Archaeological Anthropology

From excavation to interpretation

Begin the Excavation

Grid system with datum pointScrape the uppermost surfaceStratification creates superposition or sequence of time periodsPhasing identifies each distinct layer or stratumEach time period is called a contextEach item of interest is called a feature

Grid system and datum point

Grid system in Qulat al Bahrain

Features at C-8

Phasing by stratification

Extracting the EvidenceIntensive vs extensive excavationIntrusive vs non-intrusive excavationOvercutting or undercutting the stratumExtraction by toolsSeparation by screen or sieve Separation by flotationReturning the fillRead pp. 40-46

Separation

Intensive or extensive?

Interpretation of Evidence

By analogy based on established knowledge Date: absolute or relativeEconomics: trade, labor, productsTechnology: food foraging or food producingAuthority and social stratification Read pp. 286-296

Dilmun Civilization of Bahrain

Trade entrepot Qualat al Bahrain (Bahrain Fort, Seef)Burial Mounds (A’ali)

Trail of Dilmun Seals: trade, currency, craftsmanship

Qualat al Bahrain (Bahrain Fort, Seef): marketplace, labor, trade, houses, roads

Barbar Temple (Saar): 3 successive temples, Sumerian resemblance

Burial Mounds (A’ali): afterlife, social complexity, elite class

Attempts to protect the burial mounds have run into opposition by religious fundamentalists who consider them unIslamic and have called for them to be concreted over for housing. During a parliamentary debate on 17 July 2005, the leader of the salafist Asalah party, Sheikh Adel Mouwdah, said "Housing for the living is better than the graves for the dead. We must have pride in our Islamic roots and not some ancient civilisation from another place and time, which has only given us a jar here and a bone there."

A s si gnm ent :

Re ad pp . 40-4 6 and 286- 296

P l an th e even tMa ke 3 i nst ru ct i on al vi deos of 1 mi nute e ach

B e fore the d i g

Du ri ng the d i g

A f ter t he di g