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
Max Mallowan and Agatha
Christie
……”Who are you, sir?” to him I said,
“For what is it you look?”
His answer trickled through my head
Like bloodstains in a book…..
“His accents mild were full of
wit”……..
“Five thousand years ago
Is really, when I think of it,
The choicest age I know.
And once you learn to scorn A.D.
And you have got the knack,
Then you could come and dig with
me,
And never wander back.”
Continued the author:
But I was thinking how to thrust
Some arsenic into tea,
And could not all at once adjust
My mind so far B.C.
I looked at him and softly sighed,
His face was pleasant too…..
“Come tell me how you live?” I cried,
And what it is you do?”
EARLY ATTEMPTS AT
ARCHAEOLOGY:
 Antiquarians
 Collectors
 Classifiers
 Looters
and Robbers
Pseudo-archaeology

Chariots of the Gods (van Daniken)

King Tut’s tomb

The Pyramids
ARCHAEOLOGY


The scientific study of the material
remains of man’s past…..

Scientific study (Techniques, Methods,
Theoretical Frameworks)
Material remains

Man’s past

THREE STEPS TO THIS
DISCIPLINE:

1. Excavation

2. Recording

3. Decipherment, explanation and
interpretation
Why Ancient Man Settled In The
Same Location

Water

Land

Defense
THE FORMS OF
ARCHAEOLOGICAL DATA

Artifacts

Features

Structures

Ecofacts
Classifier: Christian Thomsen

Early 1800’s

Danish museum curator

Stone Age
Bronze Age
Iron Age
STONE AGES
Paleolithic (Old Stone Age): 700,00015,000 B.C.
 Mesolithic (Middle Stone Age): 15,0008300 B.C.
 Neolithic (New Stone Age): 8300-4200
B.C.
 Chalcolithic (Copper/Stone Age) 42003100 B.C.

Prehistorical and Historical

Writing invented by the Sumerians in
Mesopotamia
3,000 B.C.
 B.C. and A.D.
 B.C.E. and A.C.E.
 B.P. and A.P.

THE GREAT RIFT

Louis and Mary Leakey; Richard Leakey

Olduvai Gorge

Lake Victoria: Tanzania, Uganda, Kenya
James Breasted
The Fertile Crescent
 Southwest end (Egypt): Nile River
Valley
 Southeast end (Mesopotamia): Tigris
and Euphrates River Valleys
 Israel, Lebanon, Syria, Turkey
 Jordan River Valley of Israel

TEL MEGIDDO

120-180 feet high; 16 acres

22 strata

Early Bronze (before 3300 B.C.) to
Persian (600-350 B.C.)
THE TOMB OF KING TUT

Howard Carter

1907-1922

Valley of the Kings

Lord Carnarvon
DATING THE PAST
1. Historical records (present day to
3,000 B.C.)
 2. Dendrochronology (back to 8000 BC)
 3. Radiocarbon dating (A.D. 1500 to
40,000 years ago)
 4. Potassium argon dating (250,000
B.C. to origins of early life)

Two Sources of Information
 Written:
(Historical or Text-aided
Archaeology ) stone, clay tablets,
wood, metal, papyrus, parchment
 Unwritten
(Prehistoric Archaeology)
buildings, sculptures, ceramics, tools,
weaponry, jewelry, coins, food, bones
THE VALUE OF
ARCHAEOLOGY
1. It provides the color for the black-andwhite sketch of history
2. Historical records are by no means
complete
3. Helps in the translation and
explanation of languages
4. Validates some literature that was
thought to be inaccurate
THE FERTILE CRESCENT

James Breasted

The Great Rift

Olduvai Gorge
ARCHAEOLOGY
“Archaios” and “logos”
 Zoology
 Psychology
 Anthropology
 Sociology

The Scientific Study of Humanity

Cultural Anthropology

Physical Anthropology

Archaeology

Linguistics
HEINRICH SCHLIEMANN

Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey

Troy and Mycenae, 1869

“The Greek Treasure”

Sir Arthur Evans and the Minoans,
1899
CERAMIC INDEX
Sir Flinders Petrie, late 1800’s
 Egyptian Predynastic tombs
 Diospolis Parva
 Based on ceramic attributes


Egyptian chronology the basis for most
chronological schemes
ARCHAEOLOGICAL DATA:
STAGES OF HUMAN
BEHAVIOR

