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.
Figure 1: Site Map (Johnson, A)
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
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