Midterm Essay

Due by 5 pm, Friday, April 24, HSSB 1003.

DIRECTIONS:

For this essay, you will pick ONE of the two hypothetical excavation projects below:

Based on the map that you have been given, design an excavation strategy for understanding this particular site or area. You will need to indicate what technique(s) you will use to establish the time period the site(s) was used and assemble an archaeological team of regular crew and the specialists necessary to address the questions posed for the specific project as outlined below. Your excavation strategies should include what type of data you seek, where on the site you wish to excavate (refer to the Anthology reading on sampling), what methods you will use, and how you will analyze the archaeological artifacts that you recover. You should not make up discoveries, this is an exercise in planning like the proposals archaeologists must write
in order to obtain funding from organizations like the National Science
Foundation or the National Geographic Society. The best answers will
draw upon the textbook, web exercises, study guide anthology readings,
lecture, and films.

The required paper length should run pproximately 4-6 pages, covering the first three weeks of the course. Be sure to indicate your name, section and TA on the cover page that you can download from the web site. Full information on the specification for the essay and our evaluation procedures, which include grammar and style, are given in the Study Guide introduction and Writing Guide. Remember that this paper is worth 25% of your grade.

Project 1. Chumash Settlement

Compared with other native Californians, the Chumash of the central coast had a relatively complex sociopolitical life and the origins of this complexity are currently the subject of a spirited intellectual debate. However, extensive development of the California coastline continues to destroy ancient archaeological sites which could contribute important data to this debate. Recently, a Chumash village site was discovered by a construction company building luxury homes along the low lying seacliffs just north of Ventura. Although a portion of the site was impacted by bulldozers, many of the deposits remain intact. Your cultural resource management firm was hired to excavate this unique site before construction of the luxury homes resumes. As the staff archaeologist you must submit a complete research design which outlines the excavation strategy, data collection and specialists required in order to address your research questions. Preliminary surface maps of the archaeological deposits indicate the presence of multiple structures, household features, midden deposits, and whale bones (which you know are often associated with burials) at this site. Thus, you have decided that your research will focus on identifying evidence of social inequality and how this relates temporally to other markers of sociopolitical complexity in this region. In order to contribute useful data to this research goal you must examine variation between households in terms of diet (did some eat better?) and wealth objects (do some have more or better stuff?), as well as variation between burials in terms of health (what did the people die from?) and wealth (what were they buried with?). Finally dating will be critical to incorporating your data from this archaeological site with the broader cultural developments of the entire Chumash sphere. Be sure to write a careful and thorough research design because your excavation will be our only chance to learn about this site before it is destroyed!

Project 2. Harappa (Indus Valley Civilization, Pakistan)

Congratulations! You have been asked to organize a new archaeological project at the site of Harappa, a settlement that represents one of the most fascinating yet mysterious cultures of the ancient world. In order to secure your funding from organizations like the National Science Foundation and the National Geographic Society, you need to establish a good research design.  Harappa marks the first of the Indus Valley Civilization cities discovered along the Indus River in present day Pakistan and India. This ancient settlement experienced its height c. 2500 BC and is believed to have had as many as 23,500 residents. The city is well known for its impressive, organized, and regular layout, but the writing system of the Indus Valley Civilization remains undeciphered, and there is considerable debate about the nature of their society. Your only option is to investigate the city’s social organization from the archaeological record. You have come up with a series of specific questions to address this issue: Did the rich and poor live together in the same areas, or were the wealthy segregated into an elite quarter of the city? Was craft production (ceramics, metallurgy, weaving, etc.) organized at the household level, or was it controlled by a ruling elite and placed into a separate craft quarter? Burials are simplistic, containing few material goods, but what evidence could you still retrieve to identify the burials of the rich and poor? Finally, the Indus cities prospered through extensive long distance trade - how might we archaeologically evaluate the importance of this to the Indus Civilization? Think carefully about sampling, because of Harappa’s large size.