Archaeology Reading Questions 1A Chapter
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1) What is an archaeologist?
An archaeologist is someone who studies or works in archaeology, generally working with artifacts. Archaeology is about artifacts, any moveable object that has been used, modified or manufactured by humans (e.g. stone, bone, metal tools, beads, ornaments, artwork, religious and sacred items)
2) How can studying the past be controversial? I mean, the things we did up don’t lie, right? (Hint: that’s a trick question or leading question …)
Archaeology can be used to justify actions in the present; accounts of the past can conflict with one another; power and authority - history is written by the victors; things (artifacts) don’t lie but interpretations can vary. With the goal to map, record and preserve national treasures, Europe’s leisure classes considered an interest in classical antiquities to be an important ingredient in the “cultivation of taste.”
3) What’s with all the abbreviations used with dates? Can’t we just settle on one standard and use it (Hint: again, “trick” question warning …)
BC – “before Christ”
AD – “anno Domini”; “in the year of the Lord”; from the year after the birth of Christ
CE – “common era”
BCE – “before common era”
BP – “before present” (AD 1950 arbitrarily selected as the zero point)
Contested past. Different people have different needs and goals.
4) Explain what all this business about Deep Time is.
Prior to the 18
th
century archaeological research followed the traditions of Petarch studying classical civilizations of the Mediterranean. This did not challenge the Christian bible as the authority of the origin of the world and humans. Deep time is humans’ ability to grasp great swaths of time in history. Deep time is the recognition that life was far more ancient than recognized by biblical scholars and that human culture has evolved over time.
