Spotlight on Students: Thinking Like an Archaeologist

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: Rebecca Johanns

          We begin our journey to the planet Earth, which is believed to have supported human life 7,500 years ago. The year is 9520 and my colleagues and I are coming from the planet Nibiru.  Earth is 6.4 light years away and the trip will take us sixteen hours. My team is made up of nine scientists and archaeologists looking for a vast range of information from Earth. All we know about Earth is that it was once habitable, but something happened on the planet that caused the temperatures to increase drastically. Our temperatures on Nibiru stay fairly cold the entire year. We only know there was a strong possibility of life on Earth because recently our satellite wandering in the Milky Way picked up on unusual activity on the planet. We discovered some green spots appearing in certain parts of the planet as well as a decrease in the amount of water covering the planet. All we have ever seen from space is brown, which we discerned as land, and blue, which we have found to be water. The latest images show white spots appearing at the top and bottom of the planet as well as some green spots forming on some brown areas. Along with this, the vast blue, waters seem to be decreasing in size and showing what appears to be more land underneath. Upon these findings, we sent a rover to the planet to collect some samples. After analyzing the samples, Nibiru Space Agency believes the conditions are sufficient for us to explore more. Extensive research by the agency suggested to begin our archaeological research in a northern region they believed to be called Europe. According to the information picked up by the satellite and the rover, Europe has the most similar climate to what we believe to have been the climate when the planet supported life. The area we land in was called Luxembourg. Compared to the surrounding countries, Luxembourg is very small but believed to have a lot of inhabitants.

            The Rex II, our spacecraft, lands in an open area enclosed by some sort of metal wiring. Our botanist immediately identifies the ground as fertile soil that supports plant life. I immediately walk to the wire surrounding us. It appears to be twisted together with occasional spots of the wire poking out. Touching the wire does not seem to have any effect except for at the spots with wire sticking out. When you touch or grab those spots it causes pain. These areas where the wire is sticking out could be from thousands of years of not being kept up and the harsh conditions of the planet, or there could be a purpose for them since they seem to occur regularly and in a pattern along the entire wire. This wire seems to follow the outer edge of the open area, occasionally with some separating lots within the open area. They typically form squares or rectangular shaped regions. As I follow the wires, I notice there are sections where the wiring stops and a large, metal, moveable structure is there instead. The structure seems to only move horizontally and is permanently attached at one side with the other side moving forward and backward. The structure can lock in place to create a circuit or open to allow access to the next region.   

The next region offers a new object not seen in the previous area. It appears to be large, about the height of an average size person; circular, but open at the top; and with metal bars that run at a diagonal on the upper half of the object and the bottom half completely enclosed on the outside. This structure is empty except for some dirt that appears stuck to the inner walls. It looks like some sort of bin that could hold large amounts of objects. I am unsure about the use of this object as I do not know what this area was used for, but it appears to have had a specific purpose since there are three total throughout all of the sectioned regions and placed specifically near the edge by a wire.

My colleagues and I find only one other object in these regions. It is a tall, narrow, concrete rectangle with many different openings. At the top, the walls are a different material, which is unknown to my team, and begin to move at an angle upwards until they meet at a point. After stepping inside the structure through one of the openings, my team identifies it as a human dwelling. It resembles a dwelling on Nibiru with separate chambers and different types of objects within each chamber. The first chamber we enter is long and narrow and leads to an opening at the end. There is not much in this room except for a rectangular, thin object lying on the floor. It is soft and is about the width of the opening to the outside. There is a picture on it of what appears to be colored, leafy objects. We have identified plants and flowers at many sites around Earth with our telescopes and rover, which suggests they were of some importance to humans and had a meaning attached to them. Having flowers pictured on this object could mean the object was used for visual effects rather than for a functional purpose. From the places we have located flowers and plants, we have concluded they were often associated gifts or creating a visually appealing area, so this object was likely used for visual purposes as we could not find much of a functional use.  

