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ARC1000a: Interpreting Sites

and Landscapes

Lecture 1: Introduction
ARC 1000a
Interpreting Sites and Landscapes

• Module Director and lead lecturer:


Oliver Creighton; Room 308 (first floor,
Laver Building)
• Office hours: Mondays 11.30-12.30am
• Lectures also by Robert Van de Noort
This Week…

• Introduction to the module – assignments, etc


• What are archaeological sites and
landscapes?
• Case study – the Wadi Faynan Landscape
Survey
• A (very) brief history of Archaeology
ARC 1000a Interpreting Sites
and Landscapes
• … introduces the range of methods used by
archaeologists to discover, investigate and
interpret sites and landscapes
• By the end of the module you should also
have developed some key study skills
needed at University, including an
understanding of referencing and library-
based research.
The Student Handbook

http://humanities.exeter.ac.uk/students/

Please read carefully for guidelines on:


 submitting and presenting assignments
 regulations on late coursework, etc
Interpreting Sites and Landscapes:
Assignments and Assessments

• Assessment by means of coursework


– the second of two essays
– ‘Historic Exeter Project’
• Also a formative essay
– does not count towards the module mark
but is compulsory
– important in order to ensure full and proper
referencing (we will discuss referencing in
detail next week…)
What is the ELE?

• Online teaching resource accessible to


students taking the module
• Access through ‘My Exeter’ portal
• Go to relevant module
• Will include information in the Module
Guide and powerpoint presentations,
relevant web-links, etc
Module Outline: Topics Covered
1. Introduction 6. Excavation I: soils and site
formation
2. Survey I: landscapes, maps
and documents 7. Excavation II: stratigraphy

3. Research and writing 8. Case study - fieldwork


assignments; library visit
9. Historic Exeter Project I
4. Survey II: Aerial photography
and fieldwalking
10. Historic Exeter Project II
5. Survey III: Geophysics and
soil chemistry
In the minds of many, archaeology is excavation
BUT Excavation = Destruction!
‘Non Intrusive’ Archaeological Techniques
‘Finding’ Archaeological Sites
• Skilled surface observation still a crucial
means of locating archaeological sites
– in densely settled and intensively farmed areas
‘well preserved’ sites are the exception rather
than the rule
• Fieldwork today often involves locating and
analysing multiple sites, often over large
areas
– fieldwork is not necessarily a means of locating
sites to excavate
How do we ‘find’ archaeological sites?
An obvious archaeological site…
A less obvious but ‘typical’ archaeological site
….but things can look much clearer from the air
Different Scales of
Archaeological Enquiry

• Sites
- definition of ‘site’ much wider than
might be imagined
• Settlements
- ‘deserted’ and ‘living’
• Landscapes and regions
- growth of ‘landscape archaeology’
Well-defined
archaeological sites

Avebury Neolithic henge

Norton Priory
Castleshaw Roman fort
Geophysical
anomalies
Cropmarks

Artefact
scatters Palaeoenvironmental sites

Less visible/tangible archaeological sites


Definition of ‘archaeological site’ can include
relatively recent structures….

Braunton Burrows, Devon: 20th-


century archaeology

York ROC bunker (closed in 1991;


now a Scheduled Monument)
Settlements: living
and abandoned

A DMV – deserted medieval village


– in County Durham

Wallingford – a Saxon town


Different scales
of archaeological
‘landscape’

Wroxeter Hinterland Project Site catchment analysis


Different scales of archaeological ‘region’

Wessex
hillforts
(after Barry
Cunliffe)

The South Etruria Melos (after


Survey (after Colin
Timothy Potter) Renfrew)
Sites and Landscapes:
Introductory Case Study

• The Wadi Faynan, Jordan


• Archaeological landscape survey
– Integrating a range of methodologies
– Emphasis on recording and analysing
‘above ground’ archaeology
Wadi Faynan: a
modern-day arid
environment
Wadi Faynan: Khirbet
Faynan/Phiano (remains of
Late Roman tel-type site)
Slag heaps

