archaeology of early cities
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Arch.TRANSCRIPT
Introduction 2013-01-08 8:37 AM
Instructor: Hendrik Van Gijseghem
Office: Leacock 815; Th. 11-1
Cities are a city through which state societies operate
Political, economic important
Egypt and Mesopotamia two of the only primary states
China, Indus Valley, Andes, Meso-American (Mexico)
Political formations that developed on their own
Everything else, resulting from this influence
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- culture/society can overcome environmental factors
- last 10 000 years, entered the Holocene
as opposed to Pliocene, involving ice ages happening several times
over human history, climactic changes
- humans are not good at being in large groups
sharing leadership, power, resources
in course of human history, when groups get too big, split up
history of spread of humans partly fuelled by successive group
fission
- when last glacial age ended 10 000 years ago, for first time, planet pretty
much full, save for some Pacific Islands, pockets of Arctic regions
diversification of humans an ongoing process since
- presence as a biological species is a series of evolutionary accidents
creating a need for social organization (we are a gregarious
species); need systems in order be develop/be raised
- civilization is not a given, but a series of accidents
- original thoughts by British and French men
what makes us distinct, how did we get here?
- society is a matter of evolution; looking at other societies was a way of
looking into the human past/ other stages of civilization
- every society still has a history/ change
no inherent tendency to go from simple to complex
nothing inherent that predicts the state
- anthropology highlights that we operate under certain paradigms that have
been handed to us
1492
- before that, Greek and Roman antiquity were writing about other
civilizations
differences in culture and society are due to different adaptations
- European powers competing for access to Asia, spices and silk
- Islamic kingdoms and cultures were more sophisticated in the arts, etc.
civilizations were known but regarded with contempt by Europe
- 2 halves of the world had developed independently w/ their own political
organizations, etc.
came together and came crashing down in 1492
caused people to alter the way they thought about civilization and
society
o ask themselves: what is humanity?
- discovery of America didn’t cause anything but contributed to the
Renaissance: creativity in the arts and sciences
led to questions of philosophy, religion, etc.
- brought in extremely large amounts of wealth: quantities of gold and silver
obtained by the Americas
made possible private money (previously been controlled by
Royalty and the Church)
- Spain had waged war on Islam for several years; January 2, 1492, expelled
Grenada, last stronghold of Islamic presence in Spain
Spain broke at the time; wars had been funded by creditors, small
bankers in Holland and Italy
Islamic kingdoms cut lines of communications through
Mediterranean
Spain needed competitive advantage: agreed to modestly fund
Columbus’s plan -> had underestimated the size of the Earth
Sudden injection of private wealth created a new class of
merchants, “nouveau-riches”
Renaissance made possible because of patrons to fund research
How Have We Understood Civilizations?
- initially (Middle-Ages and before), paradigm was that civilization was the
normal state of humans; others have degenerated from state of civilization
often assumed degenerationism was distance from the Holy Land
- 19th century brought Cultural Evolutionism
degenerationism flipped: civilization not a given, but the product of
evolution; others are not degenerate, just not evolved
- technologically less “evolved” people are
survivals of “pre-Adamites”
stuck in an “earlier” stage of development; reproducing “errors”
(superstitions, ignorance, passions, emotions)
o Note that in the Victorian era passions and emotions were
seen as primitive
o Thought this applied to anyone outside of European tradition
- Implications:
“Psychic Unity of Human Kind” (all humans cognitively equals and
have potential to create-or adopt- civilized society)
o justified colonialism, one-way imposition of Western practices
onto other societies
Cultural differences = historical accidents, drift, environment
Overall tendency = progress (control of nature = technology,
morals)
o Progress doesn’t add to human nature; it eliminates it
because human nature stands in opposition to culture
Lewis Henry Morgan (late 19th c.)
- founder of American Anthropology
- lawyer who dealt with land claims in upstate New York with Iroquoian
groups; was inquisitive about their customs/ beliefs
o at the time, all anthropology had been “armchair”; no interest in
direct observation
o he introduced the concept of field work
- one of the first to speak of social organization rather than technology
- societies evolve through experience
o savagery
o barbarism
o civilization
some societies are just savage because they are young
- Tipping point/ main change that drives evolution: Private Property
o Modifying the rules of marriage
o Turning matrilinearity into patrilinearity
o Mechanisms of inheritance shifted
o Necessities associated w/ agriculture; surplus resources, grain ->
no more hunting
o
- Karl Marx greatly influenced by Morgan’s writings b/c of his emphasis on
private property, etc.
Wrote mostly about economy with his partner Friedrich Engels
Marxism is NOT communism; wasn’t a political agenda, but an
intellectual exercise to try to explain how society has changed
o Evolution doesn’t just happen; there is a structure/drives
Asked questions that had not yet been proposed, asked what’s next
Developed dialectical materialism (not on test)
o Structure to spell out how change happens
o Inspired by some branches of philosophy that they were
trying to apply to society
o Change comes about from contradictions; meeting of certain
phenomenon (thesis) with its opposite (antithesis) produces
the synthesis, which then becomes the thesis
o Change is not continual, it is dramatic, sudden, revolutionary
Used the French Revolution as an example (tipping
point)
o We don’t need to make revolution, it will come in time when
ready
- V. Gordon Childe was one of first anthropologists to “discover” Marx’s ideas
basic understanding of what states are
much of ideas carried through during urban evolution
one of first who systematically thought about cities and states
Capital (1867)
- capitalism, initially, is a fine system
BUT with time, fewer and fewer industrialists make more and more
profits
o Profits taken from the wages of workers
o Proportionally speaking, distance between rich and poor is
increasing
Monopolies would inevitably emerge
Workers become a commodity subjected to the laws of the market
o People are not paid by the value of their work
False Consciousness allows this system to exist
o Image of one’s condition that is unrealistic
o Consciousness of economic class that makes them go along
o Comply b/c of promise of small advancement in the hierarchy
Thought this would lead to communism
o This literature used to justify political system in the Soviet
Union
Only difference b/w capitalism and communism is the extent to
which things are distributed
Fairly anti-religion: wealth, power/influence all in their advantage to
promote the system that maintains their role
- only one way we have developed to successfully manage economical
resources:
taxation and redistribution
end result: proportion of what you are worth is appropriated by a
superior
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- culture is represented in material things (Marx)
- evolution occurs in short dramatic movements
long moments of stability interspersed w/ broad changes
- Marx and Engels set the foundation w/ these arguments
- Noam Chomsky gives an example of False Consciousness
easy for us to say we think clearly
Neo-Evolutionism- America in the Mid-20th Century
(Julian Steward, Leslie White, Marvin Harris, Elman Service, Marshall Sahlins)
- b/c of the Cold War, cannot claim influences by Marx
but were thinking in Marxist terms, just couldn’t say so
found ways to skip to Morgan (same ideology, but American)
- Post WWII United States
focus on change (evolutionism/ diachronic)
focus on adaptation
materialist
law-generating (nomothetic)
- academia was left-leaning at the time
making sure everything written was “American”
- Neo-Evolutionism
different from 19th century: doesn’t suggest societies have internal
crust towards change
o see it more as adaptation than progress
mode of adaptation to environment classified all human groups as
belonging in one of four categories:
o Bands
o Tribes
o Chiefdoms
o States
Diversity in conditions proven to be very large, preventing
generation of satisfying laws
- Julian Steward
did most of his work before idea of neo-evolutionism
founder of Cultural Ecology
o must understand human groups as part of their environment
o centrally a part of an ecosystem
o culture= part of various ways human groups adapt to
environment
o accused of being overly deterministic
he and his collaborators had conviction that taking any
human group and putting them any environment, w/ in
a couple generations, would develop tendencies of the
environment
fieldwork among the Shoshone and Northern Paiute
we as a civilization belong to one trajectory, not one path that’s
inevitable/better
Cultural Ecology: “Study of the processes by which a society adapts
to its environment”
o Analysis of the relationship b/w material culture and natural
resources
o Analysis of behavior patterns involved in resources
exploitation
o Examination of the ways the behavior/ material/ environment
relationship affect other elements of culture
- Leslie White
not a popular man; reputation of being a jerk to colleagues
wrote about himself in the third person
took ideas of Steward steps further
culture meets the needs of the species
culture is a means to capture and transform energy
science of culture- Culturology
3 Subsystems:
o Technological
o Sociological
o Ideological
Culture = energy
o Hunting tools -> hands and claws
o Domestication -> hunting tools
o Fossil fuels/ steam engine -> wood
o Atomic energy -> fossil fuels/ steam engine
Strong belief in scientific method and extraction of energy from
environment
o Believed it could be calculated and quantified
Added 4th subsystem he called “sentimental” to make sense of
quirks that were not cynical
o Feelings or attitudes that constitute subjective aspects
In his mind, technological system is the basis of everything
(hierarchy-> directly influenced by Marxism)
Was thinking of ecosystems as a system of finite energy
His kind of evolutionism was so clinical that he provided a formula
for culture
o C = E x T
o C = degree of cultural development
o E = amount of energy harnessed per capita per year
o T = efficiency of tools employed in the expenditure of energy
Problem: ideas rest on premises that are flawed
o What happens to logic if you substitute energy use with
something else
Provided certain perspective that allowed us to critique it and move
somewhere else
Although vision was extreme, influential
o Systemic approach
o Produced a theory; introduced willingness to talk about
society in abstract terms in American anthropology
- Post-War attitudes of confidence transfers into academia
consumption and energy use is the ideal (nuclear era)
today we value energy conservation
- why did they develop then? There?
What is it about the last 10 000 years that accounts for that?
