ARCHAEOLOGY NEWS: 1/28/2019

ARCHAEOLOGY NEWS – Ancient Digger brings you the latest archaeology news and headlines everyday of the week!

Underwater archaeologists have discovered a huge, centuries-old shipwreck and a destroyed World War II bridge in a river in Poland.

Vesuvius victims died slower than believed

3,000-year-old teeth solve Pacific banana mystery

Archaeology news: Archaeologists recreate the voice of 3,000-year-old Egyptian mummy
By 3D printing an electronic larynx which is an exact replica of the mummified priest, experts have been able to recreate the voice of a person who has been dead for 3,000 years. A team from Royal Holloway, University of London, Leeds Museum and the University of York placed the mummified remains of Nesyamun inside a Computed Tomography (CT) scanning machine to analyse whether the structure of the larynx had remained intact.

Witch’s bottle found in US Civil War fort.
A glass bottle filled with rusty nails discovered in Virginia could be a rare ‘witch’ bottle used by soldiers in the US civil war to fend off evil spirits. The bottle stands at a height of five inches (13 centimetres) tall and three inches (eight cm) wide and was discovered near a civil war fort known as Redoubt 9.

Franz Boas: Rejecting Change But Accepting Static Cling

The first thing I look for when reading articles by past anthropologists is an agenda. While it did take me several pages to figure out Franz Boas’ agenda, it pained me to disagree with some of his assertions as I respect Franz Boas and his research. “My parents had broken through the shackles of dogma”. It was this line that led to my argument. I knew his religious upbringing, coming from a wealthy Jewish family, would force him to strike down all ideas of evolutionary processes. Yet, his concentration on the science of anthropology made me realize he was a positivist. Not completely, but partially.

In “Methods of Ethnology”, Boas attacks evolutionary theorists because in reality he supports method without theory, and to my understanding, one cannot exist without the other. Boas supported the Darwinian model of biological evolution but was hostile to its application to social evolution. The term “social organism” comes to mind once again, which combines both evolution and societal issues in one. Why such a favoritism towards the scientific? Can’t anthropology be scientific and unscientific?

Boas believes in “human equality” which essentially explains his attacks on evolutionists. In theory, however, all things are subject to change. Boas’ methods of characterizing anthropology as static undermines what cultural evolution stands for and represents. Furthermore, attacking American anthropological students interested in the “dynamic phenomena of cultural change” is like saying the earth is flat and stays still. Contradicting this statement, Boas believed “the whole problem of cultural history appears to us as an historical problem. In order to understand history, it is necessary to know not only how things are, but how they have come to be”.

In order to study how things have changed, would it not be necessary to study evolution in some aspects? Biological and cultural? If Boas truly believes that society is in flux and is subject to “fundamental modifications”, why does he confuse dynamics in society, rejecting the fact that society changes, instead of attempting to solve fundamental problems in developing civilizations?

While I see there is a method to Boas’ understanding of society as a whole, I don’t see how he could reject the use of theory, which is based on the collection of data. Yes, theory depends on data and analysis, yet Boas implies that theorists are not using it.

Boas seems to be the victim of static cling. Although he’s aware that there are other methods at correcting an assumption, he seems to cling too tightly to his own ideas, which he believes cannot be changed.

Monday Ground Up: Anthropological Work of Penny Patterson with Lowland Gorilla Koko

We're all familiar with the gorilla Koko. I grew up in elementary school, middle school, and high school science classes, watching documentaries and reading about this linguistically enabled gorilla, raised in captivity by Penny Patterson. Koko is a lowland gorilla born in 1971 and at the tender age of one, started The Gorilla Language Project with his teachers.

During the course of the study, Koko has advanced further with language than any other non-human. Koko has a working vocabulary of over 1000 signs. Koko understands approximately 2,000 words of spoken English. Koko initiates the majority of conversations with her human companions and typically constructs statements averaging three to six words. Koko has a tested IQ of between 70 and 95 on a human scale, where 100 is considered "normal." Michael, the male silverback gorilla who grew up with Koko, had a working vocabulary of over 600 signs.

Studying gorilla intelligence and behavior will lead to a greater understanding of the species' physical and psychological needs. Only through knowledge can humans take the necessary steps to improve the treatment of captive gorillas and protect free-living gorillas from extinction.~Gorilla Foundation

The amount of effort and research Penny Patterson has completed is astounding, giving us incite into the incredible world of the lowland gorilla. There are, however, several critics of her style, even saying she’s molding Koko to be more humanlike, when in actuality, this is virtually impossible.

