Archaeological Thinking: How to Make Sense of the Past

191 Pages·2014·8.04 MB·English

by  Charles E. Orser Jr.

ARCHAEOLOGICAL
THINKING
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ARCHAEOLOGICAL
THINKING
How to Make Sense of the Past
CHARLES E. ORSER, JR.
ROWMAN & LITTLEFIELD
Lanham • Boulder • New York • London
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Published by Rowman & Littlefield
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Copyright © 2015 by Rowman & Littlefield
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any
electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems,
without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote
passages in a review.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Orser, Charles E.
Archaeological thinking : how to make sense of the past / Charles E. Orser, Jr.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-4422-2697-5 (cloth : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-1-4422-2698-2 (pbk. : alk.
paper) — ISBN 978-1-4422-2699-9 (electronic) 1. Archaeology—Study and teaching.
2. Archaeology—Methodology. 3. Critical thinking—Study and teaching. I. Title.
CC83.O77 2015
930.1—dc23
2014029696
™
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of
American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for
Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992.
Printed in the United States of America
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contents
Preface ix
CHAPTER 1
What’s This All About, Anyway? Thinking in Archaeology 1
A Question of Belief? 5
Science versus History 7
Thinking to Some Purpose 8
The Process of Clear Thinking 10
A Brief History of Archaeo-Thinking 12
Postmodern Thinking 22
Continue Reading 24
CHAPTER 2
It All Seems So Sciencey: Archaeology, Science, and History 27
How Do Archaeologists Use Science and History to Think? 28
SEARCHing 30
Plausibility 40
The Exeter Mystery 42
The Ongoing Tussle between Evidence and Perspective 44
The Changing Nature of Coarse, Low-Fired Earthenware 47
Continue Reading 49
v
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vi CONTENTS
CHAPTER 3
Those Pesky Facts: Understanding Historical Facts 51
Can Facts Be Selected? 52
Is Fact Selection Dishonest? 61
Glass Beads and Glass Buttons 62
We Really Do Select Facts? 66
Continue Reading 67
CHAPTER 4
If p . . . Then What? Archaeological Thinking and Logic 69
Our Love of Logic 69
Deducing 70
Not Deduction, the Other One . . . 76
I’ve Been Abducted 86
Continue Reading 87
CHAPTER 5
Is That Chair Really a Chair? Analogy and
Archaeological Thinking 89
Archaeologists and Analogy 91
The Direct Historical Approach 97
Ethnographic Analogy 99
Evaluating Analogy Strength 100
What Is the Purpose of Analogy in Archaeology? 105
Continue Reading 108
CHAPTER 6
Source-Thinking: The Relationship between
Archaeological and Textual Evidence 111
What Is History? 111
Archaeology and History 113
“Historical” Sources 115
Reading the Declaration of Independence 119
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CONTENTS vii
The Search for Saint Brendan the Navigator 124
Continue Reading 131
CHAPTER 7
Artifact-Thinking: Archaeological Thought and
Excavated Things 133
Ceramics as Historical Documents 136
Ceramics as Commodities 139
Ceramics as Ideas 145
Continue Reading 150
CHAPTER 8
Thinking to Some Purpose: Archaeological Research
and Critical Thinking 153
The Danger of Faulty Archaeo-Thinking 155
Final Thoughts 163
Continue Reading 163
Index 165
About the Author 177
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Preface
T
he idea for this book developed after years of teaching an
undergraduate course on critical thinking in archaeology. The goal
of the course was to examine how archaeologists create plausible
interpretations of the past using scattered, fragmentary evidence. I always
understood that most people interested in ancient history would never
actually have the opportunity or desire to become professional archaeolo-
gists. Archaeology can be a difficult field, and fierce competition exists for
the limited positions that are available. The scarcity of professional posts
at museums and universities has always been smaller than the number of
people available to fill them.
The examples I used in the course came mostly from the fringe side
of archaeology. These outlandish, well-known examples of space aliens,
sunken cities, and mysterious creatures were easy to analyze by comparing
them with actual archaeological findings. My goal was never to debunk the
examples per se but rather to help students learn to think critically about
historically realistic alternatives.
That most of my students would never become professional archaeolo-
gists was not a deterrent. In fact, it impressed on me the importance of
the course. Teaching the basics of archaeological thinking—what I call
“archaeo-thinking”—would provide critical thinking skills students could
use for the rest of their lives. Regardless of their eventual professions,
all of them would confront outrageous interpretations of human history
whenever they searched the Web, watched television, or read blogs. The
development of the Internet and the expansion of cable television has been
a boon to nonprofessional “archaeologists,” individuals who have made
ix
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