Dam/barrage

Wadi Faynan: other


known surface
Ancient walls... archaeology
Wadi Faynan: aerial
photograph showing
above-ground
archaeology including an
ancient field system
Wadi Faynan: mapping the field system, initially from aerial
photographs, then ‘ground truthing’ in the field
Recording the field
system – wall types
Wadi Faynan: evidence
of hydraulic management
in the field system,
including sluices,
channels, reservoirs and
diversion systems
Wadi Faynan: collecting
surface materials within field
units, including:
• pottery
• metal artefacts (esp. coins)
• worked flint
Plot of all Classical period sherds within the field system
Locating and recording sites with
hand-held GPS – study area
divided up into 500 x 500m squares
and methodically walked
Over 1,000 sites located, plotted and recorded
Recording sites on pro
forma sheets
Mineral exploitation
sites (esp. copper)
Rock art: scenes involving
animals and humans
Bedouin campsite Aqueduct
Funerary
archaeology
Settlements and
fortifications
Environmental history from the Khirbat
barrage site:
• formerly a well-watered landscape
• long-term decline of trees and shrubs
• more recent increase in desertic
vegetation
Wadi Faynan: Summary

• Archaeological fieldwork over a large


area investigating remains covering
over a broad time-span
• Environmental deterioration in the
Roman period linked to deforestation
and environmental poisoning
• Industrial heritage continues to impact
on present-day Bedouin
A Brief History of Archaeology
• The Biblical past
• The Renaissance
• 16th-century antiquarians
• 18th- and 19th-century fieldwork
• 20th-century battles between empiricism
and theory
Questioning the Biblical Past

• Archaeological
speculation retarded by
the Old Testament
account of Creation
• Until the middle of the
nineteenth century –
widely accepted that the
earth was a few thousand
years old (created in 4004
BC)
The
Renaissance:
• Renaissance
atmosphere of
discovery and
enlightenment
conducive to deeper
interest in the past
• Importance of the
‘Grand Tour’
• Growing interest in
the Classical past –
‘cabinets of
curiosities’
Early Antiquarians: John
Leland 1503 - 1552
• Tudor royal librarian dedicated “to
peruse and diligently to serche al
the libraries and collegies of this
youwre noble reaulme” (1533)
• Planned: Britannia – a description
of Britain – notes only
• Not critical of his sources
• Notes on Hadrian’s Wall, Offa’s
Dyke, hillforts, castles, etc
William Stukeley 1687- 1765
• Published Itinerarium Curiosum
(1725)
• “to oblige the curious in the
Antiquities of Britain: it is an
account of places and things
from inspection, not completed
from others’ labour, or travels in
one’s own study”
• Important for careful and logical
descriptions – made accurate
sketches of Avebury,
Stonehenge and Silbury Hill
William Stukeley:
Stonehenge
Charles Darwin:
The Biological Revolution
• On the Origin of Species
(1859)
– Evolution as an explanation for
the development of plants and
animals
• Recognition of the concept of
‘deep time’ developed by
geologists
• Descent of Man (1871)
– Made the antiquity of human
beings more believable
Augustus Lane-Fox (Pitt-Rivers),
1827-1900

• Artefact collector with a military


training
• Popularised the concept of
typology – linking classification
of artefacts to evolution
• Rigorous recorder and publisher
Sir Mortimer Wheeler (1890–1976)

• Inventor of the ‘box grid’


system
• Archaeology’s first media star
– ‘Animal, Mineral or
Vegetable?’
Archaeological
Science

Willard Libby
(American physicist,
d. 1980)
• C14 dating
developed in 1949
• ‘Radiocarbon
revolution’,
particularly in
prehistory
Processual Archaeology
 developed in North America from 1960s
 archaeological interpretation should be
scientific – why ancient peoples did what
they did; growth of hypotheses, models
and systems theory
Some key figures:
• Eric Higgs
• Lewis Binford
• Kent Flannery
• Colin Renfrew
• Grahame Clark
Post-Processual Archaeology
 reaction against positivism
 emphasis on the human experience in the
past – gender, behaviour, symbolism and
ritual
 multiple interpretations – no single model or
paradigm works Some key figures:
• Ian Hodder
• Matthew Johnson
• Michael Shanks
• Chris Tilley
• Julian Thomas
Next Week……..
Survey: Sites and Landscapes

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