Thinking like an archaeologist is one of the most challenging exercises a novice or inexperienced person can do, including beginner archaeologists. For one of the SA 202: Introduction to Anthropology assignments students were tasked with doing just that. By viewing the familiar as the unfamiliar they gained important insights into the challenges archaeologists face, and several of them did exceptionally well in the exercise. Here are a few students work that was eligible and agreed to be published.
By: Makayla
Peterman
It is currently the year 4015,
everything is crystal clear, and the light of the stars beam onto our planet,
Clypto, in hughes of warm colors. Clypto’s climate is beautiful with a
permanent rotation between hot, warm, cool, and cold weather, coordinating with
the land having great vegetation and flourishing natural life. Living on planet Clypto is the only thing I
have ever known, but there is strong research, legends, and archeological
evidence to prove there was civilization on Earth prior to the modern ice age
which destroyed most of the planet. Although Earth once supported bountiful
life, it no longer does. Earth only permits travel in the mild parts of the
year, since the climate is much too harsh year-round. Getting from Clypto to
Earth takes around four hours and 30 minutes by the astronomical shuttle, which
is lengthy if you ask me.
As I approach the potential
archeological site in the center of a state once known as Missouri, I can see
the decaying figure of what looks to once be a house. The site was under about
a foot of dirt that had to be excavated and carefully brushed away. The
perimeter is marked by a large square making up some of the walls. The walls
are decrepitly thin and only stand about two to three feet tall at this point.
Stepping into the rectangular structure, there are remnants of small, black,
square tables turned over though out the area next to the extremely old sofa
and unusually large chair. On both the chair and the sofa sat square, thin
blankets. We have blankets on Clypto, but they are about 10 times the size and
much thicker. Inspecting the perimeter more closely, it is clear there is a
three-inch-tall band surrounding the base of the walls left intact. The band is
composed of a wood mixture with one side neutral and one side white. This
excavation site is new, so this information has not yet been discovered by
anyone except my team of colleagues and myself.
While scanning and dusting the site,
I find two identical tan plastic plates. The two plates have the same small, circular
hole on each short side of their rectangular shape. They are unusually thin,
lightweight, and smoothed out. The edges are rounded but still have a sharp
point on each corner. In the middle of them, there is another rectangular shape
carved out of it. In total, there are two circular holes and one rectangular
hole centered on each. I carefully flipped it over to find the words “Made in
China” on the back of both of them. I have never heard of China before, but it
could be another state such as Missouri. Finding a purpose for these two
objects has been deemed impossible, but if we can find more information on
China, we may be able to discover what they were once produced for. What could
people have used these tiny plastic plates for? The three holes make me believe
they would not have been used to eat off of, nor to store anything in, but no
one cannot know for sure.
The second discovery I made was
uncovering a black box near the remnants of the sofa. The box is square in
shape and there is a different texture on nearly every side. The front has a
slot and a button that has a triangle on it, but there is also a triangle with
an exclamation point inside underneath the slot. On the right side of front,
there is also a white circle with an off centered black X in the middle. There
are also the letters HDMI on the front followed by other fine print that was
impossible to interpret from the intense weathering. Picking up the object, it
was much heavier than the plastic plates but could not have weighed over four
pounds. The box has multiple holes in the back, one that looks to be a triangle
made up of three circles and the others are only circles. The triangular hole
in the back does not match the other holes which is intriguing, what were
people putting in these holes? It could be a hiding spot for small objects or
even an electronic device, if they had any at the time. Inside, there are
multiple wires which proves the electronic theory.
As we kept scraping away at the
past, I uncovered a cone shaped figure. The cone was much wider at the base
compared to the peak and it is embellished with white foam and glitter. The
foam and glitter was glued to the outside of the green, spiked object. The cone
is about one foot tall and looks similar to the yellow metallic cedars that
grow on Clypto, so it could be a tree. The cone is made of a mixture of plastic
and wire materials, which could mean it was once used as a cleaning device. If
it were not used for cleaning, the cone could potentially have a religious
affiliation. There is other archeological evidence discovered on Earth that
supports the idea that there were diverse religions among the population, so it
is likely the tree figure has a religious connection.
