Archaic: 4,000 to 3,000 years ago

 

 

III. Woodland: 3,000 to 350 years ago

 

A. Early Woodland: 3,000 to 2,000 years ago

 

B. Middle Woodland: 2,000 to 1000 years ago

 

C. Late Woodland: 1,000 to 350 years ago

 

 

IV. Contact: 350 years ago

 

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Field Kit List:

 

1. Mason's 5 inch (or thereabouts) pointing trowel (non-riveted). Available at most hardware stores. The standard in archaeology is the Marsalltown. It looks something like this:

 

2. Tape measure (2 meter or, preferably, 3 meter). Must have metric, not just English scale. Available at most hardware stores.

 

3. Notebook with graph paper pages. Available at most stationary stores. Metric graph scale preferred (but often difficult to find).

 

4. Root clippers. Any small, hand-held pair is fine.

 

5. One rotten old toothbrush you should replace anyway.

 

6. Water container for yourself.

 

7. Small cooler for your lunch. There are too many of us to fit our lunches and Randi's snacks in one cooler. I am sure if half of us bring small coolers, it will be more than enough.

 

8. Gloves (strictly for weenies but you decide).

 

9. Bug spray.

 

10. More bug spray.

 

11. Snake bite kit (kidding).

 

12. Additional bug spray.

ARCHAEOLOGY FIELD SCHOOL

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I tell you the past is a bucket of ashes.

Carl Sandburg

 

 

Some are so very studious of learning what was done by the ancients that they know not how to live with the moderns.

William Penn

 

 

To look back to antiquity is one thing, to go back to it is another.

Charles Caleb Colton

 

 

The past always looks better than it was; it's only pleasant because it isn't here.

Finley Peter Dunne

 

 

Study the past if you would divine the future.

Confucius

 

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Ground Rules:

 

The field school is not a class in the standard sense. Of course, you will learn lots and we will all have a terrific time but we all must recognize that we have a serious responsibility to the rare and precious historical resources we will be extracting from the ground, Anyone whose actions in any way jeopardize the integrity of these historical resources will be offered the choice of leaving the program or becoming one of those historical resources. We will be dealing with remarkable, fascinating, and fragile material. We all must understand and respect that.

 

We are all guests of the McLean Game Refuge, a jewel of a place. The board of the Refuge has been extremely generous in allowing us to conduct our research on their property. We have a responsibility to have a minimal impact on the Refuge, to leave it the way we found it. No one in my field school will act in a way that negatively affects the Refuge.

 

Your role this summer will be as part of a team conducting research. There are no tests but each of you will be expected to contribute in terms of labor and thought to the project. Each of you will keep a daily log of your activities. Additional work will be expected in the form of team projects focusing on local geology, botany, zoology, history, and archaeology.

 

You cannot be a part of this team by reading someone's notes. You may miss a maximum of three days of the field school. More than that and you owe me time in the fall semester.

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