Week 4b 20-1 (S)

1/29/20
Archaeological Theory:
The Rise of the New Archaeology
So, in terms of Site tion

our research a
rm s
design…. Fo cesse
Pro
2. New Archaeology/Processual Archaeology

• Emerges as a response to the static, artifact-oriented approaches to the past
that were so prevalent during the early 20th century;
• Develops an explicitly scientific approach, characterized by nomological,
hypothetico-deductive reasoning and an objective (i.e., etic) approach;
• Is committed to ecological functionalism and cultural materialism;
• Concerned with general trends in human behavior, with identifying the
processes driving or influencing cultural change;
• Is also concerned with the operation of cultural systems not only only through
time (diachronic), but at specific points in time (synchronic);
• Goals are not just with the “Indian behind the artifact,” but within the
cultural system behind them both.
To take a more critical assessment, processual archaeology is oriented to
uniformitarian assumptions about the way that people lived and behaved
according to abstract, system-based rules and trends.
Key elements: scientific approach; hypothesis testing; ethnoarchaeology; site
formation processes (c- and n-transforms); middle-range theory; deductive
reasoning.
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Processual Archaeology
Archaeology as is Anthropology
“It has been aptly stated that ‘American
Archaeology is anthropology or it is nothing’
(Willey and Phillips 1958: 2). The purpose of
this discussion is to evaluate the role which
the archaeological discipline is playing in
furthering the aims of anthropology and to
offer certain suggestions as to how we, as
Lewis Binford
archaeologists, may profitably shoulder more
responsibility for furthering the aims of our
field.”
“Archaeology as Anthropology,” 1962
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“Archaeology as Anthropology”
“Hey, why are we reading an

article that’s like a
hundred years old?....
Isn’t this ancient history?!”
Lewis Binford
Old Copper Culture, Great Lakes Region (6,000–3,000 BP)
ideotechnic
sociotechnic
technomic
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The “Old” and “New” Archaeologies
“Traditional” New/Processual
Nature Descriptive Explanatory
Explanation Culture history Process
Reasoning Inductive Deductive
Validation Authority Testing
Research Focus Data accumulation Research design
Choice of Approach Simply qualitative Quantitative
Scope Pessimism Optimism
Renfrew and Bahn,

Archaeology: Theories, Methods and Practice
Expanding the Scope of Archaeology
“I’ve never seen anyone dig up kinship”
James Ford
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The “Other” New Archaeologists
William Longacre
Patty Jo Watson
James Brown
James Plog
Mark Leone
Stuart Stuever William Rathje

James Deetz
Other Significant Contributions
1973
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1973
1973
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1974
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And Significant Projects
Koster Site, Illinois
Koster Site
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Koster Site
Koster Site
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Hypothetico-Deductive Method
A formal scientific methods based on positivism:
1. (assuming) the real world is comprised of observable phenomena that

behave in an orderly (predictable) manner, then
2. By means of (a) observation, (b) formulation of hypotheses, and

(c) testing and retesting of hypotheses, one can explain how the past
world worked.
One deduces hypotheses from theory and then sets out to verify or negate
each.
And explorations of the scientific nature of archaeology
- Searching for
the origins
of maize
Richard “Scotty” MacNeish

teosinte maize
MacNeish’s approach to hypothesis testing:

1. Initial background preparation on area to be surveyed’;
2. Preliminary hypothesis…based on background materials and cultural sequential
generalizations…;
3. Testing hypothesis in the field, modifying and setting up new hypotheses,
testing them, and so on;
4. Field analysis of artifacts from sites to establish preliminary chronology…and to
determine potential stratified sites or sites with special features;
5. Resurvey for contextual data and special problems.
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1977
1977
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Explanation in Archaeology:
An Explicitly Scientific Approach – 1971 (1984)
Patty Jo Watson
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The Law of the Hammer
Historicizing Processualism
Michael Schiffer
Michael O’Brien
Lee Lyman
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Essential Reading
“We can appreciate the
excitement that the early
processualists felt as they
contemplated the future of
archaeology—a future that in the
late 1960s and early ‘70s destined
to thrive on science and the
scientific method.
By dismissing much of
archaeology as it was traditionally
practiced, Binford was wiping the
slate clean, saying in effect that a
young person entering
archaeology could write on that
slate something significant…”
2005
Assessing the Degree of Change
“… what is old today was new in its own time, and

what is now new will become old tomorrow. To
say an archaeology is new is to alienate it from the
old, whereas one could more profitably absorb
and reorganize the old. Rethinking is a constant
and routine mental process that brings about
renewal at every turn.”
K.C. Chang, Rethinking Archaeology (1967)
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The New Archaeology in Canada?
James V. Wright
National Museum of Canada
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The New Archaeology in Canada?
J.V. Wright, 1985
Questions?
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Who Else is on the Scene?
The Other New Archaeology
Lord Colin Renfrew.