1. Acquisition

2. Manufacture

3. Use

4. Deposition
GOALS OF ARCHAEOLOGY

1. Studying sites and their contents

2. Reconstructing past lifeways and history

3. Studying cultural process

4. Understanding the archaeological record
which is a part of our contemporary world
TEL AND HORVAT

Tel: a man-made hill ruin

Tel: Arabic

Horvat: Hebrew
Debitage at Chaco Canyon

Flint Flakes

Evidence of trading

Lookout point
DATING THE PAST
Historical records (present day to 3000
B.C.)
 Dendrochronology (present day to 8000
B.C.)
 Radiocarbon Dating (A.D. 1500 to
40,000 years ago)
 Potassium Argon Dating (250,000 years
ago to the origins of life)

CIVILIZATION
A level of cultural attainment marked by:

Presence of writing

Monumental architecture

Stratified social system
ORIGINS OF CIVILIZATION
Ecology
 Population growth
 Technology
 Irrigation
 Growth of trade
 Warfare
 Religion

NEOLITHIC REVOLUTION
1st ground stone technology
 1st domestication of plants and animals
 1st agricultural projects
 1st population explosion
 1st architecture
 1st weaving from domestication
 1st pottery

JERICHO
Tel: 6 acres in area and 70 ft. high
 Oldest continually inhabited city
 Ideal environment
 Evidence of domesticated grains
 Trade network
 Defensive fortifications

MESOPOTAMIA
Tigris and Euphrates rivers
 Greek meaning “land between the
rivers”
 600 miles long; 250 miles wide
 Long, intensely hot summers
 Harsh, cold winters
 Rainfall: minimal and varied

MESOPOTAMIAN
CONTRIBUTIONS
Wheel
 Chariot
 Writing
 Metallurgy
 Mathematical functions of mulitiplication
and division
 Lunar Calender

MESOPOTAMIAN PERIODS
Ubaid 5800-3000 B.C.
 Sumerian 3000-2300 B.C.
 Old Babylonian/Akkadian 2334-1600
BC
 Kassite/Hittite 1600-1300 B.C.
 Assyrian 1300-612 B.C.
 Babylonian/Medes 612-330 B.C.

URUK: The World’s 1st City
Two innovations: writing and metallurgy
 4500 B.C.
 617 acres with villages extending as
extensive as 6 miles
 Dominated by a ziggurat (temple
mound)

Sumer: The World of the First
Cities
3500-3200 B.C.: lst civilized territory on
the globe
 3200-2000 B.C.: Sumerian Era
 lst 900 years had no unified government
 City states: Uruk, Ur, Lagash
 2320 B.C. all Sumer conquered by a
mighty warrior from Akkad (Sargon the
Great)

SARGON
Ruler of Akkadian Civilization
 Conquered Sumerian Civilization
 Covered Sumer (south) and Akkad
(north)
 Ur of the Chaldees: excavated by Sir
Leonard Wooley (Royal cemetery;
series of kings/queens and retinue; one
had 59 servants buried)

Sumerian Civilization
3100-2334 B.C.
 No metal, timber, semiprecious stones
 Imported copper, gold and other ores
 Widespread use of bronze
 Metal plows; increased agricultural
yields
 Region-wide trade network
 1st use of clay tablets for extensive

CUNEIFORM
Mesopotamia
 “Wedge-shaped”
 Ideogram
 Stone inscriptions and clay tablets
 Mari: 20,000 tablets

Cuneiform Deciphered
Henry Rawlinson (1810-1895)
 Worked two years copying inscription;
using ladders, ropes and slings
 Behistun Stone
 Persian King Darius battling Gaumata
with the help of god Ahuramazda
 Old Persian (414), Elamite (263),
Akkadian (112)

Hammurabi
Ur gave way to Babylon and its Semitic
rulers
 Old Babylonian Empire
 2334-1650 B.C.
 “Code of Hammurabi”: 1792-1750 B.C.
 282 laws

HITTITE INTERLUDE
From Anatolia (eastern Turkey)
 1600 B.C.
 Capital: Hattusas
 Control of 3 continents and seas
 Created light-chariot warfare; horses
 Excavated in 1907
 Archive of 20,000 tablets in IndoEuropean language

Uluburun Ship
Coast of southern Turkey; 1310 B.C.
 350 copper ingots each weighing 60 lbs.
 Ton of resin in two-handles jars from
Syria
 Ingots of blue glass; hardwood; amber;
turtle shells; elephant tusks; hippo teeth;
ostrich eggs; jars of olives; large jars
filled with Cannaanite and Mycenean
pottery

Assyrian and Babylonian
900-539 B.C.
 Assyrian capital: Nineveh
 King Assurnasirpal’s party
 Tiglath Pileser III destroyed Bethsaida
in 732 B.C.
 Last great Assyrian king Assurbanipal
died in 630 B.C.
 Babylonians take over in 612 B.C.

