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 is a student's piece that was eligible for and agreed to be published.
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Figure 1: Site Map (Johnson, A)
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By: Alexander Johnson
In
the year 2082, the world was ravaged by disease. Efforts to repair humanity
have been underway for about fifteen years. I was always an adventurer at
heart, so my way of helping is through documenting and relearning the old
world. I work with the guild of Rebirth Anthropology; my team was assigned to
one of Old America’s states. We are unsure of which one, since we come from Old
Europe, but someone called it USA24 so I am going with that. One site I have
chosen to analyze is a room on the third floor of a large building. I chose to
write more extensively on this room because it is so different from the rest of
the building, not to mention other nearby buildings.
Firstly, I will offer a description
of the room. Starting with its shape, imagine a rectangle, and add one
equilateral triangle to both of the short sides. At least 70% of the room is on
the same plane, but the northern most side has a rising set of stairs. This
side of the room is only slightly more elevated than the other side. The stairs
do not lead anywhere. The eastern wall is the only one with windows, but there
are two in the ceiling on the south side. The whole thing is about 28 feet
long, and 11 feet wide. The ceiling is about 17 feet tall.
The room is full of artifacts. On
the north side, there are four sealed containers. The containers are
transparent, so the artifacts can be seen but not handled. There are two types.
The rectangular ones are about 3.5 feet tall, 2.5 feet long, and 1.5 feet wide.
The other type is a square, also 3.5 feet tall, but 1.5 feet wide on every
side. In the center of the room, there are three more of these containers.
There are also three depictions of smiling men, each having only a chest and
head but no arms. Two of the men are in front of windows, and the third is by
the entrance. Also, near the entrance, there are six tables all placed together
to create a large one, and there are nine chairs on both long sides. Straight
across from the door on the opposite wall, in the middle of the room, is a
painting. On the southern side of the room, there are three more sealed
transparent containers. There are also four more sealed containers on this
side. They are still transparent but made of a different main material. They
stand twice as tall as all the other sealed artifacts but about the same width
and length. There are two on the east side and two on the West side, with the
placement mirroring each other. All the containers in the room have different
objects inside, and many have paper with what may be a description of the
thing(s) inside.
I
find the depictions of smiling men to be the most interesting. As I said
before, there are three of them. One by the door, and the other two are in
front of a window. Each of them only has a chest and up and no arms. They rise
to about 4 feet tall and are 1.4 feet wide. They are all made of the same
material, which appears to be metal. They are brown, and there are lots of
details on the busts. One can see where their clothes crease and where their
faces wrinkle. Also, each of them rests on a black cube. The cubes have no
inscription, so I am unsure how these men would be identified. Perhaps the
locals would recognize them without the need for it. I do not believe they are
warriors, due to the lack of arms to hold weapons, lack of armor, and the
smiling faces. Considering the number of them, I do not believe they were the
builders of the room or the rest of the building either. Due to the detail in
the busts, I do believe these are/were real people. It is unclear if they are
wearing the exact same outfit, since they all are made of only one color, but
the clothes do look similar. The faces are too different for me to believe they
are siblings, but there is a possibility that they are all related. The faces
also suggest the men are of different ages. None of them are young (20s), but
none are elderly (60+).
The
site also has me wondering about the six tables and eighteen chairs. Especially
since one large table could be placed there instead. The entrance is big enough
for that. All the tables and chairs are made of the same material as well. The
number of chairs placed so close to each other at such a large “table” suggests
to me that this is a place for equals to converse. No chairs stand alone at an
end to represent power, nor do any have any decorations or marks that would
differentiate it. Both the chairs and tables are simply designed as well.
However, maybe this is the room at rest. If it was in use, the tables could be
split up and groups could be formed. Especially since there is a relatively
empty space on the southern side.
All
the sealed containers have piqued my interest, but especially the ones that are
slightly raised on the north side. The highest one is full of papers, but since
most of the meaning is in the writing, I cannot tell what is significant about
it. However, there are two images of men, one image of a nearby building, two
images with people in motion inside a building, and a picture with 36 people
all smiling at the camera. The other three raised containers are on the same
level. One has ceramic cups and plates of various sizes. This one also has
three images of men, one by each cup. I failed to inspect these images, so
there is a possibility that they are the three men on the busts. However, there
is another container with the same type of objects, with three more images.
There are two men and one woman. None of which were on the busts, so I do not
believe the other set of images relate to it. Finally, there is a square
container in between the other two, that contains three heads. They are made of
the same material as the busts, but they are three different men. There is a
small paper with writing near each of the heads, which I assume to be the
identifiers.
I believe this room is a site for
competition. Firstly, I believe the statues are previous winners, considering
they are all smiling and the similar clothes. This can also explain why it
would be redundant to have nameplates on the busts, as the locals would
probably be talking about the competitions extensively. Secondly, the table
that can be split into six. Perhaps this is where they are briefed before
and/or after the event. During the competition, these would be split up from
one another. Also, considering three chairs could go to one table each that may
relate back to the three images of people within two of the containers. These
may be the team event winners, with the statues being individual winners. As
for the objects alongside the images, maybe it was used as a trophy, or it was
an aspect of the game. I believe it is important that these are on the raised
side of the room. The fact that these are above the individual winners may
represent this society’s collectivism.
When
I first started the assignment, I thought it would be easy; how wrong I was. In
my own experience, I was constantly asking, “Would I assume X if I didn’t have
prior knowledge?”, “Is it ethnocentric to say X”, “Am I giving this artifact a
connotation by using this word?”. This made it difficult to actually get
started. In this project I did not have the ability to speak the language, nor
a chance at learning it and coming back. It also would have been nice to
consult people who already understood the room. However, this comes with its
own challenges as well. Relationships need to be built between anthropologists
and the people that live near or on site so that they can gain access (Lahka,
1). Language barriers can make this more difficult. Not to mention, learning a
language does not mean it will be easy to communicate with other fluent
speakers. They will have accents, slang, and may treat you as an outsider.
However, anthropologists have reliable methods to avoid doing harm and being
ethnocentric. They employ “open communication to ensure that the research
process respects the unique perspectives and values of the studied communities”
(Lahka, 1).
Works Cited
Lahka,
S. Overcoming Anthropological Challenges:
Common Problems and Solutions. Spires.
https://spires.co/online-anthropology-tutors/undergraduate/overcoming-anthropological-challenges-common-problems-and-solutions