Baron Renfrew of Kaimsthorn
• Neoevolutionism and systems theory

• Social archaeology
• Archaeology and Language
• Cognitive-processual archaeology
• Archaeological site looting
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An Anthropology of the Neolithic
Barrow near Newgrange, Ireland
Sorting Out the Neolithic
Colin Renfrew, Baron of Kaimsthorn
Archaeological indicators of:

a) ranked societies
b) redistribution of resources
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Barrows near Stonehenge
Colin Renfrew, Baron of Kaimsthorn
Archaeological indicators of:

a) ranked societies
b) redistribution of resources
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Barrow Distribution and

Social Territory
Pentre Ifan, Wales
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Newgrange, Ireland
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For more on Renfew, by Renfrew:
Binford and Renfrew, 1981
Available at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-MYzj6qyfNU
The Explanation of Culture Change:

Models in Prehistory (1973)
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David Clarke
Archaeology:
The Loss of Innocence
1968 (1978)
David L. Clarke
CHRIS MARTINEAU AND JAN MAONIO
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Biography
u Born in 1937 in Kent, England

u Educated at Dulwich College
https://en.w ikipedia.org/w iki/David_L._C larke
u Served with the Royal Signals Corps

u Studied archaeology and anthropology at Cambridge
u Elected Cambridge Fellow and Director of Studies in
Archaeology and Anthropology in 1966
u Died in 1976
Academic Career
u Studied Beaker Bell pottery in the British Isles

u Published Analytical Archaeology in 1968, then
‘Archaeology: The Loss of Innocence’ in 1973
From
https://research.britishm useum .org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details.aspx?im a
ges=true&objectId=828731&partId=1
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“A new field of
methodology has
emerged with new
techniques…chromatograp
hy, thin section analysis, heavy
mineral analysis, optical and
Culture–History electron microscopy, electron
microprobes, optical emission
Methods spectroscopy, X-ray fluorescence,

diffraction and micro-analysis, beta-
ray back scatter, neutron activation
techniques…taxonometrics,
ethnometics, energetics
thermodynamics, information
indices, [etc etc]”
“[These methods] extend
Clarke 1973 p. 9
our archaeological
senses.”
Archaeology as Archaeology
Culture Systems
Feedback Model
&
Its Time-
Transgressive
Attribute
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CRITICIZED
NEW Form
ARCHAEOLOGY
Space Time
Thomas 1971
p. 215
Figure 1. Citations received for D.L. Clarke’s (1968) Analytical Archaeology

1969‒2016. Data retrieved from Google Scholar (August 2017).
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References Cited
Clarke, D.L.
1973 Archaeology: The Loss of Innocence. Antiquity 47(185): 6-18.
1978 Analytical Archaeology 2nd Edition. Bob Chapman (Ed.). Britain, J.W.
Arrowsmith Ltd.
Darvill, T.
2008 The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Archaeology. 2 ed. Oxford University
Press.
Johnson, M.
2010 Archaeological Theory: An Introduction. 2 ed. Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
Thomas, H.
1971 Review of Beaker Pottery of Great Britain and Ireland. Volumes 1 & 2 . D.
L. Clarke. American Anthropologist, 73(6), 1417-1419.
David Clarke
1968 (1978)
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Analytical Archaeology (1978)
David Clarke Types of Archaeological Practice

1. Pre-deposition and depositional
theories
2. Post-depositional theories
3. Retrieval theories
4. Analytical theories
5. Interpretive theories
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Nested Concepts
1. Trait
2. Type
3. Culture
4. Technocomplex
Hmm. Perhaps I
can get one of my
Grad Students
interested in this!
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Influence of Clarke’s Work
And then there’s….
“Archaeology: The Loss of Innocence”

(1973)
David Clarke (1937-1976)
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Essential Reading
“For a time, few if any

processualists realized that
hitching their wagon to the
locomotive of physical science
came with steep costs. One
who did appreciate this
Faustian bargain was David
Clarke, who in an article that
in places is maddeningly
incomprehensible, referred to
the price as “the loss of
innocence.”
2005
Thresholds of Development
1) Consciousness
2) Self-consciousness
David Clarke
3) Critical self-consciousness
….. ??? YIKES!!
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—How should you approach/read this?

