Making senses of the past : toward a sensory archaeology

445 Pages·2013·4.05 MB·English

by  Jo Day

Making Senses
of the Past
Toward a Sensory
Archaeology
Edited by
Jo Day
Center for Archaeological Investigations
Occasional Paper No. 40
Making Senses of the Past
Visiting Scholar Conference Volumes
Processual and Postprocessual Archaeologies: Multiple Ways of Knowing
the Past (Occasional Paper No. 10) edited by Robert W. Preucel
Paleonutrition: The Diet and Health of Prehistoric Americans (Occasional Paper
No. 22) edited by Kristin D. Sobolik
Integrating Archaeological Demography: Multidisciplinary Approaches to
Prehistoric Population (Occasional Paper No. 24) edited by Richard R. Paine
Material Symbols: Culture and Economy in Prehistory (Occasional Paper No. 26)
edited by John E. Robb
Hierarchies in Action: Cui Bono? (Occasional Paper No. 27) edited by Michael
W. Diehl
Fleeting Identities: Perishable Material Culture in Archaeological Research
(Occasional Paper No. 28) edited by Penelope Ballard Drooker
The Dynamics of Power (Occasional Paper No. 30) edited by Maria O’Donovan
Hunters and Gatherers in Theory and Archaeology (Occasional Paper No. 31)
edited by George M. Crothers
Biomolecular Archaeology: Genetic Approaches to the Past (Occasional Paper
No. 32) edited by David M. Reed
Leadership and Polity in Mississippian Society (Occasional Paper No. 33) edited
by Brian M. Butler and Paul D. Welch
The Archaeology of Food and Identity (Occasional Paper No. 34) edited by
Katheryn C. Twiss
The Durable House: House Society Models in Archaeology (Occasional Paper
No. 35) edited by Robin A. Beck Jr.
Religion, Archaeology, and the Material World (Occasional Paper No. 36) edited
by Lars Fogelin
The Archaeology of Anthropogenic Environments (Occasional Paper No. 37)
edited by Rebecca M. Dean
Human Variation in the Americas: The Integration of Archaeology and Biological
Anthropology (Occasional Paper No. 38) edited by Benjamin M. Auerbach
Making Senses of
the Past

Toward a Sensory
Archaeology
Edited by
Jo Day
Center for Archaeological Investigations
Southern Illinois University Carbondale
Occasional Paper No. 40
Southern Illinois University Press
Carbondale and Edwardsville
Copyright © 2013 by the Board of Trustees,
Southern Illinois University
All rights reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in
any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or other-
wise, except as may be expressly permitted by the applicable copyright statutes or in
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Printed in the United States of America
16 15 14 13 4 3 2 1
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Annual Visiting Scholar Conference (27th ; 2010 Carbondale, Illinois)
Making senses of the past : toward a sensory archaeology / edited by Jo Day.
p. cm. — (Occasional paper ; no. 40)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN-13: 978-0-8093-3287-8 (pbk. : alk. paper)
ISBN-10: 0-8093-3287-6 (pbk. : alk. paper)
ISBN-13: 978-0-8093-3313-4 (ebook)
ISBN-10: 0-8093-3313-9 (ebook)
1. Archaeology—Methodology—Congresses. 2. Senses and sensation—Congresses.
3. Archaeology—Social aspects—Congresses. 4. Archaeology—Psychological aspects—
Congresses. 5. Material culture—Social aspects—Congresses. 6. Material culture—Psy-
chological aspects—Congresses. I. Day, Jo (Jo Christine) II. Southern Illinois University
at Carbondale. Center for Archaeological Investigations. III. Title.
CC75.7.A59 2013
930.1—dc23 2013006791
Copyedited by Mary Lou Wilshaw-Watts
Production supervised by Mary Lou Wilshaw-Watts
Designed and formatted by Linda Jorgensen Buhman, New Leaf Studio
Printed by authority of the State of Illinois.
For information, write to the Center for Archaeological Investigations, Faner 3479,
Mail Code 4527, Southern Illinois University, 1000 Faner Drive, Carbondale, IL 62901;
phone [phone]; or visit us online at www.cai.siu.edu.
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American Na-
tional Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Ma-
terials, ANSI Z39.48-1992.