I recently watched the movie entitled “Conversation with Koko” which follows Penny Patterson and Koko through a rigorous and daunting anthropological study. I have also read an article by Rebecca Bishop, who has her own incites on the practices used to educate Koko.

Conversation with Koko

The film about Koko features on Penny Patterson’s works, arriving at the conclusion that Koko has a strong sense of self, ego, can be silly, has a sense of humor, and can be stubborn when exchanging information. Patterson believes a relationship based on trust, love, and respect can assist humans in evolving gorillas to become more human. “We are one in the same. We are apes. It’s a surface thing. They are like us inside.”

According to Bishop, this act of gendering and communicating with apes is not a new concept. In fact, it has an interesting resonance with the historical visions of subjects that exist at the edge of animality and the periphery of the human (2010). The Great ape has always assumed a role of the betwixt and between status of EuroWestern imaginary.

Koko is a product of nature and years of evolution, marked by a politics of gender. Bishop further explains that Koko’s affect and desire is always ascribed a historically feminine line of flight, her behaviors and communication. Actions are represented in the context of historical conceptions of gendered subjecthood and assumptions. This subjecthood is inherently tied up in historical discourses, whereby an animal is being forced to assume a new role, or a new species.

When animals are culturally confined to an area, just like any psychological experiment, the subject will never act as normal as they would in their own environment. Furthermore, Koko’s actions will be attributed to a motivation and purpose that fits within a broader conception of females.

According to Bishop, “some have accused the researchers of conducting a populist and sensationalistic science, an ‘academic Barnum and Bailey act’ without strict methodological criteria” (2010).

Researchers were in fact treating the subject (Koko) like a humanized child, whose role is to assume language capabilities and behaviors at a certain age, evoking the same thoughts of twentieth century experiments. Furthermore, researchers are assigning gender roles to Koko; behaviors a culture assigns to the sexes.

In sum, Bishop concludes Koko’s actions are ascribed and based upon gendered assumptions that her researchers have chosen for her.

Does this change your opinion of Penny Patterson's work? Why or why not?

Sources

• Koko and Penny Patterson Picture
• Koko and Kitten Picture
• Bishop, Rebecca, 2010 Some other kind of being: Human nature and animal subjects in ape language research. Massey University. New Zealand.

The Kallawaya Language of Bolivia

The latest of my anthropological endeavors includes a documentary entitled The Linguists.

Directed by Seth Kramer, Daniel A. Miller and Jeremy Newberger, The Linguists chronicles the global adventures of Harrison and Greg Anderson, the Harvard and University of Chicago-educated co-founder (with Harrison) of the nonprofit Living Tongues Institute for Endangered Languages, as they race to document vanishing languages from the Andes and Siberia to India and Arizona (Thill 2009).

I almost couldn't get past the fact that David Harrison spoke over 25 languages and was able to assume a more culturally and uncluttered view of individuals questioned.

There were dozens of languages mentioned, however there was one on Bolivia that fascinated me.

Anthropology:  Kallawaya Language

The main language focus in Bolivia was Kallawaya. Kallawaya people are known for their medicinal practices, using their extensive knowledge of the more than 10,000 plants in Bolivia to create remedies. The filmmakers learned there were less than 100 native Kallawaya speakers left in Bolivia. In a country where the Spanish language was gaining ground, the Kallawaya language was still around, and the filmmakers investigated the internal factors allowing this to happen.

The Kallawaya were extremely segregated as the filmmakers quickly learned on their ride though the mountain pass, over the rocky terrain filled with lamas, looking down a steep ravine. Interestingly enough, their first encounter with a Kallawaya speaker, a healer, occurred when their tire went flat.

Kallawaya healers were difficult to track down. However, the healer that was found did not actually understand the form of structure of language they believed he could speak.

Consequently, the team moved forward and was able to meet with a Kallawaya healer, after waiting three hours, to speak about the language. The healer, Max, performed a ritual for the filmmakers prior to engaging in conversation, with coca leaves. Coca leaves are cast and used to read the patterns. Max Churra was able to simply pinpoint exactly what the filmmakers were feeling and he was quite accurate.

When sharing their findings with the Bolivian Cultural Board, they were able to convince those present that Kallawaya is still alive, yet under threat.

Kallawaya language is impossible to transmit by memorization as it’s audibly incomprehensible. Kallawaya is not learned at birth, but rather transmitted from adult males to teenage males, in order to avail themselves of the medicinal knowledge. Language is the Kallawaya’s livelihood.

Unfortunately, small languages are being abandoned in the effort to procure better economical standards. Consequently, globalization and colonialism has left, and is presently still making, a deep incision on the cultural languages.

The filmmakers explained that children didn’t have to give up a language to speak another, as children were really the ones that could preserve their native speak.

