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Buried Cities and Lost Tribes
ASB 222
January 10, 2017
Ying Zhen, First Emperor of Qin (China)
260-210 B.C
When he ruled, it was not a single country, it was divided into a series of small states (at least 7) that were
constantly at war with each other. He was the first ruler to unify all seven smaller states into one single political
entity. He was the first emperor of the large state. After him, every ruler will be named the emperor. He started
the construction of the Great Wall of China, he linked pre-existing walls together that would mark the northern
boundary of his first state. He did not see the competition. He died 210 B.C. He was placed in a tomb just as
cool as the pyramids, it took 38 years to build.
In 1976 farmers discovered the tomb, and basically the tomb was a replica of his Kingdom. Archaeologists has
never excavated the tomb because they are scared the will damage material.
8,000 soldiers (terra cotta, fire baked clay like ceramic) facing the east to protect the country. It also contains
130 chariots, 6,000 soldiers, musicians, acrobats, etc. They are there to protect the dead emperor. Each clay
individual is unique (different facial expression, different clothing, different height, many hands are holding
weapons, or seem to be) When it was constructed, most were painted, but over the 2,000 years most has
disintegrated.
Why did countries, states, kingdoms create such vast tombs during this time?
Coprolite (feces) about 2,000 years’ old
Oldest stone tools in Africa, 3 million years ago
Exams: Four Online Exams
Lowest score is dropped
Final grade based on three best scores
Each exam is curved
Open Book, and you may use your notes
Will receive a letter grade for each exam (A+, A, A-, etc.)
All exams will be multiple choice questions
Based off lectures primarily, but also documentaries and readings
None of the exams are cumulative, all based on material covered after the last exam
Exam 1(Feb. 2)- 1,2,3 readings
Exam 2(Feb. 28)- 4,5,6 readings
Exam 3(Mar. 30)- 7,8,9 readings
Exam 4(Apr. 27)- 10,11,12 readings
No class on Jan. 24, Feb. 23, Mar. 28, Apr. 6- watch online documentary instead
Notes: Umich.edu- Getting the most from class time, developing your personal note takin style
Required Reading: James Deetz— In Small Things Forgotten: An Archaeology of Early American Life
January 12, 2017
My TA is Lisa Gallagher
Americas first Archaeologist: Thomas Jefferson
-He conducted the first scientific archaeology expedition
Grave Creek Mound, West Virginia
-People thought that the Native Americans could not have possibly built these mounds
-They were thought to be built by the mythical “mound people” that somehow disappeared before the
Europeans
-Jefferson then thought that they should excavate the mounds (1784) They excavated a mound that was right
in Jefferson’s backyard
-He took a ton of notes, and published a report about the contents of the mound.
-He found that the mounds were formed by burials over time, after centuries you have a mound that forms
with graves underneath them.
-He argued that contemporary Native American populations were very likely to be the ones to build the
mounds
Archaeology
-Paleontologists, not archaeologists, study dinosaurs
-Paleontology is the study of past life. It’s source of info is the fossil record.
Our earliest hominin ancestor lived 7 mya (mya: million years ago) Our earliest stone tools were created 3.3
mya
Archaeology is the study of the human past through material culture, therefore archaeology starts when
humans start creating material culture (which at the moment is 3.3 mya)
Earliest stone tool
-3.3 mya
-Kenya, Africa
History begins when we start to have a written record in societies
-History is the study of the human past through the written record
-The written records tend to be vary biased, the winners of the war write the record, not the losers. Minority
groups such as women, slaves, POC, etc. were rarely written about
-Mostly written by a white male, for a white male, through the perspective from a white male.
-The written record began 5.4 kya (thousand years ago)
Prehistory: The period of human history before the advent of writing
History: The period of human history the after advent of writing
Exam Question: When does the transition from history to prehistory start in north America?
Anthropology: A Four Field discipline
-Franz Boas: Father of American Anthropology
-Anthropology (The study of Humanity) tries to be Holistic, it tries to include all aspects of human society
(human society as a whole)
Biological Anthropology: Study of humans biological and physical remains
Linguistic Anthropology: Study of language, with the focus on its interaction with cognition, culture, and
society
Archaeology: Study of the human past
Cultural Anthropology: Study of the non-biological aspects of human behavior and society
Archaeology is both history and science
-History focuses on particular past events
-Science focuses on what is happening right now, like in the lab
The difference: History focuses on specific historical events, which is focused on creating a specific real
narrative of what has happen. It is trying to build this unique sequence of the history of the written world.
Science tends to focus on the generalities, it tends to focus on things that are regular across a class (i.e.
Political Revolutions) of specific events.
History= The American Revolution, Science= All political revolutions
The goals of Archaeology (Which you can call a historical science)
1. Reconstruct the history of human populations (What? When? Where?)
-What happened on this site?
-What were they doing?
-What type of tools were they using?
-When did they arrive? Leave?
-Where did they come from?
-where did they go?
2. Explain this history (Why?)
-Why did we disperse around the globe so rapidly?
-Why is there sexual division of labor?
-Why did we domesticate plants and animals?
-Why did we start living in villages?
Antiquity of Humankind
-The establishment of the deep antiquity of the human past paved the way towards modern archaeology
(establishment of humans having a long detailed history)
-In the 16 century and 17 century, Europeans believed the earth was young,
th th but according to the bible
creation took place on: Saturday evening, October 23, 2004 Before Christ
-There were also catastrophists (Natural history, from a catastrophic point of view)
Time: Creation 4 (us) –Catastrophe –Creation 3 –Catastrophe –Creation 2 –Catastrophe –Creation 1
Uniformitarianism
A different perspective in the 18 century; Uniformitarianism
th-19th
Uniformitarianism: Laws of nature are constant (i.e. uniform) in time and space. The changes we see today are
changing at the same rate that they used too. Everything happens uniformly, at the same pace, in history.
Uniformitarianism believes that things like the Grand Canyon were not just made and appeared here, it
happened over time, every day.
-This idea revolutionized many different aspects of science
Uniformitarianism in geology leads to Old Earth hypothesis
-Rate of Process (i.e. erosion) X Time=Results
-Results (i.e. Grand Canyon) / Rate of Process=Time
-Earth is –Enough time for things to changeOLD
In the 16 th
and 17 th
century, many Europeans believed stone tools were made by elves and fairies
-Eventually people find more of them, and then start to believe that they may have been made by humans
-Jacques Boucher de Crevecoeur de Perthes found fossil bones in the same layer as stone tools
-He then discovered that humans had co-existed with these very old animal species –which made the
establishment that humans had been around for a very long time possible
-By the 18 century the antiquity of human history had been established
th