The most interesting artifact I
found at the site was a tiny, two-inch-tall triangular, shaped structure
attached to a small chain and metal circular ring. The structure has four
distinct posts on the bottom that lead together to one sharp point on top,
similar to the cone shaped tree. It is made from a solid metal material and has
distinct architectural features. On either side of the top of the structure
reads “PARIS” and the other side engraved “FRANCE”. PARIS and FRANCE were
unheard of until this discovery. After collecting the artifact, I looked up both
PARIS and FRANCE on the interweb and learned they were lands like China, from
the tan plastic plates. The metal ring attached to the chain allows you to pull
it apart in some areas, letting you attach it to things it could fit on. The
use for this product was probably for memorabilia and decorative purposes, but
one cannot be completely sure.
Another interesting find is a strand
of tiny LED lights attached to a silver metallic wire. In Clypto, LED lights
were abolished in year 4000. The wire was very thin and flexible, as if it
could be wrapped around something. Along the wire and LED lights, there are
small red balls attached with slats on the sides. The tiny red balls have a
metal circular object inside that make them produce a highpitched sound when they
are moved. At the end of the wire, there is a transparent rectangular box with
and ON and OFF switch. In Clypto, there is rarely ON and OFF switches. Inside
the box, there are three crescent shapes hollowed out with a tiny spring on
each alternating side. I also noticed there was a plus and minus side on
alternating sides as well. The strand of loud light up lights would most likely
be used as a children’s toy.
The final artifact I discovered at
the central Missouri site was a small, six-inch-long, maroon zippered pouch.
The pouch has two distinct sections, probably to hold different belongings. It
is composed of a thin, slick, textured material which reminds my team and I of
a skin of some kind. The zippers on the pouch are heavy duty and golden, lining
the top of each section. On the front of the smaller pouch, there is a solid
gold plate with the word “FOSSIL” engraved on it. Fossils are remains of
animals, plants, or humans preserved under the surface. This pouch could have
been used to store fossils in as they have been found and to keep with you, as
it is a small pouch.
Examining the rectangular site, it
measured 863 square feet. This structure was a small size if it were a home,
but not impossible to inhabit. If there were a large family living here, it
would definitely be an uncomfortable fit, but if it were for only a few people,
it could work. With the evidence of the couch and large chair, it is easy to
determine this was a home at one time.
As one can imagine, it is a true struggle not knowing the
history or uses behind the artifacts found on Earth. Another challenge we faced
was the preservation of the artifacts, as they were rotting and decrepit making
the researcher more difficult. As I dug up the artifacts, it was virtually
impossible to decipher their use and purpose in the home. With limited insight
to Earth’s history, it is hard to put a timeline on the artifacts, as there is
no written manual for each object. The various challenges archaeologist face
when excavating a site is well worth it in the end, with loads of new insights
to Earth’s historical values. Excavating
the central Missouri site is an educational process which requires a lot of
time and effort sifting through the soil, but it is vitally important to
determine our past.
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Map of the site (Created by M. Peterman)
By: Taylor Larkins
Hello,
my name is Talarius Larkinius, and I have recently been exploring the lost City
of Jefferson. This is one of the many ancient cities of the United States of
America that was destroyed in the Great Series of Earthquakes of 2019. This
earthquake led to the destruction of many nuclear power plants, making the land
full of radiation. This occurred just before a volcanic eruption that further
destroyed the western part of the country and covered the rest of the country
in ash. These events wiped out that whole civilization. That was 1000 years
ago, and no one has wanted to repopulate the area since. In this City of
Jefferson, I had found a very well-preserved room. I was anxious to see what
secrets it holds about this lost civilization.
Much
of the building that this room is located in was destroyed, but this room was
well preserved because it was on the second story, so it had nothing falling on
top of it when the earthquake hit. There are many rotting wood furnishings in
it, but I am not sure what their purposes were. There are remnants of some kind
of fuzzy cloth flooring, and the walls are made of a thin, stone like material.
Some small parts of the walls still have a bright green color to them. The
ceiling is made of the same material, only it is white. There are two archaic
doorways with strange round knobs with slits just below the knobs. One doorway
is the entry way to the room from the rest of the building, and the other
doorway leads to another very, very small room. On one wall, there is a large,
rectangular opening that I think was a window, considering the pile of broken
glass on the floor under the opening. I find it sad that these people did not
have earthquake proof and nuclear disaster proof buildings like we do now.