- 10 000 years ago, everyone on the planet was a hunter
percentage of people to subtract from environment gradually
decreased when other forms of food begin
o agriculture, etc
o change of culture, change in way humans interact w/
environment
today: portion of people who hunt/gather essentially nothing
- Comparison:
Egalitarian societies
o Flexible social positions
Most people capable of what others do
o Immediate return subsistence
o Generally mobile
o Minimal individual possessions
Hierarchical societies
o Fixed social positions
o Delayed return subsistence
o Generally sedentary
o Some private property
What’s the basis between correlations w/in each society?
o Agriculture and ability to move
- tendencies toward Neolithic
can be applied to other regions of the world; common trends
1. Demography
o population growth
o rise in population density
o decrease in available territory per capita
o decrease in group fission and migration
2. Subsistence practices
o diversification of subsistence practices exploitation
o intensification of fishing, gathering of vegetables, or species
that require modification, processing (tubers) or risk
(mollusks)
snails first evidence of altering environment: creating
deep pits and filling them with leaves to attract snails to
eat
o increasing importance of storage, caches
o overall more “productive” use of the landscape for food (per
unit of land), but less efficient (per unit of work)
3. Technology
o tendency towards specialization of toolkit
probably also specialization of labour
o innovations in hunting technology (bow and arrow)
o increase in importance of food-processing technologies (ex
groundstone tools)
o decreased mobility may imply a more rational and careful use
of high-quality raw materials, and more use of low quality raw
materials
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- necessary changes in the face of changing circumstances (adaptations)
La Paloma (Peruvian coast)
- coast is very barren, has many rivers; doesn’t really rain
monochrome, desolate, desert environment
- 6500 BP- 5000 Process of sedentism
- 3-4000 reed huts (probably never all occupied at the same time)
- people at these times probably living in mobile societies
FOUND: domestication is underway
A few cultivated plants that are also being included in diet
- high proportion of infant death
6500-5200 BP: 38%
5000-4800 BP: 17%
- some indications of female infanticide
- high proportion of mortality among women around 30
suggesting complications in childbirth and delayed marriage
o unbridled population growth adds pressure to the group;
challenges existing resources, creates conflict
- men also die young (dangers, diseases, war/violence)
still larger proportion of women than men found in burials
o structures excavated are houses; women overwhelming
buried there more than men
in male burials, many found to have “swimmer’s ear” (otoliths)
o proves their lifestyle had something to do with the sea/ diving
(looking for pearls maybe?), shellfish hunting (found species
that occur in deeper water)
- depending on the region of the world, there are several different types of
domesticated plants and animals
difference between farming and domestication
o farming: modify environment to promote growth of certain
types of plants;
o domestication: through human intervention, some species of
plants/animals lose the capacity of reproducing on their own
in the wild
e.g. wheat: seeds would spread through wind and re-germinate
o when people used this for food, they selected plants with
stronger stems, so over generations, they were modifying the
existing variability towards stronger stems
o now, it cannot reproduce in the wild because the grains
cannot be separated from the stem
Neolithic: A Slow Process Toward Agriculture
- slow, difficult transition from food gathering to food productions
- New relationship with landscape
cultivated plants vs domesticated plants
domesticated animals
- domestication is a complex process of (accidental) genetic manipulation
affecting:
the productivity and reliability of a certain species
the quantity of work required
the risk of failure
* the more you rely on farming, the more you increase the risk of failure
large investment, the returns are delayed
if there is failure because of lack of water, pests, etc., consequences
are significant
Agriculture and Domestication produce economic resources/ goods that
are…
Predictable
Abundant
Circumscribed in time and space (harvest is a moment in the year)
Preservable and storable
- increasing reliance on this type of resource as progress to Neolithic society
Sedentary Foragers
people have developed Neolithic sort of society without reliance on
domestication
resources are abundant, but circumscribed in time and place
(seasonal salmon runs)
development of sedentism (storage)- and economic inequality
(access to fishing spots)
typical forager environments lack these features
Neolithic Economy
Development of agriculture was a slow process with gradual
changes in foraging practices at its base
Agriculture is efficient in terms of resources/ unit of land, but
inefficient in terms of resources/ unit of work
Agriculture correlates positively with sedentism, social inequality
and population growth
o Development of ownership for necessity; relationships b/w
people and things
V. Gordon Childe and the “Urban Revolution”
Done at a time where archaeology first becoming a profession
Trying to answer: what is a civilization? – he says cities
o New kind of social contract; relationship between people
The link b/w Marx and Childe comes across-> direct influence;
changes that lead to the development of civilization
o Fed off Marx’s approach to social changes based off material
culture
o The word “revolution” was a facet of Marx’s approach that
culture and society developed in sudden events/ changes
Changes in the modes of production
o How food is acquired and distributed
Australian, studied in England (Oxford), was into politics at first
o Into far left socialism
Marxism: Key Concepts
History as a sequence of modes of production
Mode of production = base + superstructure
Concept of revolution
There are things that make differences in power/hierarchies natural.
In many civilizations, political power is also religious power
Golden Age of Archaeology (misnomer)
About discovering important sites, collecting artifacts for museums
o Very little theorizing, conceptual thinking
o A lot of cataloguing, classifying to organize
o Fairly sterile
Troy (Hisarlik, Turkey) excavated by Heinrich Schleimann in 1870s
Flinders Petrie: Tell El Amarna, 1891
o Beginnings of certain kind of professional archaeology, still w/
19th century ideas of classification
H. Carter & Tomb of Tutankhamum, 1922
o British elite; expedition funded by a lord, taking credit for
discoveries
Prehistoric Change
1) Savagery = hunting and fishing societies (e.g. Paleolithic and Pleistocene)
2) barbarism = early agriculturalists and the “Neolithic revolution”
3) Civilizations = urban societies supported by irrigation agriculture as the
new mode of production
whole range of types of farming
will only exist if supported by intensive mode of agriculture that will
maximize what you can grow from given territory
using fertilizers, sophisticated methods of irrigation
Childe consider 4 Civilizations in the world for primary states:
Harrapa
Uruk
Chichen Itza
Giza (Egypt)
o It was actually not a city, but a mausoleum
Defines traits that constitute a city:
Large, densely populated settlements
o Childe estimates population of 10 000, but should be more of
a matter of density/ proportion rather than explicit numbers
Economic specialization
o Contrasts with life in small towns, where there would be a
large proportion of peasants, where almost everyone is
engaged in food production
o In cities: have other classes of people engaged in other
economic activities (non-producers)
Implies some sort of trade, exchange, system
Taxation
o Core/ base of any civilization
o Institutional right to collect some production, centralize it,
then distribute it
o Almost always legitimized by some kind of religious subtext
Implied threat with evading paying taxes
Rewards as well
Monumental architecture
o Not really about the specific function of a construction (varies)
More about the act of constructing; symbol of power
and strength of political system
Message of control over resources
o Arguably part of the taxation system as well; also in service
May create tradition of service to gov’t
o Requires cooperation of the people (often 1000s of people)
Acted as maintaining force for the state
o Also exists in many non-state societies
Required work, but did not necessarily mean people
lived in the area as well
o Imagining society, landscape and culture as finite amount of
energy
Putting energy into building diverts energy from other
behaviors (e.g sex-> reproduction)
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- class and socioeconomic status acquired throughout life
formation of elite class based on mix of economic control over
resources and control over ideology
ideology is central element in controlling class divisions
people of lower class get something in return: religion, security
(states and governments’ duties to make sure people are ok)
ruling class often part of the religious organization (political and
religious titles)
o rulers portray themselves as people who have role in ruling
the world
- writing and recording
control over people and how they are distributed
control over events, tracing back royal lines
when you allow for ownership of different things to be distributed
among society and then you develop writing, you give people power
and wealth
o tends to be in the hands of the elite class; the ability to read
and write (shape and interpret history, give meaning to
universe) becomes a privilege
early writing for the Mayans, writing used for recording dates and
events, but also for propaganda
o celebrating Kings
Kipu: complex series of knotted strings made of different cloths,
conveying information through a complex code
Knowledge is associated with power, sometimes opens up into
esoteric knowledge
- MATH, SCIENCE, ASTRONOMY
quest for understanding the universe
extremely reliant on agriculture, which requires understanding of
climate and calendar
- ART
so ubiquitous, seems to serve various purposes
widespread in ancient society
represents religious themes, promotes political organization through
depiction of leaders
often supported by various forms of specialized craft (ceramics,
metals, painting, sculpture)
o promotes work of artisans who produce these materials
art used to maintain relationships b/w nobles; used as gifts
- when powerful people get wealthy, we see a tendency for them to want to
increase their wealth
produce more goods, but often will hit a ceiling
invade new territories, but can be expensive (fund armies, lose men
in war, feed people)
- TRADE
lose correlation between how exotic something is and its value
either because they are precious and rare; or because they come
from far away
good associated with prestige because of the ability to acquire them
- NEW POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC ORDER
state society implies new form that brings together multiple classes
o becomes more complicated than the hierarchy pyramid
o 80-90% peasants who produce things associated with prestige
all sorts of classes of religious specialists who take care of day to
day business
Problems: Childe was criticized on a number of points:
Whenever someone makes an exhaustive list, people look for
exceptions:
o Writing in the Andes (although same function fulfilled by Kipu)
o Monumentality in Harappa
o Herding in Mesoamerica
Little concern for sequence/ causality b/w list items
- important shift from walking on roofs to streets
Neolithic times: composed of houses built without planning, just
spreading
Important change to city: notion of planning centrally
o For example adding plazas, like the Inca capital in Peru
How Do We Find and Study Ancient Cities??
- oftentimes are visible ruins (quite large), but not always
- WHAT IS “CRM”?
cultural resource management, or contract archaeology
most common form of archaeological research today
salvaging of things that are going to be destroyed
o stalling work so we can mitigate damages
- the remains of the past are finite resources
if we can’t preserve them, at least record them
- how old is old enough to be interesting? – no specific answer
even if it seems unimportant now, could be important in the future
- sites are mostly never “lost”: terminology has to be taken with a grain of
salt-> never really lost unless flooded, etc.