Moving down the narrow room, we enter through the opening at the end into a much larger chamber. In the middle of the room is a large, wooden structure about half the height of an average human. This wooden structure is rectangular with four pieces of wood attached underneath at each corner. These four wooden sticks appear to be holding up the large, flat, rectangular top. Surrounding the large, wooden structure are four smaller objects that resemble Nibiru seats. Although seats on Nibiru are not made of wood and have padding, these objects seem to be shaped very similar. There is a flat, vertical, narrow piece of wood attached to one side of another flat, narrow piece of wood that is placed horizontally. Underneath the horizontal piece of wood are four wooden sticks that hold the object up off the ground. Sitting in one of these seats is not very comfortable but is possible and keeps a person sitting upright. The larger object and the four smaller objects most likely went together as they were all in one area and looked to be designed the same. Since the larger object is very similar to the smaller objects except with no vertical piece, it may serve a similar function. Humans on Earth may have laid down on this object rather than sat like in the chairs. The large object could have also served a specific function when the humans sat down since the seats surrounded it. More artifacts in this room may help discern what function or functions this object had.

Another artifact in this room seemed to be some sort of tool. It was bowl-shaped on one end with a long stick-like structure attached. The tool is made of plastic, so its uses are limited slightly since it is not as strong as metal and could break with enough force. The long, narrow stick attached to the small bowl seemed to arch backward on the end opposite of the bowl. The bowl itself was slightly larger than my fist. After picking it up and holding it at many different angles, it appeared to have been most likely held in a spoon-like way. The bowl is much larger than spoons on Nibiru, so there are a few different ideas on how this artifact could have been used. If the artifact was indeed used as a spoon, humans on Earth had to have had enormously large mouths compared to humans on Nibiru. The object could have been used like a spoon for other purposes as well, too, such as scooping large amounts of food from one place to another. This tool could have also served a function outside of food. Since we do not know the function of this room, it could have been used as a bowl to collect objects or to hit things because of its long handle. Finding more artifacts could help identify the purpose of this room and understand the object and its functions.

Various beaten down paths in the open regions and area leading to the dwelling suggest that the open area and dwelling belonged together. The dwelling itself only took up a tiny fraction of the open land surrounded by the metal wiring. Altogether there were seven regions each fairly equal in size. Only three had the large, circular objects that were open at the top and they appeared to all be placed near the metal wire enclosing the sections. I believe this area of land and dwelling belonged to the same human since the entire area was surrounded by the wiring. Since the entire area appears to have belonged to one person, the wires may have been used to keep other humans or creatures away or inside seeing that the wires poking out were in a patterned fashion. 

My colleagues and I were greatly enlightened by our different discoveries and plan to come back to observe more. It was very difficult to discern or attempt to discern objects and their functions, but hopefully in the future, we will come across more information that can help identify the objects and their purpose. Archaeologists encounter many complications when looking at sites especially when they have been destroyed or covered up for many years. Artifacts become outdated and unused and begin to decay, making it very difficult to understand their uses. Not being able to correctly identify objects and their function makes it extremely difficult to understand past cultures. One small, wrong assumption can lead to many wrong beliefs in the future if they are based on that initial, incorrect assumption. This makes it problematic for archaeologists to piece together the past if they are unsure about an artifact because they cannot make very many more assumptions not knowing if their initial belief is accurate. For my team and I, our first visit presented us with a lot of information we can take back to Nibiru to analyze further, but more trips must and will be taken in the future to get a better understanding of the humans that inhabited earth and their culture and maybe even what led to their extinction.

By: Camryn Pryor

          Being an anthropologist may not be a dream job of mine, but through this class I have learned to appreciate what they and how much of a challenge their job is. Not only from the physical part of the job, but the science and cultural differences that go into it. In this assignment, I will be acting as if I am an archaeologist. I will describe a certain spot, map this same spot, describe what I think the artifacts I have described mean, and give a conclusion on why I think archaeologists have one of the hardest jobs in further detail.

