World Prehistory Archaeology

World Prehistory and Archaeology (2nd Edition)
Have you seen World Prehistory and Archaeology: Pathways through Time yet?   World Prehistory and Archaeology: Pathways through Time integrates world prehistory with a discussion of archaeological methods and techniques--emphasizing the relevance of how we know what we know about our human prehistory.  It provides the tools to allow for a lifelong engagement with archaeology, and draws students into the process of archaeological research and discovery.    The author, Michael Chazan, brings students to the cutting edge of archaeological research by presenting the most recent discoveries and theoretical perspectives.  For how we know the past is inseparable from what we know of the past.

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Concerning Mormons, why do you think your Holy Book is historically correct?
PREPARED BY THE DEPARTMENT OF ANTHROPOLOGY, SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION STATEMENT REGARDING THE BOOK OF MORMON 1. The Smithsonian Institution has never used the Book of Mormon in any way as a scientific guide. The Smithsonian archaeologists see no direct connection between archeology of the New World and the subject matter of the book. 2. The physical type of American Indian is basically Mongoloid, being most closely related to that of the peoples of eastern, central, and northeastern Asia. Archaeological evidence indicates that the ancestors of the present Indians came into the New World -- probably over a land bridge known to have existed in the Bering Strait region during the last Ice Age -- in a continuing series of small migrations beginning from about 25,000 to 30,000 years ago. 3. Present evidence indicates that the fist people to reach this continent from the East were the Norsemen who briefly visited the northeastern part of North America around A.D. 1000 and then settled in Greenland. There is nothing to show that they reached Mexico or Central America. 4. One of the main lines of evidence supporting the scientific finding that contacts with Old World civilizations, if indeed they occurred at all, were of very little significance for the development of American Indian civilizations, is the fact that none of the principal Old World domesticated food plants or animals (except the dog) occurred in the New World in pre-Columbian times. American Indians had no wheat, barley, oats, millet, rice, cattle, pigs, chickens, horses, donkeys, camels before 1492. (camels and horses were in the Americas, along with the bison, mammoth, mastodon, but all these animals became extinct around 10,000 B.C. at the time the early big game hunters spread across the Americas.) 5. Iron, steel, glass, and silk were not used in the New World before 1492 (except for occasional use of unsmelted meteoric iron). Native copper was worked in various locations in pre-Columbian times, but true metallurgy was limited to southern Mexico and the Andean region, where its occurrence in late prehistoric times involved gold, silver, copper, and their alloys, but not iron. 6. There is a possibility that the spread of cultural traits across the Pacific to Mesoamerica and the northwestern coast of South America began several hundred years before the Christian era. However, any such inter-hemispheric contacts appear to have been the results of accidental voyages originating in eastern and southern Asia. It is by no means certain that even such contacts occurred with the ancient Egyptians, Hebrews, or other peoples of Western Asia and the Near East. 7. No reputable Egyptologist or other specialist on Old World archeology, and no expert on New World prehistory, has discovered or confirmed any relationship between archeological remains in Mexico and archeological remains in Egypt. 8. Reports of findings of ancient Egyptian, Hebrew, and other Old World writings in the New World in pre-Columbian contexts have frequently appeared in newspapers, magazines and sensational books. None of these claims has stood up to examination by reputable scholars. No inscriptions using Old World forms of writing have been shown to have occurred in any part of the Americas before 1492 except for a few Norse rune stones which have been found in Greenland. The following item was originally posted by Malin Jacobs on the Mormon echo. It is an evaluation of the Smithsonian's statement recently uploaded by Chris Jacobson.

In response to inquiries from Mormons and non-Mormons, the Smithsonian Institution sends out a standard letter denying that they use the Book of Mormon as a guide for archaeological research. The content of the letter has changed over the years; the current version (revised 1998) reads: "Your inquiry of February 7 concerning the Smithsonian Institution's alleged use of the Book of Mormon as a scientific guide has been received in this office for response. "The Book of Mormon is a religious document and not a scientific guide. The Smithsonian Institution has never used it in archaeological research, and any information that you have received to the contrary is incorrect. "Your interest in the Smithsonian Institution is appreciated. Taken at face value, the letter is correct: The Book of Mormon is a religious document and not a scientific guide. Its purpose is "to the convincing of the Jew and Gentile that Jesus is the Christ, the Eternal God, manifesting himself unto all nations" (Title Page), not to give a history of all (or even most) ancient Americans. That is the extent of the Smithsonian's current position with regard to the Book of Mormon. You should note that it does not match up with the material you posted or copied.
Old Timer Too  |  Read more

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Where does the dirt between archaeological sequences come from on a site rich in layers?
Guided by stratigraphic principles (e.g., superposition) largely borrowed from geology, archaeologists have obtained evidence of thousands of years of prehistory from layers of ceramics found on sites all over the world. How were these layers formed? Can't be in the same way as geological layers, where timeframes are much more stretched out! Geology assumes that over the course of millions of years, the majority of the planet surface has interacted with water (e.g., in some drainage basin, or a rainfall-rich area) or wind. Water and wind make dirt from rocks and move it. It is easy to conceive erosion as the key mechanism creating geologic layers. But in archaeology? Rich ceramic layers only took a few millennia to form even in the most water- and wind-poor locations. So how did the dirt get between the pots? Did God deliberately blow Monte Alban over with dust at the end of each 'ceramic period' so the next one can start parking its garbage over it?

One interesting source is mud bricks. In the Middle East where such building material is common, the bricks eventually crumble and become dirt. People then build on the new surface. Pottery being fired, lasts much longer and mixes in with the dirt. Water, of course, is responsible form much of the new layers of earth. Just the dirt washed down a slope build up. Animals are another source of dirt. Cows really tear up soil and their droppings add to the dirt. An archaeologist pointed at a field and remarked how there were 10 gophers in the acre. That they dug ten holes a year and after 1,000 years you had a lot of dirt moved. Finally there's vegetation. The "duff" that you have to removed before you can open a pit is composed of new growth but also dead material and roots. It adds up over time. Remember, with humans living in an area, the ground gets disturbed, more material is brought in then removed and trash accumulates. Stuff gets buried.
icabod  |  Read more

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World Prehistory and Archaeology: Pathways through Time
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