- introduction and conclusions
- why were you assigned the article?
David Clarke
- come at it from other directions
• Trigger
• O’Brien et al. (on reserve)
- group discussion
1) Consciousness
• crossed when the approach is named and
the practitioners are linked within a
common segment of reality, sharing
intuitive procedures and tacit
David Clarke understandings while teaching by imitation
and correction.
• archaeology becomes Archaeology, a
recognized discipline.
• characterizes the emergence of Culture
Historical Archaeology, and later the New
Archaeology.
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2) Self-consciousness
• “dawns with explicit attempts at self-
knowledge” (p. 7).
• crossed when practitioners attempt self-
knowledge: “the continuous efforts to cope
David Clarke
with the growing quantity of archaeological
observations by explicit but debated
procedures and querulous definition of
concepts and classifications.”
• illustrates late New Archaeology/early
Processualism: development of alternative
models. rival methods, greater
specialization.
3) Critical self-consciousness
• crossed through attempts to control
direction of the system through
understanding its internal structure.
• analytical focus shifts from “look at all the
David Clarke
things these data tell us” to “look at all
the things the data don’t tell us and may
never will given the inappropriateness of
our models and explanations” (O’Brien et
al.).
• the “loss of innocence.”
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2) Critical self-consciousness (continued)
• but…“Question leads to unrest, freedom
to further self-consciousness and
thought about thought, as the
unformulated precepts of limited
David Clarke academic traditions give way to clearly
formulated concepts whose very
formulation leads to further criticism
and more debate.” (pp. 7–8)
Becoming self-aware —
What we “know” or think we know, is

limited to what we are digging up and
how we are able to think about these
things.
David Clarke
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The New Consequences

1) Theory of Concepts
- must “artifacts,” “assemblages,” “sites” be
the primary focus of archaeological
classification? (vs.m ecology of landscape)
2) Theory of Information
David Clarke
- concern with the kinds of data archaeology
provides about the past
3) Theory of Reasoning
- need for independent corroboration
4) General Theory
General Theory
– a more analytical (but self-aware) view of the
archaeological record:
1) The range of hominid activity patterns and

social and environmental processes which
once existed, over a specified time and
David Clarke
area;
2) The material traces of these that were
deposited at the time;
3) The sample of that sample that survived to
be recorded;
4) The sample of that sample that was
recovered by excavation or collection.
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The range of hominid activity patterns

and social and environmental
processes which once existed, over
a specified time and area
The material traces of these

deposited at the time
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sample of that sample

that survived
to be recorded
sample of that
sample recovered
by excavation or
collection
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sample
of sample
of
sample
The range of hominid activity patterns

and social and environmental
processes which once existed, over
a specified time and area
1) The range of hominid activity

patterns and social and
The Other New Archaeology environmental processes
2) The material traces of these
3) The sample of that sample that
survived
General Theory (How the approaches relate): 4) The sample of that sample that
was recovered.
Predepostional/depositional theory: “Links levels 1 and 2. Covers

the nature of the relationships of hominid activities. Relates behavioural
variability to variability in the [archaeological] record.”
Postdepostional Theory: “Links 2 and 3. Relationships between the

sample and traces initially deposited and their subsequent recycling,
movement, disturbance, erosion, transformation or destruction.
Geomorphological and statistical.”
Retrieval: “The nature of the relationships between the surviving

sample (3) and the characteristics of the excavation or collection process
which selectively operated upon it to produce (4).”
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1) The range of hominid activity

patterns and social and
The Other New Archaeology environmental processes
2) The material traces of these
General Theory (continued): survived
was recovered.
Analytical Theory: “The nature of the relationships between the

observations (4) which become the data, and their subsequent
operational treatment under selective modelling, treatment, testing,
analysis, experimentation, storage, and publication. Links 4-1 via the
interpretive method…”
Interpretive Theory: “The nature of the relationships between

archaeological patterns established by analysis and verified by
experiment, and predictions about the directly unobservable ancient
behavioural and environmental patterns. Tests expectations derived by
analogy against observations manipulated by analysis.”
So… with “The Loss of Innocence”

“The rate of change becomes as
disconcerting as the uncertainty, insecurity
and general unrest—no one can deny the
high price of expanding consciousness.”
David Clarke
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“The reason for defining out aims became

apparent in our investigation of the
nature of archaeological ‘facts.’
These‘facts’ turn out to be observations
in which the nature of the observer and
his intentions play a large part in which
‘facts’are observed and recorded.
David Clarke
Different observers see the same‘facts’
through differently tinted spectacles.”
Analytical Archaeology (1968)
Ian Hodder
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1975
And Beyond Thresholds of Development….