Sennacherib
Assyrian
 705-681 B.C.
 Capital: Nineveh
 Invasion of Israel in 702-701 B.C.
 Ten Lost Tribes

Nebuchadnezzar
604-562 B.C.
 City of Babylon
 Walls of glazed brick
 Hanging gardens: one of the ancient
seven wonders of the world
 Invaded Israel in 587-586 B.C.
 State taken over by Cyrus the Persian
in 534 B.C.

ARCHAEOLOGICAL
RESEARCH
Several skills used long before excavation
begins in the field:
Theoretical skills
Methodological skills
Technical skills
Administrative/managerial skills
Writing and analytical skills
FORMULATION

Problem/hypothesis definition

Background research

Feasibility studies
IMPLEMENTATION

Permits

Funding

Logistics
DATA ACQUISITION

Reconnaissance

Survey

Excavation
DATA PROCESSING

Cleaning and conservation

Cataloging

Initial classifications
ANALYSIS

Analytical classifications

Temporal frameworks

Spatial frameworks
INTERPRETATION

Application of theories

Cultural historical and/or

Cultural processual theory
PUBLICATION AND
RESTORATION

Final reports

Research results used as a foundation
for new research
Hymn to Aton----Pharaoh
Akhenation

Thou makes the Nile in the Nether world
Thou bringest it as thou desirest,
To preserve alive the people of Egypt.
For Thou hast made them for thyself,
Thou lord of them all….
ANCIENT EGYPT
The Greek writers said the land of Egypt
was the gift of the Nile River
 Starts in equatorial Africa as the White
Nile and flows 2100 miles north to join
the Blue Nile for the last 1900 miles
 Egyptians called their country the “Two
Lands”: Upper Egypt and Lower Egypt
 Travel either khed (downstream) or
khent (upstream)

Different from Mesopotamia
Egypt: stability and serenity
 Mesopotamia: harsh environment,
sporadic flooding, open plain allowed
foreign incursions
 Egypt: rich, fertile black soil; annual
flooding; surrounded by deserts and
Red Sea; abundant mineral resources;
rich in granite, limestone, basalt

Importance of Egyptian
Chronology

All of the chronological dates in the
Mediterranean area for ancient
civilizations are based on Egyptian
chronology
Predynastic Egyptian Cultures:
5000-3100 B.C.

Amratian

Badarian

Gerzean
Egyptian History
“Pharaoh” is a biblical term; never used
by the Egyptians themselves
 Greek: pharaohs divided into 30
dynasties (3000 BC to Alexander)
 Ptolemaic Egypt (332-30 BC)
 Roman occupation (30 BC became an
imperial province of Rome)

ANCIENT EGYPTIAN
PERIODS
Unification of Egypt 3100 B.C
 Archaic Period 3100-2770 B.C.
 Old Kingdom 2770-2200 B.C.
 First Intermediate Period 2200-2050
B.C.
 Middle Kingdom 2050-1786 B.C.
 Second Intermediate 1786-1560 B.C.

ANCIENT EGYPTIAN
PERIODS
New Kingdom 1560-1087 B.C.
 Late Period 1087-332 B.C.
 Ptolemaic Period 332-30 B.C.
 Roman Occupation 30 B.C.

Unification of Egypt
1st Pharaoh-----Narmer-----3100 B.C.
 Unified Upper and Lower Egypt
 Heirankapolis
 1st heiroglyphics
 Narmer’s Pallette

Old Kingdom: IIIrd Dynasty
2770 B.C.
 Zoser (Djoser)
 Great state power system;absolutism
 Founder of the Old Kingdom
 Builder of 1st Pyramid
 Step Pyramid
 Saqqarah
Fourth Dynasty
Parallels Early Bronze Age III (26502350 B.C.)
 Cheops (Khufu)
 Chephren (Khafre)
 Menkaure (Mycerinus)
 Giza Pyramids and Sphinx
 2613-2494 B.C.

