Controversies in Archaeology

257 Pages·2008·28.7 MB·English

by  Alice Beck Kehoe

CC OO NN TT RR OO VV EE RR SS II EE SS
II NN
AA RR CC HH AA EE OO LL OO GG YY
Page Intentionally Left Blank
CCOO NN TT RR OO VV EE RR SS II EE SS
II NN
AA RR CC HH AA EE OO LLOO GG YY
AALLIICCEE BBEECCKK KKEEHHOOEE
First published 2008 by Left Coast Press, Inc

Published 2016 by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017, USA

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group,
an informa business
Copyright @ 2008 by Alice Beck Kehoe
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or
reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical,
or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including
photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or
retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
Notice:
Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered
trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation
without intent to infringe.
ISBN 978-1-59874-061-5 hardcover
ISBN 978-1-59874-062-2 paperback
LLiibbrraarryy ooff CCoonnggrreessss CCaattaalloogguuiinngg--iinn--PPuubblliiccaattiioonn DDaattaa::
Kehoe, Alice Beck, 1934–
Controversies in archaeology / Alice Beck Kehoe.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-59874-061-5 (hardback : alk. paper) —
ISBN 978-1-59874-062-2 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Archaeology—Social aspects. 2. Archaeology—Moral and ethical
aspects. 3. Archaeology—Methodology. 4. Archaeology—Case studies.
5. Prehistoric peoples. 6. Antiquities. I. Title.
CC175.K44 2008
930.1—dc22 200800354
C
O N T E N T S
PREFACE................................................................................................................9
INTRODUCTION....................................................................................................11
CHAPTER1 The Past is Today.............................................................................21
CHAPTER2 Scientific Method............................................................................38
CHAPTER3 Popular Archaeology........................................................................58
CHAPTER4 America’s First Nations and Archaeology.........................................79
CHAPTER5 Finding Diversity...........................................................................101
CHAPTER6 Religion and Archaeology..............................................................120
CHAPTER7 “Diffusion” versus Independent Invention.....................................140
CHAPTER8 What People Before Us Could Do: Earlier Technologies..............172
CHAPTER9 Neandertals, Farmers, Warriors, and Cannibals:
Bringing in Biological Data...........................................................................198
CHAPTER10 Competing Theories of Cultural Development...............................220
NOTES...............................................................................................................237
BIBLIOGRAPHY...................................................................................................242
INDEX................................................................................................................251
ABOUTTHEAUTHOR..........................................................................................256
Page Intentionally Left Blank
I L L U S T R A T I O N S
FRONTISPIECEGlobal map with sites mentioned in text. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
FIGURE1.1Parthenon temple sculpture, Athens, Greece . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
FIGURE1.2Figurine of a leader, Colima, West Mexico. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
FIGURE1.3Tomb of the Lord of Sipán, Peru . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
FIGURE2.1 Bison driven into corral, Boarding School site, Montana . . . . . . . . .48
FIGURE2.2Blackfoot Indian elders examining Boarding School
bison drive excavation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .49
FIGURE2.3 Excavating bison skull at the Gull Lake bison drive . . . . . . . . . . . . .51
FIGURE2.4Sequence of styles of stone points, Gull Lake site . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .52
FIGURE2.5Solutré, France, excavation of site with horse and reindeer drives . . .55
FIGURE3.1The cover of the sarcophagus in tomb of Lord Pacal of Palenque . . .60
FIGURE3.2 (a)W. Flinders Petrie, leading late-nineteenth-century Egyptologist;
and (b)Tom Kehoe, pointing to a stratum in a bison drive site . . . . . . . . . . .64
FIGURE3.3 Cahokia’s principal mound, called Monks Mound, is
one thousand feet long and one hundred feet high . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .66
FIGURE3.4 Speculative drawing of Atlantis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .71
FIGURE4.1Frederica de Laguna, Danish anthropologist Kaj Birket-Smith,
and Chugach collaborators Matrona Tiedemann and Chief Makari . . . . . . . .82
FIGURE4.2Kennewick Man, the 9,400-year-old skeleton from
western Washington state . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .85
FIGURE4.3Kayasochi Kikawenow, a Cree Indian woman in Manitoba, Canada,
who died about A.D. 1665 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .87
FIGURE4.4Hopi middle school students in the Hopi Footprint Project . . . . . . .88