- but meaning can be lost
there have been attempts at classification of settlement
- invisible sites:
Pompeii
o People didn’t have time to flee
o Found empty spaces in the volcanic ash: turned out to be
decomposed bodies that were trapped
Herculaneum, Italy
o Bodies were discovered piled up in what used to be a harbour
Tenochtitlan, Mexico
Joya de Ceren, El Salvador (covered in ash)
- Time…
Tell, Mesopotamia
o Artificial hills are the result of the reoccupation of the same
spot, destruction and rebuilding of houses
Adobe House, Bolivia
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- sites don’t need to be that old, even only a minute
archaeology is a method and perspective; study of human
behaviour based on material remains
any place in space can be an archaeological site if one applies a
perspective to it
- hard to look at earliest excavations when examining Tells because you
don’t want to just bulldoze through the top layers
- unless sites are discovered accidentally, they are discovered by walking
about (called reconnaissance/ survey)- systematic approaches
- basis of landscape archaeology: see how relationship between humans and
their environment may have changed over time
- settlement patterns: how humans interact with their environments
where are settlements located relative to places of worship, etc.
settlement surveys are much less expensive than excavations
work with what you have on the surface
- survey finds are located on the surface
ends up there through erosion, water, wind
often not representative of what you could find in a regional sense
finding things that are durable (ceramics, stone, some bone)
skewed perspective
sometimes: Building Foundations
o requires certain kind of environment where architecture will
not get buried by soil formation
other constructions: burial towers, foundations, mausoleums
Agricultural features: ancient terraces, ancient canals
o Terraces very common in the Andes, often still used in the
highlands
o Canals in the north coast
o South coast: not many agricultural features because places
where people practiced agriculture in the past same as the
locations today (river valleys, etc.)
7km from river, in desert area: found ridges in ground-
indicates that there was significant amount of rain in
the past
Infrastructure: Inka roads, Hadrians wall (Great Britain)
Survey aids: maps; aerial photography; Google Earth
Satellite images + GIS: tools to understand spacial behavior; how
humans relate to variables and features of the natural world
o May inform us of the non-obvious
How to find sites? -> local informants, books and codices (ancient
documents)
- newly formed Inka state retreated into the highlands of the Andes
to establish new capital, hoping for new empire -> Vilcabamba
known only from descriptions; one of the lasting 20th century
mysteries
expedition by foot (no roads, etc.), several days in rainforest
o can’t see it from air photos b/c of overgrowth
- seems to be an inter-mountain peak communication system
o terraces on peaks that are all visible
Inka architecture is so specific w/ such unique features
o Very evident Inka elements helped to identify what is thought
to be Vilacabamba
o However, Spanish-like ceramic roofing tiles were found as
well-> indicates the area was occupied after the Spanish
conquest
Found fairly elaborate portion of the Inka road
- mapping instruments
archaeology is a discipline of spatial control
compass, total station (shoots laser on prism and gives distances),
GPS unit, laser scanners
o quickly evolving instruments
- settlement patterns:
distribution of archaeological sites and the material remains of
human activity over the landscape
research method first developed by the Harvard archaeologist
Gordon Willey in the 50s during a survey of the Viru Valley on the
North coast of Peru
o shift of focus away from obsession with discovery of objects;
search for deeper meaning for ancient society/craft; need to
understand how people related to their environment
inform us on several things:
o subsistence practices, e.g. changes in agriculture technology
o defense concerns (e.g. presence of forts, location in defensive
place)
o economic complementarity b/w settlements
driven by relationship b/w settlements
o important b/c state societies traditionally identified with
settlement patterns, looking at central places
o cities are always supported by other settlements (generally
smaller ones that exist around)
o presence of one capital (city) w/ subordinate towns
sort of network approach
- Mesopotamia
look for “site hierarchy” with 1 primary site (largest) w/ few
secondary sites and many small tertiary sites
presence of site hierarchy implies presence of state-level society
largest site, Uruk, assumed to be the political and economic capital
What Comes After Survey?
- research design will generate hypotheses and ways to test them using the
material remains
- Survey and surface collection-> excavation -> analysis
How and Why Do States Form?
- two traditional emphases in the proposed models or scenarios:
integrative models: state institutions exist because they somehow
become necessary
o defense mechanism, food supply, etc.
conflict models (or “fungal”): state institutions exploit and parasite,
exist for the benefit of the few to the expense of the many
o series of representations of when differences in power occur:
angry looking soldiers with maces or clubs, surrounded by
dismembered body parts
o selected to be iconic
o representation of a “leader” as a strong, violent force is the
same today as it was thousands of years ago
states either do things that are useful or they’re strictly a game of
exploitation
Mesopotamia hypothesis: populations grew, agriculture became
more necessary and intensive
o Irrigation systems were elongated, shared over largest
expanse of land
o Needed “government” to control sharing
Tiwanaku (250BC- 1100AD) 2013-01-08 8:37 AM
- what we know comes entirely from archaeological data
unaided by written text
- located in modern-day Bolivia
southern tip of Lake Titicaca
- 4000m high, unusual elevation (uncomfortable for humans)
- surrounding area is the Altiplano (very high mountain peaks)
very specific environment
Low temperature
o Body has to adjust biologically
o Caloric needs increase
o Environment less productive
Low oxygen to nitrogen ration
o Risks of Apoxia (Acute Mountain Sickness)
Pulmonary or Cerebral Oedema
o Cardio-Vascular System works harder
o Breathing more COOLS the body down
People have adjusted: shorter, but with bigger pulmonary
capabilities; chew cocoa to help give energy, suppress hunger and
thirst -> similar to drinking coffee
- Uros, floating islands
Inka Empire (1400-1532)
- Tiwanaku often associated with it, despite the Inka Empire only being
around for a smaller amount of time in comparison
Altiplano/ Tiwanaku Chronology
- Tiwanaku was never really forgotten
after abandonment, people were still aware of it
was rediscovered in the 19th century
- Archaic- increased sedentism, domestication
- Formative Period- village life, farming/ herding
- Tiwanaku I-III- early urbanism
- Tiwanaku IV- first colonies
- Tiwanaku V- colonial development
History of Research
- 16th century Spanish accounts
- 18th century travellers
more detailed accounts
Ephraim Squier: 1877: Peru Incidents of Travel and Exploration in
the Lands of the Incas; included drawings of features
o Gateway of the Sun drawing: doorway structure with unique
iconography
Tiwanaku believed to be ceremonial center, composed of
monumental architecture
o A lot of the city was now underground because of geological
processes
- 1950s: Carlos Ponce Sangines
Bolivia going through much reform
o right to vote for indigenous populations
o rediscovered national pride in regards to natives, Tiwanaku
resurfaced as important
many south American republics becoming comfortable with Marxist
Sangines admitted admirer of Gordon Childe
- Evo Morales, current Presiden of Bolivia
first from an indigenous background
had inauguration at Tiwanaku (link between past and present)
C. Ponce and V.G. Childe’s “Urban Revolution”
- Semi-Subterranean Temple
- Kalasasaya
low, broad temple platform
- Putuni
elite, royal residence
- Akapana
large platform, probably pyramid shaped at one point
hole in the middle
Jeffrey Parsons, 1966
- Archaologist coming from meso-America
Had contributed to applying survey methods
- Walked the whole area around ceremonial core, evaluating surface
remains, morphology
- Figured out whole place was littered with ceramic shards
- Estimated to be 2.4km2
Now know it is much larger
- About 5500-10500 in population
Concluded that not just ceremonial site, but was inhabited
Alan Kolata (1980s- 1990s)
- Proyecto Wila Jawira
- conducted settlement survey of the region
- If Tiwanaku has high density, how does it fit in the entirety of the region
- were a lot of things that could be gained from studying ordinary people
- new survey data:
site was 6.5km2
population 15 000-20 000
Settlement Surveys
- Surveys in the valley show a 4-Tier settlement system
one of the archaeological signatures of the true state
- Hierarchy made up of:
1) Tiwanaku (political and ceremonial capital)
2) small number of large administrative sites (usually 1 in each
valley)
3) greater number of smaller regional/ local centers
4) large number of small, rural villages
- will turn itself into an empire by investing in other regions to generate
different kinds of wealth
Tiwanaku colonies will appear in a variety of regions
Residential Archaeology
- provides cross-section of socio-economic organization
- good indicator of distribution of wealth and power through household
possessions, subsistence remains, quality and size of architectural remains
- notable for asking the question: what supported this large density
population in this environment?
Lot of energy put into reconstructing agricultural systems
Agriculture
- a state’s main concern to generate surplus in order to generate wealth
The “Ideal Center”
- city itself organized under number of different principles
- consider Tiwanaku as a spatial map of the cosmos
idealized or exemplary of the cosmos of the world or how the
cosmos are perceived by those people
cosmos = everything that exists
also a message: representation is being promoted by dynasties and
royalty to the people who interact with that area
Semi-Subterranean Temple and Kalasasaya
- Semi-Subterranean Temple most revealing in terms of how Tiwanaku
developed
a common form of early ceremonial architecture in the region and
many places in the Andes in the formative period
assume there would have been a certain trajectory of ceremonies
being performed there
o go from levels of the living (earth) down towards the
underworld, then to elevated platform of the Gods
found Yayamama Sculptures
o many of a style that predates Tiwanaku
rise of Tiwanaku associated with explicit link to supernatural forces
and identities throughout the entire basin
leaders of Tiwanaku forced people to relinquish sacred objects to be
housed OR people recognized the importance of the place and
relinquished their goods themselves
mythical and historical past of what was likely perceived as different
communities, brought together in the sacred space
result: people from entire region represented here
o probably compelled to come participate in ceremonies there
walls around temple have incorporated w/in their masonry
Anthropomorphic Tenon Heads
o each is different-> evidently made by different people
o may be acting as totems
Inka Ancestor Veneration
- know that the Inka considered ancestors still active in daily life
would mummify perceived mythical or sacred ancestors and parade
them, feed them, recognize them as alive
- possible that Tenon Heads and Seely are representative of ancestors
bringing them together could bring integrative notion to political
system
- no recipe for becoming a state; everything is experimental and a series of
strategies
all of this is novelty for the time period
creating sense of community on scale that hadn’t been seen before
Urban Growth: Tiwanaku (AD 500-800)
- period associated with idea of Urban Revolution
- monumental core probably result of various stages of construction and
reconstruction
- parallel with investment in monumental architecture is an increase in elite
architecture/ palaces being developed
- Bennett and Ponce Stela
explicit link to the past-> representation of iconography on
monoliths
visual lexicon associated with Tiwanaku, imperial style with link to
history and the past
clear representations of real individuals
holding snuff tablet and ceremonial goblet
o involved extraordinary experience facilitated by drugs and
alcohol
massive objects (about 7m high)
people come out feeling like they have been through something
supernatural/ mythical
o how elite want to be understood by the people
Akapana Pyramid
- most important structure in size at Tiwanaku
- very badly destroyed
- about 17m in height
- exterior walls lined with finely cut sandstone; refined masonry
- hydraulic system within it: series of elaborate canals criss-crossing the
structure
probably involved in a ritual worship of water
o representative of fertility
Quimsachata
- Andean populations regularly associate themselves, history and mythical
background with places in the landscape
mountains are sacred: considered associated with sacred ancestors,
places of worship, active and have own personalities
- Q would have been the immediate, locally worshipped mountain person
- Akapana understood to be mythical symbolic representation of the
mountain
canals representation of the nourishment given by the mountain
o seen as source of fertility and water
o seat of worship as short hand for real thing
o center and focus of ceremonies
might be what the elites of Tiwanaku were perceived at being good
at -> special relationship w/ what makes world go round (fertility)
people ritually fed beer, food etc.