Pyramid Complex
Temenos Wall
 Mortuary Temple
 Causeway
 Funerary Temple
 Pyramid
 Family pyramids

HEIROGLYPHICS
Egyptian
 “Priestly carving”
 Pictogram
 Stone inscriptions and papyrus writings
 Jean Francois Champollion (17781867)
 Rosetta Stone
 Heiroglyphic, Demotic, Greek

The 1st Intermediate Period and
Middle Kingdom (2134-1640
BC)
Despotic, ruthless rulers
 Conspicuous, costly monuments
 Pepi I…..last pharaoh of Old
Kingdom…94 years
 Decline caused by drouth
 Repeated famines for over 300 yrs.
 Political chaos; disunity; rulers of small
kingdoms

Middle Kingdom (2134-1640
BC)
Restored by Pharaoh Mentuhotep II
operating out of Thebes
 Middle Kingdom pharaohs (no
outstanding names)
 Less despotic
 Concern for the common welfare
 Classic period of Egyptian civilization
 Extensive trade relations extended

Middle Kingdom
Trade relations with entire eastern
Mediterranean
 Mined copper and gold in Sinai
 Imported cedar from Lebanon
 Inscriptions in Byblos and Ugarit
 Objects from Aegean Islands and
Minoan towns on Crete
 Increased agricultural production

Second Intermediate Period
1640-1530 B.C.
Hidau khasut (Hyksos)….”Princes of
desert uplands”
 Joseph story
 Capital: Avaris in the Delta
 Changed Egyptian civilization
 Brought stronger bows, new forms of
swords and daggers, and horse-drawn
chariots (strength of New Kingdom)

New Kingdom (1530-1070
BC):18th-19th-20th Dynasties
Pharaoh Ahmose I: the Liberator
 Turned Egypt into an efficiently run
military state
 This era the greatest in Egyptian history
 Pharaohs become imperial rulers,
skilled generals, and strong military
leaders

New Kingdom
Main wars with Mitanni and Hittites
 Financed with Nubian gold; lands
upstream of the First Cataract
 Centers primarily on the Late Bronze
Period
 This was the 1st true “International
Period”

Thebes: the “Estate of Amun”
Amun-Ra: the “king of the gods”
 Karnak and Luxor Temples
 Built mainly during 18th dynasty
 Ramasseum of Ramses II
 “Estate of Amun” extended across west
of the Nile; Valley of the Kings (62 royal
burials)

The Temples
Deir el-Bahri (local cult of Hathor;
mortuary temples; 11th dynasty
Mentuhotep; 18th dynasty Hatshepsut;
Tutmosis III temple complex for God
Amun
 Medinet Habu (Hatshepsut and
Tutmosis III; Ramses III mortuary)

Akhenaten and Amarna
Rejects Amun for Aten
 Ruled 1353-1336 BC (17 years)
 Builds new city at El-amarna
 Succeeded by Smenkhare, son of
Amenhotep III (3 years)
 Succeeded by Tutankhamun (13331323 BC)

Tel El Amarna
Single stratum
 Pharaoh Amenophis IV (Akhenaten)
 1375-1325 B.C.
 Amarna Tablets
 Political and cultural interactions
between Egypt and the ancient Near
East

19th Dynasty (1307-1196 BC)
Dominated by the Rameside pharaohs
 Most powerful pharaoh: Ramses II
(1290-1224 BC)
 His tomb in Valley of Kings: recent find
of his sons tombs under his
 Ramses III: Dies in 1070 BC; last
powerful pharaoh
 Assyria: 725 BC

Archaeology and Language

Ramses III and Medinet Habu

“PRST”

Cypriot-Minoans

“PLST”
PALESTINE

Ramses III and Medinet Habu

PRST: “Sea Peoples”

Cypriot-Minoan

PLST
EARLY BRONZE AGE (31002000 BC)
EB I, II, III, IV
 EBI (3100-2900): Sumeria, Egypt
 Increasingly shorter periods
 Faster transition
 Larger populations
 Increased technology and inventions
 Two main bronze tools: axeheads and
tanged daggers

EARLY BRONZE AGE
Broad Houses
 Totally new pottery styles
 Wide use of sickle blades
 Canaanite culture in Israel:
protohistorical
 Most large Israeli cities established
 “Family” burials: caves

“Urban Period”: Large Cities for
Four Reasons
Hills convenient for fortification
 Located on major water sources
 In the center of agricultural areas
 Beside major road junctions
 Public buildings: palaces, temples,
central granaries
 Fortified urban centers for protection
and agricultural districts

An Interlude: The EBIV/MBI)
300 years Palestine sparsely populated
by pastoralists and village dwellers
 Parallels Egypt’s 1st Intermediate era
 Revived urbanization at beginning of
MBII parallels Egypt’s Middle Kingdom
 Only a few tels show occupation: Hazor,
Megiddo, Bethshan, Jericho