Anyways, here is a general layout of the room. Blue squares are symbols for
furnishings. The building itself is set
in an
area surrounded by lots of similar sized buildings. Maybe these buildings were
dwelling places, since there are so many of them. From what we know about some
other civilizations from around the same time, many families or individuals
lived in their own buildings. That is very different from today, as most of the
civilized world live in mega buildings or compact underground cities.
There are many artifacts in this
room. I would like to document a few that I think have significant meaning as
to who lived here, and what life was like in this lost civilization. First is
the largest furnishing in the room. It is two feet tall, six feet long, and
three feet wide. The bottom half of it is hard, but the top is soft and
springy. It is covered in remnants of cloth. The pieces are dirty, but I can
see greens and blues. Whoever lived here had a taste for bright colors, or
maybe these bright colors had special meanings to the civilization. Since it is
about the length of a human, maybe this object was a place to sleep. These
sheets of cloth could have covered a person to keep them warm. Perhaps this was
a resting room for one person. Lying on top of this furnishing was a fake bear.
It was a foot tall. It was very soft, and it was multicolored in soft pastel
shades. It had a nose sewed onto in and two eyes, and there was a pink ribbon
around its neck. There is also a small artifact that was very striking and
unusual to me. It was on one of the walls. It was made of two thin pieces of
wood that fit together perpendicularly. It was six inches tall. One of those
pieces of wood was slightly shorter than the other. And on top of the wood was
a metal figure of a man, who appeared to be hanging from the shorter piece of
wood by his hands, and his hands were nailed to it. His feet did not touch the
bottom of the longer piece of wood, and they were also nailed to the wood. His
head hung slightly hung to the side, his eyes were closed, and he was bleeding
from his side. He looked like he was dying. There was a crown of thorns around
his head and above his head was an inscription reading “INRI”. Next, there was
this plastic thing lying on the floor. It was a plastic frame with rectangular
glass pieces in front. Then I noticed something. The glass pieces were
positioned to look like human eyes, only a little larger and more rectangular.
The plastic frame was attached to two long plastic sticks with curves at the
ends. It fit almost perfectly on my head, the two sticks resting on my ears.
When I looked through the glass my vision was blurred. Last, resting on a wood
furnishing was a metal object. It consisted of two rectangles, and both were 18
x12 in. One rectangle was flat on the wood and had what I think was the
civilization’s ancient alphabet inscribed on a bunch of buttons. The other
rectangle was standing strait up and had black, soft surface on one side. On
the other side, “MSI” was transcribed into the metal. The small room that I
mentioned earlier has nothing in it but a bunch of shelves and heaps of old
cloth. It was probably used for storage.
I
believe this room was the dwelling place of a witch doctor or high priest of
some sort, or at least of some religious figure. The bear was on the sleeping
place to ward off evil spirits while the person slept because bears are fierce
creatures. The bright colors that decorated the room were a symbol of high
status. In nature, bright colors on animals sometimes mean “stay away,” and
perhaps these colors of the room meant, “Stay away, peasants, I am holier than
thou.” Only a high-status person could enter this dwelling place. The meaning
of the dying man on the wooden thing could be disturbing. I am wondering if the
people of this civilization practiced human sacrifice as a way to appease the
gods. This religious figure would have a human sacrifice as a decoration
because human sacrifice was part of his/her job. The plastic and glass artifact
was an object of high fashion. It made a person’s eyes look bigger. Your vision
might be blurred but when another person looked at you, the magnified glass
made your eyes look bigger than they really were. As for the artifact with the
alphabet on it, it might have been used to communicate with their gods. After
some research, I realized this object could emit signals into the sky. However,
before I accept these guesses as fact, I will have to study many of the
buildings in this city to learn more about this civilization. There is much
more to explore than just one room.
*
*
*
These are just some of the many
things people in the future could think about our civilization if archaeologists
get things wrong. We cannot blame them, though. There are some obstacles
archaeologists face that are hard to get past. One is that people tend to look
at another civilization through their own cultural lens. Sometimes it is hard
to stay objective and open when someone discovers something that seems very
strange or even creepy to us, like the Nkisi dolls (Power Figure). There is
also the language barrier. It is hard to learn a lot about a civilization when
you cannot decipher their writing, or if the civilization had no written
language at all. These things can lead to great misunderstandings. We have to
be careful when we make assumptions about people of the past.
Works Cited
“Power
Figure (Nkisi N'Kondi: Mangaaka).” The Met's Heilbrunn Timeline of Art
History, The
Metropolitan Museum of Art, www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/320053.
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