Monday Ground Up: Guide To Archaeology and Anthropology Graduate School 101

I recently attended a seminar featuring Dr. John Walker, Professor Peter Sinelli, and Dr.John Schultz from the University of Central Florida. The seminar focused on the Do's and Don'ts of applying to graduate school for archaeology and anthropology and was organized by Hominids Anonymous Anthropology Club.

On one hand it was eye opening. On the other, it was terrifying. My only advice is to take all of this information with a grain of salt, as each school is completely different in their requirements for admission. To be honest, I have a mental picture in my head of the universities I'm applying to, the path I need to get there, and the people that can help me make it happen.

Top Archaeology News: Saturday October 23, 2010

A team of Chinese archaeologists dedicated to the excavation and study of the world famous terracotta warriors in northwest China's Xi'an City on Friday received the Prince of Asturias Award for Social Sciences in Spain.

Archaeologists have found remains of five females who may have been ritually sacrificed in a 1,400-year-old flat-topped pyramid in the Lamayaeque region's southern Jequetepeque Valley.

Her life has been celebrated in song, story and a Disney cartoon, but no one knew where Pocahontas tied the knot with a tobacco farmer—until now.

Archaeologists unearth 10,000 year old camp site along US/Canada border. A team of archaeologists has spent the last several weeks gathering and collecting artifacts along the banks of the Saint Croix River on property owned by the federal government behind the U.S. Customs Port of Entry in Forest City.

Hundreds gathered for the annual meeting of the North American Sea Glass Association, to celebrate a hobby that seems an odd mix of amateur archaeology, environmental monitoring and antique collecting, with a little chemistry thrown in. 

The discovery of starch remnants on stone tools indicates that our ancestors were making flour out of starchy roots 30,0000 years ago. Karen Hopkin reports.

Russian Submarine SC-213 discovered by divers from Black Sea Wreck Divers near the coast of Constanta, Romania (Black Sea)

A group of archaeologists from Queensland University have discovered the oldest known high altitude human settlement.

Click on the links for more information and the full story. Have a wonderful weekend from Ancient Digger!

Top Archaeology News: Thursday October 21, 2010

Most victims of Mt. Vesuvius' massive eruption in 79 AD probably died from thermal shock, rather than the previous generally accept theory of suffocation, according to a new study.

Nearly 3,000 of those once-buried treasures are kept at the Siegfried H. Horn Archeological Museum & The Institute of Archeology at Andrews University just outside Berrien Springs.

The University of Winchester’s archaeological excavations at St Mary Magdalen, on the outskirts of Winchester, have revealed evidence for what may be Britain’s earliest known hospital.  

It has been 100 years since excavations started on the Madinat Al Zahra, the magnificent 10th century palace city near Cordoba in southern Spain.

Archaeologists think they've found the site of a cabin that belonged to southern Oregon pioneer photographer Peter Britt

The mummies of a woman and three children from the Huari culture have been discovered in Lima, Peru, in an intact tomb at the top of a pyramid. The tomb is estimated to be 1,150 years old.  ~Archaeology News

East Contra Costa road work unearths more Indian graves. Shea Homes construction crews have found 30 sets of human remains over the past couple of months while widening a stretch of Marsh Creek Road just west of where it intersects the Highway 4 bypass.

Cornell archaeologists are helping to rewrite the early prehistory of human civilization on Cyprus, with evidence that hunter-gatherers began to form agricultural settlements on the island half a millennium earlier than previously believed.


Make sure you click on the links for the entire story. Have a great day and thanks for visiting Ancient Digger.

Top Archaeology News: Wednesday October 20th, 2010

Archaeologists and Middle Tennessee State University students believe the remains of a mastodon are behind a Franklin home, about 20 miles south of Nashville. Mastodons are prehistoric, elephant-like creatures, believed to have weighed up to 12,000 pounds.

Swiss archaeologists find 5,000-year-old door that may be one of the oldest ever found in Europe.

Egypt's top archaeologist has shown off a newly discovered tomb of a pharaonic priest, a find he says could point the way to a new necropolis to be excavated near the famed Giza pyramids.

When freelance artist Ben Wood and archaeologist Eric Blind heard about a hidden 18th-century mural at Mission Dolores in 2004, they wanted to see it. With permission from the church, they lowered a camera into a 3-by-3-foot trap door in the attic.

One of the stars of the Oriental Institute’s new show, “Visible Language: Inventions of Writing in the Ancient Middle East and Beyond,” is a clay tablet that dates from around 3200 B.C. On it, written in cuneiform, the script language of ancient Sumer in Mesopotamia, is a list of professions, described in small, repetitive impressed characters that look more like wedge-shape footprints than what we recognize as writing.