o main way corn was consumed: beer
- metal clamps would be used to keep stones tightly together
Exit Tunnel: “Camay”
- where the flow of ceremonial water would come out
- equated as the flow of the life source
- representative of where the life source becomes available to humans
Tiwanaku Part 2 2013-01-08 8:37 AM
- changes abrupt not gradual
- elites were able to trace their authority to region-wide earlier histories
Yayamama-style traditions would have already been antiquity/
sacred objects that were timeless when they were placed
- when it becomes a true city, shift in emphasis from elite to local history
change in how the elites portray themselves
early periods: political authority based on ritual objects that are
recognized with powerful/mythical ancestors
later: state becomes monolithic, political power personified as
individuals
Akapana Mountain Metaphor
- would have been perceived as ensuring the continuation of the cosmos
Feeding the “Social Surplus” in a “Marginal” Environment
- today, one of the poorest regions in South America
- environment is marginal in the sense that the poverty today is the result of
hundreds of years of systematic exploitation
the people are neglected, kept in a state of poverty
- Tiwanaku people had incorporated species of animals and plants that were
perfect for the environment
Economic Foundations of Tiwanaku Society
Economic Diversity
Camelid herding (llamas & alpacas)
o Used for wool, transportation (not of people, but materials)
o Never used carts or developed a wheel-> terrain difficult
o Crucial for trade w/in regions
Lacustrine and Riverine Resources
o Water fowl, reeds (important industrial crop as well), fish
Hearty Andean Root Crops
o Varieties of potatoes
Preserved through freeze-drying
Quinoa & Amaranth
o Grow well in cold environment, grow in altitude
Relatively short growing season
o Protein and vitamins
Ancient or “Fossil” Raised Fields
Expanding on economic base by producing more
o Within certain environmental conditions
o Double crop, or expand land, etc.
Ancient technology rediscovered in recent years: raised fields
Estimates based on the yields today suggest the Altiplano could
have fed about 100 000 people
Raising certain parts of the ground, setting up clay or gravel, etc. to
filter water and bring it to plant root systems
o Water circulates and drains enough to prevent root rotting
o Implies the digging of canal systems
o Promotes development of algae and plant life
o Overtime, nutrient rich sort of mulch that needs to be cleaned
out periodically -> put back on field to enrich soil
o Lengthening of the growing season by delaying the first frost
Over 20 Radiocarbon (C14) dates from material recovered from
excavated raised field show that the Tiwanaku raised field systems
were built b/w 800 and 1000 AD
o Boom in agricultural production came after boom in urban
growth-> was not a precondition, but measures take after the
fact to increase production and wealth
Tiwanaku experienced period of greatest urban growth b/w 600-800
AD
o Biggest monumental structures b/w 300-600 AD
Urban Life at Tiwanaku
Tiwanaku Neighbourhoods
Putini (royal palace)
o Appears to be a residence; would have housed highest
ranking elites (priesthood, nobility, royalty, etc.)
o Excavated areas dictate very decorated place; religious
iconography
o Kept very clean; hygiene not shared by other members of
Tiwanaku
Elaborate canals for bringing water in and out
Trash being taken away
Akapana East 1 (lower elite)
Mollo Kontu (non-elite)
Chiji Jawira (non-elite)
o Tapial or “rammed earth” architecture
Not made of stone; mud walls
o Open ditches where trash disposed
Measure of wealth is measure of proximity to monumental core
Residential Compounds
Middle-class housing; number of related houses being contained
w/in larger units
o Likely people who share kinship/ occupation
Outside of the monumental center
No canals/ irrigation
Some compounds, maybe entire neighbourhoods, associated with
some sort of economic specialization
o Poor neighbourhoods: produce ceramic vessels for exchange/
distribution
o One compound was producing pan pipes
Llama Caravanning and Pastoralism; Mollo Kontu “Cocha” System
Recent excavations say one neighbourhood may have been used for
camelid herding
o B/c of importance of camelids in trade, may have been trading
specialist as well
City Itself and Development
Little evidence of military subjugation; little based on coercion
o Evidence of human sacrifice
Titicaca basin offers no clear economic advantage over
neighbouring regions
Strong ideological component
o State as performance, Tiwanaku as theatre
Emphasized importance of ceremonial rituals
Provider of beer, drugs and extraordinary experience
o Downplays central administration and exploitive relationships
Willing participation
Cosmopolitan Tiwanaku/ Empire
Cosmopolitanism & Ethnic Diversity
Had to have access to maize and molle
o Both used to make beer
o Didn’t grow well in cold/ altitude; outside relationships critical
Certain level of adaptability in terms of how they relate to others
Presence of Tiwanaku in other places is geographically
discontinuous
o True sustained important presence isn’t a blanket
phenomenon over the landscape -> pinpointed trading/
religious partners instead
Tiwanaku “expansion”
Material in few distant enclaves
o Different environmental zones
o Traditionally used to address the question of verticality
(control of distinct ecotones)
Groups attempt to maximize access to different
resources in way where they have access to different
environmental zones
San Pedro de Atacama
Composed of 13 small oases fed by weak intermittent rivers
Very far from Tiwanaku, surprising to find material there
o 3 month round trip
Tiwanaku material in grave offerings
o Mainly prestige items-> trading with leaders?
San Pedro may have more to gain that Tiwanaku itself
o Drinking cups, textiles, snuff tablets
o Always in association w/ local goods
Attraction: probably not agriculture
o Key location for communication to lowland productive areas?
o Region rich in copper and semiprecious stones
o Salt flats present -> good for preserving meat/fish
But there is salt closer to Tiwanaku
Doesn’t appear to be strictly economic relationship, but prestige
Eventual imitation of Tiwanaku ceramic forms in local style
o Adoption of ceremonial drinking practices
Relationship w/ Tiwanaku
o Not direct colonization
o Economic alliance b/w local chiefs and Tiwanaku
o Local converts to faraway religion
Cochabamba
Closer to Tiwanaku
Emphasis on drinking practices/ drug consumption
Prestige items
Presence of Cochabamba material found in Tiwanaku; more two-
way/ bilateral relationship
o May have been Cochabamba clan in Tiwanaku (immigrants)
Lower elevation on eastern slopes
o Lowland area where certain crops could have been grown
Potentially highly fertile
More than 300 sites with Tiwanaku affiliation
Local imitation of selected Tiwanaku shapes and motifs
Some imported Tiwanaku material
Changes in burial practices-introduction of new religious principles?
Differing interpretation
o Direct administration?
o Colonization?
o Religious proselytizing?
o Strictly economic relationship/ trade?
o Tiwanaku influence may have been minimal
Mostly local emulation
But: some burials w/ exclusively Tiwanaku goods
suggesting, to some, presence of colonists
Moquegua
Access to very fertile lowland regions
o Desert, but supports growth when properly irrigated
o Corn
Direct evidence for Tiwanaku colonization
o Sent entire groups of people to replace local population
Material not just prestige: ordinary household, residence styles
o Not easily imitated/ adopted by other groups
o Altiplano combination of sunken patio, temple, elevation
Presence in Other Regions- Conclusion
Variable investment in different regions
o Only Moquegua has unambiguous Tiwanaku presence and
administration
o Vessel assemblage dominated by chichi-associated wares
(kero beakers, pitchers and large brewing and strong vessels)
Tiwanaku combined sumptuary goods, attractive ideological
system, “salesmanship”
o Concept of Tiwanaku seems to have been tolerated, even
welcome and some practices emulated
Sense of important, powerful reputation cross-regionally
o Centralizing power not based on coercion, but perceived
mythical religious power -> charming people into complying
o Compels people to want to do with exotic power
Is Tiwanaku Anomalous?
No state coercion evident
No unequivocal evidence for kingship
o In iconography, burials
o Instead groups/ dynasties of “priests”
o Nobility of high elite a group, not individual
Little archaeological remains of administrative infrastructure
o No state storage, quipus
Little centralization
Collapse
Severe drought ca. 1100 AD
Lake levels dropped, agricultural ditches dried
o Salinization a factor?
Historically, extensive droughts = llama epidemics and parasitic
diseases
Capital destroyed, but rebuild haphazardly later (by the Inkas?)
