World Of Archaeology Research Articles

In search of Chaco: new approaches to an archaeological enigma

Startling discoveries and impassioned debates have emerged from the Phenomenon since the publication of New Light on Chaco Canyon twenty years ago. This completely updated edition features seventeen original essays, scores of photographs, maps, and site plans, and the perspectives of archaeologists, historians, and Native American thinkers. Key topics include the rise of early great houses; the structure of agricultural life among the people of Chaco Canyon; their use of sacred geography and astronomy in organizing their spiritual cosmology; indigenous knowledge about Chaco from the perspective of Hopi, Tewa, and Navajo peoples; and the place of Chaco in the wider world of archaeology. For more than a century archaeologists and others have pursued Chaco Canyon's many and elusive meanings. In Search of Chaco brings these explorations to a new generation of enthusiasts.

A New Exhibit on Ancient Mesopotamia at the Oriental Institue, University of Chicago

The world of archaeology has long considered the civilization that developed in ancient Mesopotamia over 5,000 years ago to be the earliest anywhere in the world. It led the way in creating cities, institutions of governance, bureaucracy, and organized religion, as well as inventing writing and the first wheeled vehicles. Among its other major accomplishments were the construction of major public buildings in a distinctive architectural tradition, and the organization of systematic trade, often conducted over considerable distances. And we owe to

Reality check

They were highly prized artefacts with inscriptions that dated back to biblical times. The only problem was they were fake. Haim Watzman unearths the authentication work that has rocked Israel's archaeology community. Israel's Antiquities Authority has judged that the Jehoash Tablet, said to corroborate biblical accounts of King Solomon's Temple, and a bone burial box inscribed “James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus”, are forgeries. Haim Watzman looks at the forensic science used to test the authenticity of these artefacts that have had a dramatic impact in the arcane world of archaeology — and in the wider spheres of geopolitics and georeligion.

They Also Dug! Archaeologists’ Wives and Their Stories

Providing an insider's perspective on what it's like to work on an excavation as a "Director's wife," the author offers a unique retrospective on the challenges and rewards of this difficult role. Gender roles, even in the hidebound world of archaeology, have changed significantly since the time of the women whose lives she examines. Nonetheless, it is today more important than ever to remember the, largely unacknowledged, contributions of "dig wives."

Homophobia and women archaeologists

Homophobia has a long, sad but obscure history in the Western world and in the world of archaeology. In this paper I argue that homophobia was responsible for women choosing not to go into archaeology in large numbers until at least 1950. While homophobia is no longer successful in keeping women out of archaeology, it continues to have an impact on the discipline in education, network building, and mentoring.

Investigating Olduvai: archaeology of human origins

... I enjoyed my first venture into the world of CD-ROM archaeology. Jeanne Sept teaches a great course. Jerald T. Milanich, ArchaeologyThis is a superb teaching tool for an exciting subject.... This resource is authoritative enough to serve undergraduates in human evolution and early human ecology, as well as high school students and general users. ChoiceIt is up-to-date, written with a scholarly understanding by someone who aims at an undergraduate college audience (any serious high school student could use this as well), with loads of information packaged in an attractive format. KLIATTOlduvai Gorge in the Serengeti plains of Tanzania contains a rich store of archaeological evidence for human origins. Beginning with Mary Leakey s important excavations in 1959, early sites in the gorge have become foundation stones for lively scientific debate and archaeological interpretations of proto-human behavior.This multimedia, interactive CD-ROM is designed to engage students in the detective work of prehistorical research. It introduces both the authentic data from Olduvai and the range of methods and theories that archaeologists are currently using to interpret these data. The colorful program is organized into sections that give students a chance to interpret for themselves multidisciplinary data from the famous FLK-Zinj site at Olduvai.

A history in paint and stone from Rose Cottage Cave, South Africa

In South Africa, as in so many regions, the world of dirt archaeology in shelter floors and of rock art on shelter walls, have also been rather separate as domains of study. In research at Rose Cottage Cave, bridges are being made to link both strands of evidence of the forager social strategies from which both derive.