           As I sit and observe a place that sits roughly five miles outside of the Jefferson City limits, I am surrounded by the comforting sounds of birds chirping and the cool, brisk breeze blowing. I look around in a complete circle and I can see the acres of once green grass now covered in the remains of this week’s snow. The particular place I am standing is now covered in gravel and as I look at what is before me, I see two particularly larger buildings. These buildings are accompanied by two other structures that seem to be more along the lines of a shed than a building. The main building that stands roughly twenty-foot-tall before me is tan in color, rectangular in shape, and have many well designed/set up metal panels lining the concrete floor that is under the canopy type structure that is attached to the main part of the building. This same building also has windows, some of which are barred, and appears to have a source of lighting used for the exterior of the building in the very front. The sheds off to the side do not have concrete floors like the main building, but instead have floors of dirt. One of these structures to the side has the same tan siding as the main building, and seems to have two enclosed rooms on the outside of its shed-like structure of its center. This particular shed sits back towards where I am standing and to the right by about fifty yards. The structure without the attached side building is help up by ten to twelve large wooden beams and on top lies a sturdy roof. This roof appears to be the same as the one on the main building, just different dimensions. It is only about ten yards to the right of the main building that stands, again, directly in front of me by fifty yards. As I study the land around these buildings, the ground up close in a one-hundred-yard circumference has lush green grass that has been cut shorter than the grass I can see further off in the distance. The grass in the distance is obviously taller and is tan in color, almost as if its tallest points are dead. This grass is unique also in the terms of the fence that runs around it. This fence has obviously been designed and set up in a fashion for some sort of use, as there are gates along each fence to allow someone or something access in and out. Only the grass outside of its perimeter is cut short, while everything within it is noticeably taller and tan. In one of these fields, there seems to be a set of animals being held in by this said fencing. They are in a field directly to my right. In this same field there in a larger body of water, and as I look, I notice several of the animals drinking from it. There are two different types of animals in this field, though. One is much larger than the other and its color ranges from black do a deep red. The smaller animals appear to be mostly white, yet some of them do appear to have mismarking’s such as spots. Coming back to the shed-like structures, there are what appears to be pieces of heavy machinery.  All of these machines have to weigh thousands of pounds. Two of the three are larger than the other and have four tires. The tires in the back are considerably larger than the ones in the front and both of these machines have a seat with what seems to be a steering wheel directly in the center. The seats on both machines have a thick, clear box around them. One of the two is green in color, while the other is a deep red. Both of these machines also seem to have slightly smaller pieces surrounding them that most likely attach to be pulled behind as well. These attachments are also thousands of pounds, but only have two wheels versus the four of the main machines and are smaller. These two machines sit under the shed-like structure directly to the right of the main building. Under the building with the room-like structures on the side sits the third machine. It does not have wheels, but instead has one large wheel on each side that is the same length as the machine itself. On the front is a bucket-like feature that is attached. Unlike the two previous machines, this one is smaller in size and does not have a steering wheel located in front of the seat. Instead, is appears to have two sticks on the left and the right of the seat. This final machine is white in color with accents of orange and had a picture on it of what seems to be an animal with sharp teeth belonging to the feline lineage towards the back.

Reflecting back on these artifacts, I think they all seem to work hand in hand. I firmly believe that the fences are set up to keep the animals from getting to the piece of land that the main building and other structures are built on. The gates are probably used for people to check these animals more easily and allow the bigger pieces of machinery access in and out. I think that the bigger pieces of equipment are used to take of these fields with taller grass, which is why the gates would also be needed for access. I think that the panels outside of the made building are also set up to hold and or work with the animals on this property. The main building being the best structure probably holds some medical equipment and allows a place for the people working with the animals a place to stay that is out of the elements. The rooms of the shed further away most likely are a better place to store things such as feed for the animals, while the sheds themselves are a place to protect the bigger pieces of heavy equipment from mother nature.

In conclusion, I will hit on the topic stated in my introduction. I think that archaeologists face more problems than we think, though. I am sure it is a struggle dating older artifacts, but I also think cultural differences is the biggest problem.  I could have easily stated that the too larger pieces of equipment said the words John Deere and Massey-Ferguson. To American’s this would have seemed simple, but to those in other countries it would be a struggle. For one, they most likely cannot speak or read English and they also do not know the brand names associated with the product or how that name speaks of its value as well. As stated previously, I believe that archaeologists have one of, if not the most, hardest jobs in the world and this really makes you appreciate what they do. Please see the map of what I have described attached below.