FIGURE4.5Battle of the Little Bighorn, drawn by White Swan, a Crow
Indian participant . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .99
FIGURE5.1Paiute women gathering food, Utah, 1870s . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .106
FIGURE5.2A Cree “country wife” in the Canadian fur trade . . . . . . . . . . . . . .110
FIGURE5.3Alice Kehoe recording fallen chimney, François House fur
trade post, Saskatchewan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .111
FIGURE5.4Excavation of a saloon in Block 88, Virginia City, Nevada . . . . . . .113
FIGURE5.5Fort Ross, the Russian-American Fur Company
post in northern California . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .117
FIFURE6.1Archaeologist Marija Gimbutas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .122
FIGURE6.2Small pendant representing male genitalia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .124
FIGURE6.3Figurine of a leader, Colima, West Mexico . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .129
FIGURE6.4Gros Ventre leader Niatohsa, painted by Karl Bodmer . . . . . . . . . .130
FIGURE6.5Yahweh’s consort, the Canaanite goddess Asherah . . . . . . . . . . . . .135
FIGURE7.1Monumental head of an Olmec king, Mexico . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .151
FIGURE7.2Olmec-style pottery, Mexico . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .152
FIGURE7.3Three principal types of boats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .154
FIGURE7.4The Kensington Runestone, with rune inscription carved
by Norse explorers in Minnesota, 1362 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .161
FIGURE8.1Stonehenge, England . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .174
FIGURE8.2Map of Moose Mountain medicine wheel, showing
astronomical sighting lines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .176
FIGURE8.3Central cairn, Moose Mountain medicine wheel . . . . . . . . . . . . . .177
FIGURE8.4Pyramid of Giza and Sphinx, Egypt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .180
FIGURE8.5Teotihuacán, Mexico, pyramid . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .182
FIGURE8.6Map of Hopewell geometric earthworks around
Chillicothe, Ohio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .185
FIGURE8.7View of Easter Island statues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .187
FIGURE8.8Excavation of an artificial stone floor in Area 12 of
the Gault Paleoindian site, Texas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .194
FIGURE8.9Stone artifacts from the Gault site, Texas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .195
FIGURE9.1Map of Indo-European and Semitic languages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .205
FIGURE9.2A Mesa Verde pueblo, Colorado . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .209
FIGURE9.3Mound 72, Cahokia, Illinois . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .212
FIGURE9.4Shrine of the Wa-Xo’-Be (Hawk), the war medicine
bundle of the Osage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .214
FIGURE10.1‘Ksan village, Gitksan Tsimshian Nation, British Columbia . . . . .233
T
A B L E S
TABLE7.1Transoceanic Small Craft Crossings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
TABLE7.2Aztec Day Names Compared with Chinese and Greek
Lunar Animals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156
TABLE10.1Morgan’s Scheme for Cultural Evolution. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229
P R E F A C E
C ontroversies in Archaeology is not intended to be, itself, controversial.
Controversies about archaeology and controversies over archaeological
finds abound. This book presents a selection of the most widely known contro-
versies, drawing from them an explanation of scientific method and examples of
critical thinking. Neither an exercise in debunking nor a promoter of pet theo-
ries, it aims to steer readers along a path between academic dogma and outré
enthusiasms.
At this level of the general reader or undergraduate student, it is valuable to
present something of the range of controversies encountered around a variety of
archaeological topics. To go into depth on every example would exhaust the
reader, so I have given more space to illustrative cases, and for others I’ve noted
accessible sources that can be pursued by interested readers (and students doing
term papers). Had I simplified the subject entirely, focusing chapters on only
one or two cases and omitting an indication of the range, I would have made
this “Controversies for Dummies.” Learning about the much-ballyhooed
famous finds should be intriguing to general readers, and students will, I hope,
talk with their instructors for further details and analysis. In my own teaching,
I’ve looked for textbooks that give a range of examples on the topics under
examination, freeing me to discuss ones I find particularly significant. These
may include my own research (as I use it in this book), and if the textbook offers
a satisfactory range, the cases I choose to expound on can be related to the
breadth of the topic. Overall, this book is designed to encourage continuing
pleasure in the fascinating world of archaeology and its practitioners, while
enhancing readers’ discrimination between empirical data and speculation.
9