The Real World of Archaeology

The Real World of Archaeology When all U.S. government agencies received authority to expend their own funds for assessment of archaeological resources in the mid 1970s, there was an immediate necessity for archaeologists to take care of the innumerable projects by multiple agencies needing cultural resource clearance. The response, not unforeseen (Lipe and Lindsey 1974), was that a good many enterprising archaeologists went into private business, severing traditional relationships with universities and museums, and setting up companies whose sole purpose was to meet the needs of clients for archaeological expertise. It was a whole new world for archaeologists. Many were not prepared for the business world and did not survive the pressures of meeting payrolls, meeting client's needs, meeting scientific research responsibilities, meeting requirements of a multitude of new laws, and making enough profit to feed their families. But many did and have continued to survive, and we have in the United States now what Harry Piper below calls a three-party relationship: the federal or state agency required by law to see that archaeological resources (cultural resources actually) are taken into consideration before they are disturbed by any project with federal or state involvement; the archaeologist (whether in private business or associated with a public institution) who has the expertise to provide the information for that consideration; and the client-a developer or federal agency or utility company or whatever-that must have regulatory agency approval in order to pursue some kind of land modification project. But the way is still not smooth and expectations still not understood, much less met, by all parties. The archaeologist, doing research under contract, has agreed by signing that contract to do certain things by a certain time. The constraints are many, and the ability by either the archaeologist or the regulator to aaually control what happens to the resources being investigated is normally extremely limited. The possibility of continuing an interesting line of research is slight. Knowledge of the law is vital; knowledge of the requirements, the potential, and the limits on archaeological investigations is basic to meeting a contract, meeting the legal requirements, and meeting professional standards. And where in this relationship do the resources themselves fit in? Some of the frustrations met by two of the parties in this triangle are expressed below. These are voices of long experience speaking. Those new to this game should take heed.

Professional Problem Domains of Consulting Archaeologists: Responsibility Without Authority

The Real World of Archaeology When all U.S. government agencies received authority to expend their own funds for assessment of archaeological resources in the mid 1970s, there was an immediate necessity for archaeologists to take care of the innumerable projects by multiple agencies needing cultural resource clearance. The response, not unforeseen (Lipe and Lindsey 1974), was that a good many enterprising archaeologists went into private business, severing traditional relationships with universities and museums, and setting up companies whose sole purpose was to meet the needs of clients for archaeological expertise. It was a whole new world for archaeologists. Many were not prepared for the business world and did not survive the pressures of meeting payrolls, meeting client's needs, meeting scientific research responsibilities, meeting requirements of a multitude of new laws, and making enough profit to feed their families. But many did and have continued to survive, and we have in the United States now what Harry Piper below calls a three-party relationship: the federal or state agency required by law to see that archaeological resources (cultural resources actually) are taken into consideration before they are disturbed by any project with federal or state involvement; the archaeologist (whether in private business or associated with a public institution) who has the expertise to provide the information for that consideration; and the client-a developer or federal agency or utility company or whatever-that must have regulatory agency approval in order to pursue some kind of land modification project. But the way is still not smooth and expectations still not understood, much less met, by all parties. The archaeologist, doing research under contract, has agreed by signing that contract to do certain things by a certain time. The constraints are many, and the ability by either the archaeologist or the regulator to aaually control what happens to the resources being investigated is normally extremely limited. The possibility of continuing an interesting line of research is slight. Knowledge of the law is vital; knowledge of the requirements, the potential, and the limits on archaeological investigations is basic to meeting a contract, meeting the legal requirements, and meeting professional standards. And where in this relationship do the resources themselves fit in? Some of the frustrations met by two of the parties in this triangle are expressed below. These are voices of long experience speaking. Those new to this game should take heed.

The New World of archaeology

The New World of archaeology

Frederik Sehested: a Danish pioneer

No one could wish for a more auspicious initiation into the world of archaeology than Frederik Sehested (PL. LX). He was 20 when the greatest gold treasure in Denmark was found on the family estate of Broholm, and it was largely through the efforts of his mother and himself that the treasure was saved. It must have been a great moment when he accompanied his mother to Copenhagen and witnessed the handing over of the treasure into the hands of the by then famous C. J. Thomsen in the rooms in Christiansborg Castle which housed the still infant Museum of Northern Antiquities. Many years later Sehested (1878) wrote a sober account of the event but the excitement still remained with him and couldn’t be drained from the account. The reader gets a lively impression of the atmosphere on the estate during those spring days of 1838.

(M.) Pope The story of decipherment from Egyptian hieroglyphic to Linear B. (The world of archaeology.) London: Thames and Hudson. 1975. Pp. 216, 118 text figs., 1 map. £4.25 (bound), £2.95 (paper).

(M.) Pope The story of decipherment from Egyptian hieroglyphic to Linear B. (The world of archaeology.) London: Thames and Hudson. 1975. Pp. 216, 118 text figs., 1 map. £4.25 (bound), £2.95 (paper).

Frank H. Stubbings: Prehistoric Greece. (The World of Archaeology.) London: Rupert Hart-Davis, 1972. 95 pp., 85 illustrations (18 in colour). £1.95

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Book Reviews

Book reviewed in this article:Anatomy and Physiology for Children, Explained Through the Dissection of a Chicken, by Jean M. Ashton.Exploring the World of Archaeology, by P. E. Cleator.

The World of Archaeology: The Pioneers Tell Their Own Story.

The World of Archaeology: The Pioneers Tell Their Own Story.