Moquegua: temple at Omo sacked and destroyed
Mesopotamia 2013-01-08 8:37 AM
agriculture first developed, Neolithic lifestyle, urbanism, writing,
many Judeo-Christian texts are versions of old texts present in
Mesopotamia
- Modern-day Iraq, Iran, and Syria
- Focus on Early Mesopotamia c. 3500-2000 BC
- Divided in Southern and Northern Mesopotamia
- Mesopotamia= “the land between two rivers”
- Rivers change position over time; were different in the past
flowing on a flat plane, therefore irrigation was easy
o could bring water out of riverbed w/o issue
simple irrigation occurs relatively early, gives time for more
complex methods
Sources of Information
1) Excavations
Due to long history, earliest layers are hard to find
Bombing has devastated some
2) Written sources
originally for administration, but developed into literature
cuneiform tablets
epic of Gilgamesh
o oldest written human narrative
o stories and mythical legends
o connection to Old Testament
The King List
o Historical records of who reigned where and what happened
during their reign
Behistun Inscription
o Allowed initial clues to be able to understand Mesopotamian
writing (like Rosetta Stone)
o Incisions into wet clay that provided first forms of writing
o Royal Proclamation
o Persian King (Darius)
o 521 BC
o Key to translation of cuneiform
3) Survey
Distribution of sites over landscape and their distribution
Robert McCormick Adams
o Walking survery
o Date and size records based on ceramics
o Aerial photographs
Euphrates, Tigris and Persian Gulf not in present-day location
Environmental Context
Circumscribed desert plain
o Inhabitable environment is surrounded by arid, uninhabitable
environment
o Provided basis for ideas about population density
Marshes w/ birds and fish
Very hot climate
Thin, relatively poor soils
Diversity of naturally occurring plants
Irrigation
Requires cooperation and organization (Wittfogel and Steward
1950s)
o Hypothesized that civilization was a product of irrigation
o Large networks of rivers linking together towns/ cities
o Might create disputes, need administration to deal with it
o Later found: created to meet the requirements of the existing
states looking for more resources/ maximize production
Allowed expansion in population and social and cultural complexity
Chronology
Pre-Urban Period (Neolithic): 6500-4200 BC- includes Ubaid period culture
Includes many cultural, political developments
Farming villages, trade (obsidian) established
o Populations, technologies coming from elsewhere
Move southwest to dryer area, 1st archaeological evidence of
irrigation at Choga Mami (c. 6000BC)
Ubaid (6500-4200 BC) people colonize the southern plains
o Integration of populations into an institutionalized form
o Sustained interaction b/w large settlements
Ubaid trade network extends to Northern Mesopotamia and Persian
Gulf- interaction sphere?
o Evidence of interaction takes the form of conflict/ warfare
o Villages start being fortified/ have moats, sling-stones, etc.
o Fortified areas become desirable for people seeking refuge
from conflict
o No political center permanently on top
Ubaid period standardized forms of ceramics suggest different
political sites (one north, one south)
o Halafa (north) & Samarra (south)
Ubaid period sees establishment of non-residential buildings,
religion -> Ubaid Temple
o In continuity in place, shape and location w/ later periods
Ubaid granaries or silos (storage of large quantities of goods)
o Increasingly centralized, controlled by fewer people
Small bowls indicate standardized portions of something
o Reward for labour, etc.?
o Concern with a set quantity
o Possibility of full-time work
Writing in rudimentary forms
o Initial uses strictly business/ mathematic/ receipts
o Used to make seals (used on wax) for containers for transport,
etc.
Uruk Period: 4200-3100 BC: Urban Revolution
Serious road to statehood
Practices, technologies and institutions associated w/ the state
starting to be developed, put in place
Creation of agricultural surplus
Establishment of what seems to be state religion
Uruk revolution leads to: cities, states, writing, increased craft
specialization, growth of centralized religious and secular control,
expansion in trade (concern w/ increased wealth)
Early Dynastic Period: 2900-2350 BC: Sumer Civilization
Akkadian Empire: 2330-2230 BC
Babylon: 2000-1600 BC
Early Work in Mesopotamia:
Gertrude Bell (1868-1926)
The “uncrowned queen of Iraq”
British “gentlemen scholar”, worked for British Intelligence during
and after WWI
Defined Iraq’s modern borders
Called in by Churchill after WWI to discuss the Arab situation
Instrumental in developing colonial structures associated with the
regime in the Arab world
Creator of the National Museum of Iraq, wrote antiquities law
o Councilor to the Iraqi King
o Co-founded Iraqi Museum of Antiquities
Eventually returned to GB, but made into a bit of an outsider
o Too much of an adventurer, not regular upper-class
o Returned to Iraq
Died of an overdose on sleeping pills
Sir Leonard Wooley
Freelance archaeologist from modest origins; never held an
academic position
1922-1934: Conducts excavations at Ur for the British Museum and
the University of Pennsylvania
Worked with T.E. Lawrence, who was also a friend of Bell
Fought in WWI, made Prisoner of War (1916-1919) in Turkey
Developed principles still used today: stratigraphic technology
Robert and Linda Braidwood
Founded The Oriental Institute, Chicago (est. 1919)
Important in history of Middle Eastern archaeology
Spent their entire careers working for the institute
Professor Ravenswood in Indiana Jones based off Robert
First to discover a lot of “most ancient” things
o Oldest known piece of copper, textile
o Discovered ancient blood, collection of DNA
First to apply radio-carbon dating
Died w/in an hour of one another on different floors of the hospital
Important cohort of students with them; responsible for creating
many main players active in Mesopotamian archaeology
o Robert McComick Adams (PhD 1956)
Had to work in steel mill to pay for his studies
Hired last minute to assist the Braidwoods in field study
Originally hired because of mechanic abilities
Cities and Water Courses
Extreme complexity of irrigation
Cities and towns could not be conceived as independent; linked in
networks of water supply
Robert McC. Adams
Population estimates
o Tried to provide idea of relative importance and density in
different kinds of sites; looked at present populations to get
an idea-> how much land needed to accommodate certain
number of people?
o New kinds of perspective on social integration (town w/o land
to feed, suggests other settlements involved for providing
food)
McC. Adams’ pattern of growth and decay linked to salinization,
these exigencies shape Mesopotamian life for millennia
o Area is relatively unproductive today
o He noticed present population had problems of salinization
that may have caused long term subsistence problems
o Take water from one place, deposit it in another
Water evapourates and leaves behind minerals; has
effect overtime to create high rate of minerals in soil,
soil becomes toxic/ infertile for plant growth
Agriculture systems follow the rise of cities and states
Development of Cities
Farming settlements have quickly rising population levels
Irrigation allows for more land to be cultivated
Possible kinship and/or religious ties between farmers lead to
“protostate”
One settlement in these protostates become prominent in size and
importance and becomes a small urban center
o Creates condition for state to develop, become permanent
capital city, with other villages become subsidiary
Uruk Revolution (4200- 3100 BC) 2013-01-08 8:37 AM
- time between large villages and troops cities
- change in nature of settlements: villages larger, temples numerous
- by end of Uruk period: site of Uruk gaining regional importance
- establishment of buffer zones between state: empty, unoccupied areas
- material culture very uniform throughout region; supported by trade,
raiding, exchange of marriage partners
people move around
warfare not constant, but always potential
Uruk’s Anatomy
2 temple areas/ precincts
o Kallabu (dedicated to Anu)
o Eanna (dedicated to Innana)
o If other states worshipped similar gods, excuse for peace,
resist warfare
Temples raised on mud-brick platforms
Temples and palaces used most of the space
Initial importance due to its religious cult?
Symbiosis between urban dwellers and nomad herders
Less material things (e.g. strategic marriage) had ability to spread
power of settlement
Established a model of European city that existed for several
millennia (fortified, elevated city)
Epic of Gilgamesh speaks of Uruk being managed by council of
community elders, suggesting that by 4th-3rd millennium BC, city
was in transitional stage from part of community and not yet
governed by a single ruler
Theories on Uruk Expansion
The Uruk World System
Merchant colonies securing raw material (on periphery of Uruk
state)-> specialized jobs for transportation to Uruk itself
Single economic unit where southern cities have dominant role,
sphere of influence
Regional Centers Seeking Uruk Objects
Prestige competition with neighbouring cities
Local people seeking to gain prestige by associating themselves
with far away colonies
The Early Dynastic Period (2900-2350 BC)- The Sumerians
Beginning of historical records
o Sumerian language unknown until about 100 years ago
o Other languages had been known (e.g. Acadian)
Sumer in South Southern Mesopotamia
o many of site names Sumerians occupied are not Sumerian
words
o mystery where Sumerian people came from
Akkad in North Southern Mesopotamia
o Many things in common with Sumerians, despite different
language
o Sometimes united, sometimes at war with Sumerians
At the junction: Nippur, the most important religious center
o Continually visited and worshipped by both Sumerians and
Acadians
Until late 19th century, Sumerians forgotten for the most part;
assumed to be like Acadians
o When looking for Biblical civilizations, kept finding tablets that
would later be adopted by Acadians -> assumed to be related
to Acadians, but couldn’t be deciphered by known language
o Scholars found reference to the King of Sumer in Acadia
o First King of Sumer: Etana
Created true monolithic, hierarchical state
Throughout 20th century, reconstructed rich literature left behind
that has given a sense of who they were and how they described
themselves
Protective of their personal rights and property
Eventually spread influence from Indian Ocean to Mediterranean
Credited with many firsts: wagon wheel, sail boats, cosmetics,
perfumes and drugs, first physicians who wrote prescriptions
o Sense of modernity
Had merchants, scribes, snake charmers
First time in history that epidemic diseases are noted
o Contaminated water-> cholera
Food producers living in the city
Each city said to be specialized in worship of certain God in the
Sumerian Pantheon (at least 6000 gods-> for everything!)
o Probably not all very well known by entire population; creates
complexity that priests had access to
Life of individual citizen described as being free and prosperous;
even poorest owned small farm, little land, some cattle
Slavery was common and children could be sold to slavery to
account for debt
o Slaves had legal rights; could do business, borrow money,
eventually buy their own freedom
o Adult male worth slightly less than price of donkey
Women had legal rights -> could hold property under own name
and do business with that property, could divorce
Nippur
Sumerian city
In southern Iraq, between what is now Bagdad and Basra
Earliest occupations date to about 5000 BC
Control of Nippur = control of Southern Mesopotamia
Shrine showing devotion and proclaiming authority
Still occupied in 800AD
Survived several political changes, several wars
o Many economic hubs would be destroyed
Have been large-scale excavations in late 1800s by University
Museum of Pennsylvania, recovering some of the earliest tablets
o More than 30 000 Cuniform tablets recovered
o Including earliest map of the city
Houses
Very consistent throughout city and throughout state
One or two story high, built around courtyard
Focus on the inside, the exterior is unadorned
o Differences in wealth not very evident in house construction
and style -> socio-economic differences muted
Often floor burials
o Houses passed down from one generation to the next
o Commitment to ancestors
Stable pattern across time and space
o In style and construction -> uniformity
The Household
Most basic unit of organization
Patrilineal, nuclear families
o Very uniform pattern: no extended family household
Temple and large institutions described as household
o Uniformity extends through hierarchy of society
o Household for the gods
Temples
Dedicated to city god(s)
Smaller temples ranging from residential shrines to influential
temples within a residential district
Innana Temple at Nippur ran by single family, residential
apartments
Main landowners -> only institutions that can own agricultural land
o Normal people, farmers, rent the land from temples
o Strong mechanism for taxation
o Main mechanism for centralizing wealth
o Through which writing developed-> to ensure and keep track
of the process (contracts, IOUs)
Once it became flexible enough, alphabetic, when using
symbols that could be used in speech, quickly adapted
to true literature (religious or otherwise)
Figurines and Offerings
Very rare, even in temples
Modesty
Excavations at Ur
Probably one of Sumerian capitals
One of most important economic and religious centers
Ziggurat one of largest buildings in the region
Third Dynasty of Ur (2112 to 2004)
Period of great reconstruction
Lineage of Ur-Nammu
Occupied by Sumerians
End of Ur III, most of walls except Ziggurat were destroyed
The City
Walled city, oval, about 1.33 km long and 686m wide
Fairly elaborate water system; districts separated by canals
Elevated city;….