MIDDLE BRONZE AGE (20001500 BC)
W.F. Albright said MBI was period of the
Hebrew patriarchs
 MBII and III (1800-1550 BC)
 Large fortified cities; many found on
virgin soil or places not occupied for
centuries
 Use of glacis, guard towers, massive
wall fortification

Middle Bronze Age
Total revolution in all aspects of material
culture
 Settlement pattern
 Urbanism
 Architecture
 Pottery
 Metallurgy
 Burial customs

Middle Bronze Age
Numerous new types of metal weapons
and tools
 Sinuhe
 Execration texts
 Hyksos scarabs found in Israel
 Invention of potter’s wheel with resulting
finer ceramics

STRUCTURE STYLES
Early Bronze Broad House
 Iron Age II Four-Room House (1200586 B.C.)
 Solomonic (965-928 B.C.) Sixchambered Gate
 Herod the Great (37-4 B.C.) Margin
Stones

PSEUDO-ARCHAEOLOGY

“Chariot Of The Gods”

Indiana Jones

Pyramid Power
ARCHAEOLOGY AS A
SCIENCE

Theoretical framework

Techniques

Methods
Antiquarians: Three Museums

British Museum

Louvre Museum

Berlin Museum
THE VALUE OF
ARCHAEOLOGY
1. It provides the general background of
past cultures
 2. Historical records are by no means
complete
 3. Helps in the translation and
explanation of languages
 4. Validates some literature

Artifacts: Lewis Binford’s
Functional Approach

Technofacts

Sociofacts

Ideofacts
Methods of Expressing Dates:

B.C. and A.D.

B.C.E and A.C. E.

B.P and A.P.
JOSEPHUS

Jewish General

Turncoat

Antiquities and Wars of the Jews

Masada
SITE FORMATION
PROCESSES:

Behavioral processes
Cultural
What in our modern societies would leave
no remains?
SITE FORMATION
PROCESSES:

Transformational processes
Organic decay
Lava flow from volcanic eruptions
Plowing
Destruction
Erosion
Construction
Later occupants: “Philistine garbage pits”
Animal activity
THE SETTING OF
ARCHAEOLOGICAL DATA

Matrix

Provenience

Association
ARCHAEOLOGICAL
CONTEXT
Derived from the careful recording of the
matrix, provenience, and association
More than just a spot, a position in time
and space…..involves assessing how
the find got to its position and what
happened since its deposition
THE DETERMINANTS OF
ARCHAEOLOGICAL DATA

Primary Context

Secondary Context
CLASSIFYING
ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITES

By archaeological content

By artifact content

By geographical location

By artifact content related to site function
Marcus Aurelius
“TIME IS LIKE A RIVER MADE UP OF THE
EVENTS WHICH HAPPEN, AND A VIOLENT
STREAM; FOR AS SOON AS A THING HAS
BEEN SEEN, IT IS CARRIED AWAY, AND
ANOTHER COMES IN ITS PLACE, AND
THIS WILL BE CARRIED AWAY, TOO.”
FIRST QUESTION ALWAYS:
HOW OLD IS IT?
CHRONOLOGY
The temporal ordering of data
CHRONOLOGY
The measurement of time and the ordering of
prehistoric cultures in chronological sequence has
been of the archaeologist’s major preoccupations since
the very beginning of scientific research
AGE DETERMINATIONS

Relative

Absolute
RELATIVE CHRONOLOGY

The law of stratigraphy

The law of superposition

The law of association

The law of typology
CLASSIFICATION
A means for ordering data
OBJECTIVES OF
CLASSIFICATION

Organizing data into manageable units

Describing types

Identifying relationships between types

Studying assemblage variation in the
archaeological record
ARCHAEOLOGICAL TYPES

Descriptive types

Chronological types

Functional types

Stylistic types
ATTRIBUTE ANALYSIS
Formal attributes
Stylistic attributes
Technological attributes
Age Determination by
Archaeological Classifications

Changes in……
Manufacturing methods
 Function
 Style
 Decoration

Sir Flinders Petrie

Diospolis Parva

Stylistic seriation

Predynastic Egyptian tombs

Storage Jars
ATTRIBUTES IN TYPOLOGY

Formal attributes

Stylistic attributes

Technological attributes
ABSOLUTE/CHRONOMETRIC
DATING
More effort has been devoted to inventing methods of
chronometric dating in archaeology than to almost any
other aspect of the subject.
CALENDARS
Greece
Rome
Egypt
Carthage
Mesopotamia