Contents
Figures vii
Tables xi
Acknowledgments xii
1. Introduction: Making Senses of the Past
Jo Day 1
2. Dibéwagendamowin / Kārohirohi: Relections on Sacred Images on
the Rocks
William A. Allen, Gerard O’Regan, Perry Fletcher, and Roger Noganosh 32
3. The Sound of Sulfur and Smell of Lightning: Sensing the Volcano
Karen Holmberg 49
4. Colored Monuments and Sensory Theater among the Mississippians
Corin C. O. Pursell 69
5. Maya Palaces as Experiences: Ancient Maya Royal Architecture and Its
Inluence on Sensory Perception
Ryan Mongelluzzo 90
6. Coming to Our Senses at Chavín de Huantar
Mary Weismantel 113
7. The Sensory Experience of Blood Sacriice in the Roman Imperial Cult
Candace Weddle 137
8. Embodying the Divine: The Sensational Experience of the
Sixth-Century Eucharist
Heather Hunter-Crawley 160
v
vi Contents
9. A Sense of Touch—the Full-Body Experience—in the Past and Present
of Çatalhöyük, Turkey
Ruth Tringham 177
10. Musical Space and Quiet Space in Medieval Monastic Canterbury
Joe Williams 196
11. Sustenance, Taste, and the Practice of Community in Ancient
Mesopotamia
Marie Hopwood 222
12. The Scent of Status: Prestige and Perfume at the Bronze Age Palace
at Pylos, Greece
Joanne M. A. Murphy 243
13. A Whiff of Mortality: The Smells of Death in Roman and Byzantine
Beth She’an-Scythopolis
Emerson Avery 266
14. Imagined Aromas and Artiicial Flowers in Minoan Society
Jo Day 286
15. Craft and Sensory Play in Late Bronze Age Boeotia
Anastasia Dakouri-Hild 310
16. Scents and Sensibilities: The Phenomenology of Late Neolithic Iberian
Slate Plaque Production
Jonathan T. Thomas 335
17. The Production Process as Sensory Experience: Making and Seeing
Iron in Colonial New England
Krysta Ryzewski 351
18. Beyond the Display Case: Creating a Multisensory Museum Experience
Catherine P. Foster 371
19. Imagined Narratives: Sensory Lives in the Chacoan Southwest
Ruth M. Van Dyke 390
20. Afterword: Eleven Theses on the Archaeology of the Senses
Yannis Hamilakis 409
Contributors 421
Index 423
Figures
2-1. Location of French River and Rock Lake, Ontario, Canada 34
2-2. The eastern rock painting panel visited at Rock Lake 36
2-3. William Allen at the eastern Rock Lake painted panel 37
2-4. Map of Lake Taupō, New Zealand 38
2-5. Kawakawa Bay bluffs 39
2-6. Perry Fletcher with koru rock painting 40
3-1. Olafur Eliasson, The Body as Brain—Lava Floor 57
3-2. Map of Volcán Barú 58
3-3. Volcanic bomb recovered during archaeological ieldwork and
pestle from Yale University Peabody Museum 61
4-1. Map of Shiloh and Cahokia mounds in southeastern United States 71
4-2. Map of Shiloh showing mounds discussed in text 71
4-3. Thresholds of visibility 75
4-4. Types of presentational spaces 76
4-5. Mound A, approaching from the plaza: nonmonumental experience 78
4-6. Mound A, approaching from the river: experience of monumentality 78
4-7. Mound C, north approach: constrained monumental experience 78
4-8. Map of Shiloh representing the plaza as a ritual arena 80
4-9. Map of Shiloh representing the Mound A–plaza relationship as a
ritual hall 80
4-10. Map of Shiloh representing the Mound C area as a restricted
ritual hall 81
4-11. Map of Shiloh comparing two proposed ritual scenarios 83
4-12. Contrasting ideas as suggested by ethnohistoric data and tested
at Shiloh 85
5-1. Map of Holmul site core 92
5-2. Map of Group III, Holmul 93
5-3. Three-dimensional reconstruction of Holmul palace 93
5-4. Plan view of Holmul palace 98
5-5. Map of Tikal site core 99
5-6. Cross section of the south proile of Holmul palace 100
5-7. Plan view of Tikal’s Central Acropolis 101
5-8. Three-dimensional reconstruction of pronouncement stage, central
inner courtyard, Holmul palace 104
vii
viii Figures
6-1. Map of Chavín de Huantar, Peru 115
6-2. Sketch plan of site of Chavín de Huantar 116
6-3. Underground gallery at Chavín de Huantar 119
6-4. Line drawing of “male cayman” on Obelisk Tello 121
6-5. Rubbing of Raimondi Stela 121
6-6. The Lanzón 123
6-7. The Black and White Portal 123