Ziggurat
Three-tiered pyramid made of clay bricks
Only one tier remains
Ties into idea of monumentality and what comes with it (e.g.
making people work)
Clay bricks bear name of Ur-Nammu
Weeper holes to drain water out
o terraces bore trees?
The Temenos
Central precinct
Walled sacred area inside the city
Dedicated to Moon-god and his wife
Ziggurat is on a terrace inside the Temenos
As state apparatus… (dual religious/ economic function)
o Nannar (mood-god) is Ur’s ruler, and as such, bigger land
owner
o Needs state apparatus such as storehouses, temples, and
factories- all situated within the Temenos
o Payment in kind for land, and redistribution to workers, are
recorded on clay tablets
o Production of food, beer, ceramics on behalf of the trade to
give to rulers of other cities
Royal Graves at Ur (2600-2350 BC)
Excavated by Leonard Wooley
Confirmation that unitary kings were ruling-> discovery of
extremely rich graves
Between 2000 and 8000 common folk graves and 16 royal graves
Artifacts and inlaid panels tell of life in 3rd millennium BC
Not very flashy, concealed
Yielded tons of gold, artifacts made of metals and precious stones
Figuring with large eyes found in graves, assumed to be preying
figures showing devotion and worship throughout eternity
2 sides of same cloth, described as standard of Ur
o top side: state representing itself as provider
seems to be scene where large quantity of goods being
brought somewhere
top panel seems to be nobles or other eating (provider
of feasts, plenty)
o alternate side: displays of war
o dual image of how states portray themselves: provider/
dangerous
The Mesopotamian City
Walled
o For strategic reasons, not symbolic
Tell (mound)
o Possible that initial emphasis on elevated grounds for elite
residences and temples was a way of protecting the areas
from floods
o Also symbolic
Craft neighbourhoods, ethnic enclaves?
o Ghetto-like neighbourhoods of people coming from
somewhere else and then specializing
Temple/ palace complex
o Responsible for centralization of surplus
o Responsible for all related to supernatural
Markets
o day-to-day economy
o no currency, operating under barter principle
grain was how quantities measured
Organization of Cities
Walled sectors (districts), divided by canals
Both rich and poor within the same neighbourhood
o Except for nobility occupying temple/palace
o Below royalty, fair level of social mobility
o Basic way to acquire wealth: herding or becoming congress
Most residents are home and land owners
Urban Institutions
Palaces and administrative buildings
Palace: royal residence, storage area (for surplus wealth), audience
hall
Justice system similar to sheikhs, public decisions
Villages
Two excavated villages: Tell Harmal and Haradum, <500
inhabitants (Ur estimated to have 360 000)
o Walled
o Administrative buildings, temples, workshop areas
o Literacy (tablets)
o House size stable, similar to medium sized urban dwellings
lots of relationships between cities seen to be regulated by nomads
o transported animals and other materials, bartering,
rumours/information/technologies/knowledge
o most likely caused wars to erupt and cease
o marriage possibilities b/w cities
o important privileged position
The Akkadian Empire (2334-2230 BC)
Sargon, king of Akkad takes over Kish, then Sumer in 2334
o Will absorb many of the characteristics, e.g. language
o End of Sumerian state (first true state of the world)
Not just overlord of region, creates Empire with Agade as capital for
about 100 years
war/territorial expansion gave easy access to raw material
state propaganda- concept of charismatic king
New Kingdom Egypt 2013-01-08 8:37 AM
- tremendous continuity over time
- although close to Mesopotamia, the 2 cities are independent phenomena
eventually come into contact, but form separately
- relatively isolated from other inhabitable areas
after Holocene glaciation, area changed environmentally and
became more Sahara-like (hyper-arid)
Nile River brings life, etc. -> thin strip of isolated fertile land
Nile River
Annual cycle of flooding feeds the river
o Waters tear through mountains and valleys and bring
minerals
o Banks flood once a year and sediment is deposited on banks
Several years of thin floods would cause starvation
Predictability: you know nourishment is coming, but not sure how
much
Pharaoh will convince people that his interaction with the gods will
keep the Nile flooding and the sun rising
o Legitimacy of king questioned if there isn’t enough rain
very little rainfall, so entire sustenance depends on Nile
settlements are close to the floodable areas
o we have access to the later periods; earlier ones have been
destroyed by newer settlements
river has dug itself into the area: the desert is elevated above it
Zone between arable land and desert is stark, even today
o Black Land = Kemet: Name for Egypt, arable land
was a very thin strip
o Red land = Deshret: surrounding desert
Conditions for innovation occurred naturally; the rest simple water
measurement systems based on levies, channels
o Akhet (inundation): July-October
o Peret (growing): October- March
o Shemu (drought): April- July
Violent floods, because focused in little space, means the water is
moving very fast and can destroy infrastructure/ water system
equipment
Because flooding was predictable and amount of flooding each year
dictated amount of agriculture, the Nilometer was consulted by
priests to predict how much flooding there would be and calculate
how much land over the realm would be capable of growing that
year -> used to predict the tax rate
Shaduf: water-tight container w/ lever system, bringing water up to
be used in areas more elevated
Diet
Products grown: emmer wheat and barley
o diet complimented with herded and hunted animals
average Egyptian did not eat much meat; reserved for the elite
fruits grown, orchards (often found in palaces, mansions)
normal people mainly ate grain-based foods
o including beer made from wheat or barley
the average person’s protein came from fish in the Nile
the state rewarded service and labour on behalf of the state with
bread and beer
no currency: food was used more means of trade
Afterlife
Artwork displays scenes of the afterlife
The afterlife was very similar to normal life
o You keep the same occupation
o Less pain; “perfect” normal life
Chronology, non-archaeological sources, and Egypt’s rediscovery
We use chronological framework inspired by Greek priest’s writing
(Manetho) -> detailed list of kings, allowed for dynastic history to be
constructed
o Lists of what happened during their reigns, lengths of reigns
o Series of kings grouped in dynasties: finite sequences in a
certain number of successive kings
Distinguishing one to the next: discontinuity
Basic Chronology
Prehistory (Palaeolithic)
Pre-Dynastic Period (including Dynasty 0- 4 kings)
Early Dynastic Period (ca. 3000-2686 BC): 2 dynasties, 15 kings
Old Kingdom (ca. 2686-2181 BC): 4 dynasties, 26 kings
o Pyramids are characteristic of this period
First Intermediate Period (2055-1650 BC)….
Rediscovery
Impact on Europe and America starting with Napoleon
o Went to Egypt in 1798 to secure passage to the Red Sea to
circumvent Ottoman empire and get into Africa
o Brought with him savants in charge of studying many fields
o Dominique Vivant Denon (pornographer) said to have
introduced Napoleon and Josephine
came with Napoleon and drew what he saw, later
published (3000 illustrations)
included monuments
gained Europe’s attention towards Egypt
Rosetta Stone
o Contains a decree by Ptolemy V dating to 196 BC regarding
taxes and erection of statues in temples
o Written in Ancient Greek, Egyptian demotic script and
Egyptian Herioglyphs
o Deciphered by Thomas Young in 1814 and Jean-Francois
Champollion in 1822
Giovanni Belzoni
o Seen by others as founder of Egyptian tomb looting
o Still graffiti of his name etched in ruins
o Collecting antiquities and selling them on black market
o Fascination with mummies in Europe (mummy unwrappings at
country clubs)
o Said that early locomotives fuelled by mummies which were
covered in tar
Sir William Flinders Petrie (1853-1942)
o Racist towards living Egyptians
o British archaeologist considered the father of modern
archaeology
o Conducted extensive survey work of several Egyptian sites
o When he died, Petrie donated his head to science so it could
be studied for its genius
Upper and Lower Egypt
Lower Egypt is up, Upper is down (based off the direction of water
flow)
Different processes of development of economy
Egyptian state and thrust towards dynastic existence were product
of Upper Egypt
Unity of the nation seems to be result of conquest of Upper to the
northern Lower territory
Often illustrated in iconology/ symbology of Egypt by having
different crowns
o Red Crown of Lower Egypt
o White Crown of Upper Egypt
o Combination of both, crown holds details of each
Initial unification mechanisms unclear, but artifacts commemorating
event portray violence
o Doesn’t mean they were, but that the unified state perceives
itself as a powerful entity
o Narmer macehead: weapons with iconography that suggests
the king is receiving prisoners
Narmer Palette: Narmer is the legendary first unifier
king, wearing the crown of U.E and smiting an enemy
On other side, wearing crown of L.E and
overseeing bunch of decapitated bodies
Once Egypt is centralized state under unitary king, role of violence
will be downplayed
o Balance of power b/w economy, etc.