(another view from Britain)
Eddie Izzard
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Intermission
(the other) James Brown– “I Feel Good”
Time Management
Next Monday is the start of Week 5
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Explaining the Origins of Agriculture

in the Middle East
Correlation vs. Causation
Childe’s Oasis Theory
Key elements:
• Significant climatic change at end
of last Ice Age (12,000 BP)
• Northward shift in rainfall led to

widespread dry conditions.
• People in Near East moved into oases

(especially the Nile Valley).
• Close contact with animals wild plants 1928

in such settings led to familiarity
Gordon Childe with their behavior and growth
cycles contributed to their
domestication
• this was the key to his “Neolithic

Revolution.”
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Braidwood’s Nuclear-Zone Hypothesis
Key elements:
• interdisciplinary approach
• challenged Childe’s Oasis theory

based on limited evidence of
environmental change.
• needed right conditions plus cultural

Linda and Robert Braidwood innovations (e.g., grinding stones)
• Braidwoods’ Hilly Flanks hypothesis:

potential domesticates occupying
zone between lowland alluvial plains
and mountains in the region:
- barley, wheat
- sheep, goats, pigs, cattle
• introduced the “Fertile Crescent”

Braidwood at Tell el Cudeyde, 1931
Braidwood’s Nuclear-Zone Hypothesis
“In my opinion, there is no need to

complicate the story with extraneous “causes.”
The food-producing revolution seems to have
occurred as the culmination of the ever-
increasing cultural differentiation and
specialization of human communities. Around
Linda and Robert Braidwood
8000 BC the inhabitants of the Fertile
Crescent had come to know their habitat so
well that they were beginning to domesticate
the plants and animals that they had been
collecting and hunting. From these ‘nuclear’
zones cultural diffusion spread the new way of
life to the rest of the world.”
Robert Braidwood, 1960
Braidwood at Tell el Cudeyde, 1931
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Binford’s Post-Pleistocene Adaptations
“Hey kids,
start here”
Lewis Binford
Man the Hunter – 1968
Richard Lee
Irven DeVore
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Look at this as an interactive system

The Generalized H-G Model
• Small group size (20–30; several extended families)
• Subsistence base: gathered plants, hunted animals
• Division of labor: women gather; men hunt
• Economy based on reciprocity
• Relatively high mobility
• Non-permanent camps
• Seasonally organized land use
• Limited material culture; few personal possessions
• Low population density
• Low birth rate
• Egalitarian; no permanent positions of power or authority
• Strong anti-authoritarianism
• Strong kinship networks (basis of law and order)
• Marked flexibility in band membership and living arrangements
• Equal access to knowledge and resources
Behavioral Archaeology
Michael Schiffer
- Set out to challenge the “Pompeii

premise,” that archaeological sites
were “preserved moments in
time.”
- Instead, these sites represent

contemporary phenomena that
were affected by natural and
1976
cultural factors
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C- transforms and N- transforms
N-transforms
tree throws
groundhogs
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Site intrusions by later occupations
C- transforms
tree throws
Behavioral Archaeology So…. is this a hearth, a

ceremonial feature, a disturbed
burial cairn, a …… ?
Before interpreting features…
Schiffer in 1970s
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A Systemic Approach to Lithic Analysis
The New Taphonomy
Taphonomy – the study of what happens

after an organism dies.
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Why Does This Matter?
Back to Where It All Began….

A long, long, long … time ago
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Back to Where It All Began….

A long, long, long … time ago
2001, A Space Odyssey — Stanley Kubrick
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Challenging the Osteodontokeratic Culture
1924, Raymond Dart
1957
1924, Raymond Dart
1961
2001, A Space Odyssey
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Notions of Human Aggression
Ashley Montagu
1968 Man and Aggression. Oxford University Press, New York.
1976 The Nature of Human Aggression. Oxford University Press, New

York.
1978 Learning Non-Aggression: The Experience of Non-Literate Societies.