This Thursday evening, Oct. 21, Verde Valley residents will have their first opportunity to hear about the recently proposed Verde Valley Archaeological Center, during the monthly meeting of the Verde Valley Chapter of the Arizona Archaeological Society.

A World War II-era bomb crater was spotted in Darwin, Australia. The city was subjected to 63 bombing raids during the war.

Make sure you click on the links for the entire story. Have a great day and thanks for visiting Ancient Digger.

Monday Ground Up: Phylogenies And Evolutionary Biology in Anthropology:

Contributing author Maria Rainier

In biology, a phylogeny is the historical evolution of an organism as understood by ancestor and descendant relationships. Phylogenies help biologists plot and understand how a given organism has arrived at its present condition, giving valuable insight into the evolutionary process. By now, you're probably wondering whether or not you've arrived at the Ancient Digger page, but you're right – this is an anthropological blog. So how does evolutionary biology fit into the picture?

Cultural Phylogenies

As discussed in Wired Science, anthropologists Thomas Currie and Ruth Mace of University College in London decided to address the issue of complex society evolution with the phylogeny approach, borrowed from evolutionary biology. The evolution of post-ice age complex societies has long been a topic of fierce contention and inconclusive tests in anthropological circles, and although Currie and Mace haven't designed the perfect study, its innovative design has a lot of potential for future inquiry.

The Pacific Islands Case Study

Currie and Mace set about using cultural phylogenies to determine whether a sample of complex societies evolved and dissolved incrementally and linearly, or in a more haphazard and unpredictable fashion. They chose an area of the Pacific Islands between Madagascar and Easter Island to conduct their study, gathering information on inhabitants who lived up to 5,200 years ago. The main indicator of cultural development in this study was the bifurcation of language, which often coincided with moves from one island to the next. This led researchers to construct a solid chronological history of 84 island societies based primarily on language comparison techniques.

Findings: Steps to Progress and Leaps to Dissolution 

The patterns of political differentiation that were discovered as Currie and Mace constructed a phylogeny-inspired tree diagram were consistent with linear development. These researchers found that, by comparing their tree to computer-generated versions that mimicked both linear and nonlinear development, they could demonstrate their tree's strong similarities to the linear model. In other words, their cultural phylogeny tree showed that societies develop in small, consistent steps rather than in unpredictable leaps.

However, to complicate matters, the linear model didn't fit their data in terms of direction: not all Pacific Island societies had made consistent progress. Some had regressed, and that happened at a different pace. Societies that had dissolved were shown to have done so at an alarmingly fast rate, demonstrating that the complex society evolution debate is still in need of high-quality and innovative research to reach a resolution.

While it can be reasonably stated that these societies progressed linearly in small, consistent increments and dissolved in large regressive steps, there's no solid evidence that this was the case in all situations. The study conducted by Currie and Mace can also be criticized for its generalizations and lack of specificity in categorizing political differences. But these small faults are no reason to dismiss the conclusions of the research. In fact, it's likely that other anthropologists will adopt the cultural phylogeny strategy to map trees of societies in southern and central Africa, where well-preserved chronological language patterns would allow for lucrative comparisons and strong conclusions.

Bio: Maria Rainier is a freelance writer and blog junkie. She is currently a resident blogger at First in Education, researching various online programs and blogging about student life issues. In her spare time, she enjoys square-foot gardening, swimming, and avoiding her laptop.

Resources

Photo of Easter Island Statues: Public Domain
Haeckel tree

Monday Ground Up: Psychological Approach to Religion and Primitive Thought According To Clifford Geertz

Clifford Geertz argued for a broader psychological analysis of religion. He approaches the subject using sociology, history, and semantics to arrive at the notion, religion should be studied using a mature theory of religion. Thus, this will integrate certain approaches into a more comparative and conceptual system. He relates his findings to "primitive thought", making comparisons to western and non-western societal groups, thus concreting the subject's influence in the anthropological approach to religion.

Geertz explains:

Two characteristics of anthropological work on religion accomplished since the Second World War strike me as curious when such work is placed against that carried out

Monday Ground Up: A Brief Overview Of The Unique Culture of the Hutterites

The Hutterites have established a strict colonized community where, if given the chance and opportunity, larger cultures would fail at infiltrating the communal surroundings. Why you ask? The main reason is because of isolation. The Hutterites have gone to great lengths to section themselves off and give outsiders no reason to interfere.

The Hutterite.Org website has a fascinating history of the Hutterites coming to North America. Trace the entire migration and learn more about their culture. It's a great resource.