Royal Cemetery at Abydos
Onset of religious principles
Each King is godly and remains alive and active in the afterlife if
constant worship is maintained
Once one has access to the throne, immediately starts working
towards presence in the afterlife: hires people who would make
right gestures/ perform right rituals to allow king to remain alive in
death
All resources of the state and thrust towards centralization of
resources had one goal: sustain funerary cult of one person (king)
Mastaba: first semi-monumental tombs reserved for kings
o Contain small chapel, offering chamber
o Quickly became contest where each successive king
attempted to outdo the one before; quickly became bigger
and bigger until 3rd dynasty king Djoser suggested stacking
the Mastabas (step pyramid)
First stone building (noticed older ones damaged b/c
made of mud bricks)
Imhotep was engineer in question (was deified)
Series of experiments of architecture involved engineering, trials
and errors
o 4th dynasty pyramid of Djoser’s successor, pyramid of Snefer
Meydum
blocks leaning against each other and outer area
crumbled away
chamber is w/in structure of pyramid, not underground
suggests initial plan already set
o Bent Pyramid
May have been build on unstable soil, began to crumble
as it was being build
o Red Pyramid
First structurally sound straight-sided pyramid
Angles are relatively low
o Khufu, Khafra, Menkaura: first real pyramids
Extremely important buildings in terms of work involved
Utter dedication involving millions of people in single
project
o Egypt didn’t have to protect its borders b/c of its isolation;
didn’t have to put resources into defense
o Perception that the king was doing things well
o Events at end of old kingdom questioned the king:
Series of low floods
Starvation in some periods
o Made out of granite, but outside made of hard limestone
o Bright, light coloured, smooth, shiny (highly polished)
o Shape mimicked the rays of the sun hitting the earth
Kings ascends the rays to reach the sun
2013-01-08 8:37 AM
Building of the Pyramids
force that brings people together and provides institutions is a
religious ideology, powerful enough to convince people to comply
ramps as explanation for building of pyramids, seems unlikely: their
construction would have been an even greater architectural feat
o thoughts: the pyramid acted as its own ramp
o Herodotus: levers lifted the stones every year
Would have still been heavy; Egypt generally wood-poor
and would not have had that many logs
we know that building the pyramids was a kind of taxation and
labour
graffiti made in hieroglyphics refer to work gangs, each with specific
names -> seem to be taunting each other (competition fueling the
zeal with which they were working)
first large settlement: large towns with the purpose of housing all
the workers
o treated well: ate decent amount of meat, beer
Egypt is a linear country: communication and travel are hard
o Social circle/ experiences are limited
o Seeing large number of people at same place to orchestrate
building of pyramid introduced people into new form of
organization, interacting in new ways with new people
o Going back home after working -> superstar; people are in
awe
Work Gangs
Based on Deir el-Medina
o Work teams of 120 men, organized hierarchically
o 8 day weeks (8-hour days) followed by 2 days off
o married men with children paid more than bachelors
o payment in grain, fish, vegetables, beer, material goods
beyond what was need for immediate consumption
possibility of wealth/ trading excess
New Kingdom (1550-1070 BC)
Expulsion of Hyksos, the “foreign” ruler during the 2nd intermediate
period
o Intermediate periods characterized by events of
decentralization, crumbling (external threats, internal conflict)
o New needs/ realignment of activities (e.g. military) ends the
building of the pyramids
Egypt at its political height: rules over Nubia and conquers Canaan,
Lebanon, Syria
Became an empire; interregional powerhouse in military and
political sense
Hatshepsut (1473-1458): The Female King
Cities and Towns of the New Kingdom
Not a very urban civilization in relative sense; mostly rural
Memphis
o Central capital of Egyptian state for long period of time
o Frequently considered political and religious capital
El Amarna
o Only true Egyptian city
o Occupied only for about 10 years
Thebes
o Group of different structures and sites
o Karnak, Luxor, Valley of the Kings, Deir el Medina)
Akhenaten (1353-1335 BC): the “heretic” king
Pharaoh, fairly weird guy
Changed religion altogether; established monotheism (one aspect of
sun God as only god, mandated everyone worship him)
o Problem: economically speaking, the Egyptian state were
organized around temples and polytheism
o Each temple dedicated to worship of different god: received
funding, taxes, land
o Rich priests owed wealth to polytheism, making offers to
temples
Switched the capital to a new city -> Tell el-Amarna
o City that was organized around the idea of proximity between
social classes, wealth, religious and non-religious
o Temples and structures coexist
o Courtyard that would have housed performances, etc. and
then city sprawled around it
o Sense that it was architecturally meaning to maximize the
places the sun could shine
Overthrown and erased from many monuments
Tell El-Amarna
Site of epidemics b/c of poor water management
o Proximity of walk in wells and presence of human/animal
waste
o Cholera
o May have precipitated overthrow of Akhenaten
Tutankhamun (1333-1323 BC): the boy king
Found in only royal tomb found intact ever (all others looted)
o Discovered by Howard Carter in 1922
o Had been entered by looters b/c of broken seal on the floor,
suggesting it had been sealed and reopened, then resealed
(all in antiquity)
o Curses written on the walls of some tombs -> not
Tutankhamun’s
Valley of the Kings
Valley where the kings are buried, located in the general Thebes
area; character of hiding tombs hidden in shafts dug into the valley
Some other buried: rich, priests, powerful
Some had vertical shafts thought to be for draining water
Egypt: “Civilization Without Cities”?
Idea of Egypt being rural may be skewed
Perishable architecture
o Proportion of stone architecture very small, is all that remains
behind
Nile River -> has changed courses
o Many habitations now buried under meters of sediment
“Special-purpose” cities
o construction
o artisans supporting funerary cults
maintained a person’s life in the afterlife
figurines, fake fruits, little houses, etc.
New Egypt economy was an economy of death
o Resources spent on tombs, mummification, etc.
Temples were religious structures but also economic hubs for the
circulation of goods later used for offerings, personal wealth of
priests
Economy and settlement pattern tightly bound to worship
Lahun -> city housing workers
o Walled, tightly regulated, centrally planned, composed of
small apartments
Memphis described as being extraordinary settlement; now either
destroyed or covered
o Anything close to Cairo will be mined for building material
Thebes: City of Amun
Valley of the Kings nearby
Karnak and Luxor have important temples
Textbook plan of New Kingdom temple: movement further into the
temple means privilege of access; passage from public to private
o Pylon
o Colonnaded Courtyard
o Hypostyle Hall
o Barque
o Sanctuary -> containing an image of the God (statue, mummy
of associated animal)
Life revolves around religious performances, ceremonies events
o People travelled more because of these
Deir El Medina- The Workers’ Village
Set up for workers digging the tombs in the Valley of the Kings
For families: workers during work weeks were camped across the
river while wives and children stay
Known as the domestic realm of women; responsible for ownership,
inheritance
Men more concerned with working and earning salary
Ostraca recovered from the site: notebooks made on pieces of
stone or clay
o Thousands are known
o Contain dramatic diversity of information: recipes, poetry,
shopping lists, prescriptions
Ideal House Layout-> extremely consistent
o Included some shrines/ alters (domestic worship)
Masculine Domain, associated w/ outside of house
o Divan excavated by Bruyere in 1922
o Gendered use of space at DEM
Female Sphere- Lit Clos (elevated bed shielded from outside by
drapes; found in all houses at DEM)
o Inner most areas associated w/ women’s realm
o Believed to be associated with worship of domestic gods
o Attempts to procreate associated with levels of worship
o Lit Clos may have been a birthing bed
God Bes
o Found in houses of DEM, common level of domestic worship
Conclusion
Centralization of resources was justified by:
o Temple festivals/ offerings/ pilgrimages
o Cities grow around temples and tombs: craftspeople,
construction workers, administrators, priests
o “democratization of the afterlife”: can you buy your way into
eternity? What are you willing to bring with you?
Transformation of religious dogma away from idea of
only the King being able to achieve privilege of the after
towards the ordinary people
Economy of death is major factor
o Booming industry in sumptuary goods
o Creation of architectural tomb
o Securing the workforce to make proper rituals
Indus Valley: “Harappan Civilization” 2013-01-08 8:37AM
Doesn’t classify as States, Empires, Chiefdoms etc.
New model as social organization
Indus marks border btwn India + Pakistan
Politically, it’s very hard to do research there
Hard to acquire complete regional pictures
It’s either India OR Pakistan
Geographic Setting
Region defined by 2 rivers:
The Indus River
Ghaggar-Hakra River/Saraswati (now extinct)
Best known sites:
Mojenho-Daro
Harrapa
Very densely populated region
People lived according to the patterns of the monsoon rains
People took advantage of the swelling of the rivers for irrigation
Similar to the Nile and Euphrates
Landscape
Water intake is very wide and narrows towards the Indian Ocean
People needed to contain the various floods
E.g. Growing crops that can survive under two types of hydrolysis systems
The key to nourishment is the sediments deposited by the rivers
Main crops were wheat, barley, peas, lentils, chickpeas, fruit (dates, grapes)
Cereals processed into porridge, beer, bread
Wine
Herding, cattle (ploughing, but not eaten)
Chronology
Multi-tiered settlement patterns (“Early Harrapan or Mehrgarh” Period ca.
3300-2600 BC)
Large urban centres c. 2600-2000 BC (“Mature Harrapan” ca. 2600-2000 BC)
Abandonment of some but valley still dominated by localized polities (“Late
Harrapan” 1900-1300 BC)
Early Harrapan – Mehrgarh
Production of agricultural surplus
More religious lifestyle
Antiques represented ritual, ceremonial life, craft (production of ceramics)
Contributed to the development of ritual/ceremony
Excavations
Early excavations were how we acquired most of our info
Mass amts of land was displaced
We lost a lot of info
Some of the ruins have been used to help build bases for traintracks (while
the Indus Valley was under British rule)
John Marshall directed a lot of the excavations at Mohenjo-daro
1925-26, 1200 people worked at the excavation site
Sir Mortimer Wheeler left a good legacy of excavation + research
But he didn’t treat the locals well
The first to describe the civilization as “orderly” and “dull”
They had such control over their hydraulics systems
Wheeler thought it was b.c. they wanted personal hygiene
Settlement Patterns
There were 5 main settlements
What was their relationship to each other?
Mohenjo-daro was the biggest, but does that mean that it ruled
autonomously?
Did the settlements work together?
They were all >50 ha
Mohenjo-daro (+200 ha)
Harappa (+150 ha)
Dholavira (100 ha)
Ganweriwala (80 ha)
Rakhigarhi (80 ha)
Approx. hinterland for each: 100,000-170,00km2
Harappan Script
Writing has not yet been deciphered
400 pictographic symbols on seals and tablets
Logosyllabic
Combination of symbols + sounds
Avg. length of code is 5 symbols
You can’t find patterns in the code
Script appears on seals and tablets
There are symbols of sacred-looking cattle
Perhaps related to India’s worship today
Old “god” resembling today’s Siva, surrounded by animals
Gregory Possehl: Where Is the State?