Oxford University Press, New York.
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http://www.nationalgeographic.com/latest-stories/
Hyenas as a taphonomic process
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Putting Taphonomy to Use
•The study of how natural processes contribute to the formation of

archaeological sites.
•Example:
– How large animal carcasses decompose on an African savanna.
– How long does it take the carcass to disarticulate?
– Which bones separate first?
– Which ones are carried away by carnivores? And how far?
– Do large, dense bones preserve better than small, thin ones?
Taphonomy and Beyond
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Evidence for tool-assisted scavenging?
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Heeding Schiffer’s Advice (C and N-transforms)
• What is the earliest evidence for

human use of fire?
Wonderwerk Cave, South Africa — 1 mya?
• Did Neandertals at Shanidar intentionally

bury their dead with flowers?
Shanidar Cave, Iraq
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• Did Neandertals intentionally bury their dead?
• Is there evidence for late Pleistocene occupation of

the Old Crow Basin in the Yukon?
27,000 +/- 3,000 BP
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Binford’s Taphonomic, Ethnoarchaeological, and

Experimental Approaches
The focus of this book is bones. It

may come as a surprise to some
that most of the behavioral ideas
regarding our ancient past are
dependent upon the interpretation
of faunal remains and depositional
context—not, as most textbooks
would lead us to believe, stone
tools….
I will argue that archaeologists have

generally generated a variety of
modern myths by virtue of failures
in the inferential process…
1981
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Binford’s Ethnoarchaeological Studies
1978
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A Proxy for Neandertal Behavioral Patterns
Major Areas of Processual Inquiry
Site formation processes
Optimal foraging
Settlement pattern studies
Ethnoarchaeology
Mathematical modeling
- multivariate statistical methods
- factor analysis
- cluster analysis
Site distribution pattern, Kythera, Greece
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Social dynamics
- prehistoric residence patterns
- social organization
- social interaction
Environmental and ecological studies
Site catchment analysis
Paleoethnobotany
Zooarchaeology
- taphonomy
- species identification
- seasonality
- domestication
Bronze Age endocarps of Cornus mas (Cherry Dogwood)
Technological studies
- experimental archaeology
- manufacturing process
- correlating form and function
- microwear analysis
Artifact distribution studies

- on-site retrofitting
- exchange and interaction systems
- trace element analysis
Photomicrograph of drill use-wear
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Questions?
Time for Some Discussion

Small Groups (four groups / 10 minutes)
What’s the big deal about “Archaeology as Anthropology”?
• tease this article apart
- what are Binford’s goals?
- his methods?
- how does he interpret the Old Copper culture?
Group Discussion
Was the birth of “the New Archaeology” inevitable?
68

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1/29/20

So, in terms of Site tion

2. New Archaeology/Processual Archaeology

“Hey, why are we reading an

Old Copper Culture, Great Lakes Region (6,000–3,000 BP)

The “Old” and “New” Archaeologies

Nature Descriptive Explanatory

Explanation Culture history Process

Reasoning Inductive Deductive

Validation Authority Testing

Research Focus Data accumulation Research design

Choice of Approach Simply qualitative Quantitative

Scope Pessimism Optimism

Renfrew and Bahn,

Expanding the Scope of Archaeology

“I’ve never seen anyone dig up kinship”

The “Other” New Archaeologists

Stuart Stuever William Rathje

Other Significant Contributions

Other Significant Contributions

Other Significant Contributions

Other Significant Contributions

And Significant Projects

Koster Site, Illinois

A formal scientific methods based on positivism:

1. (assuming) the real world is comprised of observable phenomena that

2. By means of (a) observation, (b) formulation of hypotheses, and

And explorations of the scientific nature of archaeology

Richard “Scotty” MacNeish

MacNeish’s approach to hypothesis testing:

The Law of the Hammer

Assessing the Degree of Change

“… what is old today was new in its own time, and

K.C. Chang, Rethinking Archaeology (1967)

The New Archaeology in Canada?

The New Archaeology in Canada?

J.V. Wright, 1985

Who Else is on the Scene?

The Other New Archaeology

Lord Colin Renfrew.

• Neoevolutionism and systems theory

An Anthropology of the Neolithic

Barrow near Newgrange, Ireland

Sorting Out the Neolithic

Colin Renfrew, Baron of Kaimsthorn

Archaeological indicators of:

Sorting Out the Neolithic

Barrows near Stonehenge

Sorting Out the Neolithic

Colin Renfrew, Baron of Kaimsthorn

Archaeological indicators of:

Barrow Distribution and

Sorting Out the Neolithic

Pentre Ifan, Wales

For more on Renfew, by Renfrew:

Binford and Renfrew, 1981

The Explanation of Culture Change:

The Explanation of Culture Change:

The Explanation of Culture Change:

The Other New Archaeology

u Born in 1937 in Kent, England

u Served with the Royal Signals Corps