7-1. Relief showing a sacriice on twentieth anniversary of Hadrian’s
reign 139
7-2. Detail of relief from honorary monument to Marcus Aurelius:
sacriice to Capitoline Jupiter 141
7-3. Refuse pit containing entrails, hooves, blood, and waste at Istanbul
Kurban Bayram sacriicial area 144
7-4. A woman cleans entrails in front of blood-covered concrete wall at
Kurban Bayram sacriicial area 145
7-5. Blood falling from Kurban Bayram trailer platform following
slaughter of bull 146
7-6. Kurban Bayram refuse pit, illed with dirt and concrete, 50 days
after sacriices 147
8-1. Riha paten 164
8-2. Riha chalice 166
8-3. Riha fan 168
8-4. Bronze incense burner 170
8-5. Cross-shaped polycandelon 171
9-1. Map of location and excavation areas of Çatalhöyük, Turkey 179
9-2. Three different kinds of touch: global touch, reach touch, and
extended touch 181
9-3. Contact traces that might survive archaeologically from different
kinds of touch 182
10-1. Map showing location of Canterbury, United Kingdom 198
10-2. Justiied access maps of St. Gregory’s Priory and St. Augustine’s
Abbey 203
10-3. Format of graph used to obtain levels of presence availability for
spaces in a system 205
10-4. Presence availability diagram of St. Augustine’s Abbey, including
exterior 206
10-5. Presence availability diagram of St. Gregory’s Priory, including
exterior 207
10-6. Quiet space presence availability genotypes of St. Gregory’s Priory
(SGP) and St. Augustine’s Abbey (SAA) 211
10-7. Details of PA diagrams of St. Gregory’s Priory and St. Augustine’s
Abbey, showing cloisters and neighboring spaces 213
11-1. Regional map of modern Turkey and Syria, showing location of
Fıstıklı Höyük in southeastern Turkey 228
11-2. Fıstıklı Höyük settlement as it existed at height of occupation in
Phase IIIa 228
Figures ix
11-3. Restricted vessel shapes from Fıstıklı Höyük 230
11-4. Unrestricted vessel shapes from Fıstıklı Höyük 230
11-5. Examples of painted pottery from Fıstıklı Höyük 236
12-1. Map of Mycenaean sites mentioned in text 245
12-2. Linear B tablet Un 718 245
12-3. Parts of the brain connected with smell and memory 247
12-4. Plan of the Palace of Nestor, Pylos, indicating areas of feasting,
storage, production, and the lower town 250
12-5. Stirrup jar 252
13-1. Late Roman Palestine, with sites mentioned in text 267
13-2. Detail of Beth She’an Northern Cemetery, with tombs 269
13-3. Plan of Tomb 210 269
13-4. Plan of Tomb 201 270
13-5. Byzantine-period lamps from Tombs 206 and 224 271
13-6. Mirror plaque from Tomb 208 272
13-7. GC-MS chromatogram for silylated sample extracted from
unguentarium 29-105-647 274
13-8. Entrance to Tomb 239 278
14-1. Maps of eastern Mediterranean and Crete, showing locations
mentioned in text 288
14-2. Stone blossom bowl, Milatos 291
14-3. Egyptian lotiform chalice 291
14-4. Kamares-ware jug with painted rosette, Phaistos 294
14-5. Krater with loral relief, Phaistos 295
14-6. Bowl with “loating” lower, Sphoungaras 295
14-7. Pedestal with relief petals, Phaistos 297
14-8. Calyx cup, Knossos 297
15-1. Citadel of Thebes with surrounding cemeteries and distribution
of workshops 314
15-2. House of Kadmos with distribution and absolute quantities of
workshop-related inds and production stages and states
represented by agate 315
15-3. Types of recognizable artifacts represented by agate assemblage 317
15-4. Failed artifacts among agate inds 318
15-5. Multiple lives of an agate object 318
15-6. Affordances of agate in action 321
15-7. Shiny things 324
15-8. Pattern and contrasts in agate inds 325
15-9. Free-style agate objects 327
16-1. Enigmatic engraved slate plaque from Valencina de la Concepción
(Seville, Spain) featuring common cross-hatched triangle pattern
underneath more rarely occurring ocular imagery 338
16-2. Only known plaque production site at Águas Frias (northern
Portugal), where entire chaîne opératoire is evident 341
16-3. Experimental slate plaque preforms being ground into trapezoidal
shapes on pavement 341