Absence of palace architecture
No depiction of kings
o No royal burials
Lack of fit w. standard evolutionary models
o Little expressive art/representations of humans/gods/religious
concepts
o Lack of understanding for Harappa’s basis for power/authority
Priest King?
Tiny statue of a bearded man who’s wearing ornaments
Maybe it was related to prayer
Maybe b.c. he’s so plain, it’s related to monastic ideologies
E.g. Humbleness, concealment of extreme emotions, etc.
Mohenjo-Daro
Largest of the Harappan cities at 250 ha
Constructed using baked clay brick
Requires a lot of work
They’re waterproof
Its buildings are platforms that could pass for natural hills
They’re not meant to appear as symbols of power
They’re fairly modest
They’re built, pragmatically, to protect regions from floods
Mohenjo-Daro Plan
2 main sectors:
The “Citadel” to the west
Walled artificial platform
Most buildings excavated in the 20s so not many artifacts recovered
Some buildings seem non-residential
“The Great Bath” was a sign of sophistication; ritual purity
It was very hot so maybe it was used to cool down
There was a lot of work put into it
Looks like a temple, but lacks elements from other temples
E.g. No narratives, images of gods, murals, etc.
The Granary had storerooms for surplus production
Some people think it was a monastery that housed monks
The Stupa was thought to be assoc. w. the Monastery
Now people think its assoc. w. Mohenjo-Daro
The Assembly Hall aka Pillar Hall was an open hall w. columns that may
have supported a roof
There’s too many of them to justify their supporting a roof
Maybe they served a religious function
Harappa 2013-01-08 8:37 AM
- development of forms of political and social organizations is response to
environmental conditions
Incus: don’t really understand these conditions
- many Harappan sites abandoned and brand new settlements founded
closer to flood plains and the rivers
widespread burning of old settlements
suggests… some form of conflict/ warfare
o evidence is overall lacking however
o may be just a sort of ritual process (death and rebirth)
o buffer zones may indicate some conflict between settlements
and shifts in alliances -> w/o it, opens up land for different
opportunities
Lower Town: area East of the Citadel, where most of the population was
rigid planning: one of the first settlements built according to grid
o residential compounds aligned along these streets
visual monotony: walls are the same, completely unadorned
absence of sharp markers of status differences (royal tombs,
temples, palaces)
o suggests there is something unattainable to us
o people were sharing a philosophy of humbleness
Houses:
Variability in house size the only possible indication of any class
difference
Aren’t clear differences in household possessions between large and
small houses
o Don’t even all agree small houses are houses: workshops?
A lot of ritual items w/in houses, even more than Citadel
o Religion and the expression of is an intimate affair
o Not public, performance or gathering
Number of tombs found at Harappa, some variability in funerary goods ->
aren’t very rich/ poor tombs
Many items relate to personal appearance (jewelry, ornaments)
All produced within the city and in country workshops to be traded
away
Some discussion about the identity of the people recovered in burial
o All possess items of personal appearance that could otherwise
be called luxury items
o Analyses suggest the people were very healthy, well-
nourished and have absence of trauma injuries
o Can only be explained by the idea that the sample is limited
to a richer class of people
Poorer people disposed of in other ways?
Just as possible that they are a cross-section of
population
Pyrotechnology
Much of the common people’s work had to do with fire
Lots of developments in pyrotechnology: baking, cooking,
processing things in the kiln (metals- bronze, copper, gold) and
ceramics
o Represent some levels of wealth
o Items traded
Theories that Harappa only developed because of contact w/ Mesopotamia
You’d expect them to share more traits (religious, political)
Harappan writing entirely different than Mesopotamian
Eventually traded w/ one another, but not the cause, just a
circumstance that occurred later
Harappa
Excavated by R. Meadow and J. Kenoyer
Built over an earlier village occupation (ca. 3700)
o Only one not founded on virgin soil
Layout:
Four walled sectors
Mostly residential
Mud bricks, not baked
Distinction between elevated areas and low areas
o Symbolic or useful protection from the floods
o Sheltering important areas (granaries, religious architecture)
Wells:
Technologies to tap into ground water
Canals dug into the ground
Concern with controlling the flow of water
Dholavira
Lower and higher area like Mohenjo-Daro, distinguishing residential
(lower) and non residential areas (higher)
Engineering in Indus cities
Canal systems and drains
Toilets and bathing platforms
o Benefits in terms of hygiene, public health
o Private baths/showers in some houses, sloping towards drain
Many have platforms on top, suggesting water being
poured on top of person
Vertical shaft wells
Proximity to water intake structures may be a form of socio-
economic variability
o Some houses have more elaborate canals, some have wells,
some have none
Water is something that is magical, powerful
o Religion may have to do with worship
Are the cities all semi-autonomous equal states or is Mohenjo-Daro the
capital?
Countryside
Thousands of settlements of various sizes
o Where the food producers lived
o Also housing producers of craft good used for trade
o Some settlements producing single item
Particular bead, object made of bronze, etc..
Cities as meeting and exchange centers of commerce
Specialists sustained by producers in the countryside
Explosion of sites in the valley during urban period
Cities understood to be places where things change hands
o If they were exchange centers, the organization of it is not
well understood
Result: people seem to have been relatively prosperous (agricultural
fertility)
o Manipulation of the landscape provides reliable and gigantic
food resources, allowing others to fund activities of non-food
producers (craft production)
o Distinction b/w wealthy and not is unseen
o Apparent taboos on the expression of immense power/ wealth
Weights and balances are most associated with Harappan sites.
Used to measure quantities
Concern with fairness of exchange/ value of things, standardization
No evidence for currency
What?: bitumen (tar), gems, gold, silver, copper, tin
Standard length: 33.5 cm
Weight categories: 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64
o Common proportion used in India today- 1:16
Quickly transforming the people into business people/ commercial
Seals used with wax or clay to close something
o Very few of the imprints have been found
o Clay/ wax imprints thrown away when the message opened
o May suggest material is moving outwards
A lot of anomalies emerge.
Things we consider to be universal in ancient state societies are
missing
o Often have strong socio-economic distinctions
Social problems decreased because of redistribution
Collapse of Harappan civilization was gradual, non dramatic affair due likely
to platonic uplift that changed the hydrology of the region and rendering it
less productive
Overt links with Indian civilization 1000 years later.
People were born into a socio-economic class (caste system) which
allowed you to do certain things
o Rigidly enforced from the moment you are born
Outward signs of wealth/ justification would be unnecessary
because social identity would not be represented by that
Shang China 2013-01-08 8:37 AM
3rd Milenneum BC: many states that shared traits developing
Shang was centralized, powerful, but more of a group of interrelated states
that were eventually engaged in economic and political relationships.
Longshan culture starts at about 3000 BC: basis out of which Shang state will
develop.
Xia dynasty that follows is the result of mythical figures
o May correspond to the Longshan culture or the Shang dynasty
Every household described as having its own shaman.
Communication with divine forces was unorganized.
Eventually a chief brought order by separating earth and sky (realm
of humans and realm of divine)
o Appropriated right of communication with divine, bringing
order to essential communication
Huanghe (“Yellow”) River-> 6th longest river in the world (5000km)
Crosses several environmental zones
Yellow river b/c floods bring highly nutritious Loess
o Very fine particles found in desert deposits, deposited by wind
o Gives river shade of orange-beige
Variety in irrigation organization depending on rain, topography
Major floods, etc. that disrupt human activity (beneficial +
detrimental)
Suspended river because river bed rises and then dams and levies
do as well. River is higher than surrounding plain.
The delta grows 0.5km/year in distance (40sq. km) out of sediments
People in north relied on milt (cereal crop) for crop; south relied more on rice
Correlation b/w socio-economic inequality and agriculture, but no causation.
Neolithic Yangshao Pottery (mid-5th millennium BC)
First signs of important efforts in craftsmanship and economic
specialization
o Suggesting efforts in creating group of nonfood producers
Will become one of most exquisitely made for the time period
o Fine pastes, fired at high temperatures
o Impact on rest of Chinese history (concern with
craftsmanship); will lead to discovery of metallurgy
o Allows Chinese to control fire and temperatures to develop
Longshan Culture (2700-2000BC)
Establishment of class of elite is linked to supernatural activities
(shamans)
Power is linked to shamanism (ritual) and warfare
o Modes of control; physical and magical
o Development of metallurgy used to produce objects of ritual
and weapons
Sees further sophistication of ceramic technology
Social inequalities in funerary rites, with the discovery of large
variability in the offerings
o One major cemetery excavated has a couple very rich tombs,
about 80 mid-level, then 600 that have no offerings and just a
body
Characterized by specific artifact: disc made out of jade
o Amulets, used in some kind of ritual?
o Exclusive possessions of the ruling class
Signs of violence, evidence that people died in violent events
o Warfare, sacrifice, burial pits
o Means of control of population, whether brutal strength or
magical strength
Advances in wall construction and fortification
o Layers of dried mud stacked
o Range from a couple of meters think to 18 meters
o Very safe and secure
o Much of the Great Wall of China built of this method
Development of what appears to be origins of writing
o “maker’s marks” inscriptions on pottery
identify the potter? Something else?
Sequences of symbols that seem to have a meaning
Inscribed on pottery before fired, doesn’t scratch
Sima Qian: 1st Century BC Historian
Describes Xia dynasty as founder of Dynastic China
Destruction of most historical texts by the Han dynasty and re-
writing of history
Shang Dynasty: emerges out of period of several hundred years of intense
conflict, with localized groups involved in war and systematic aggression.
Consolidation of the State
o Better studied, overrepresented (i.e probably existed
alongside other states)
o Highly influential among neighbors
Peripheral leaders become more important -> development of a
network of elites into something that looks like centralized state
Bronze became more important than Jade
o When number of elite increased, needed something that could
be produced more easily
Trade and exchange
o For: copper (enormous demand), tin, horses, jade, gold
(somewhat rare)
All elite items
o Currency: cowrie shells
Shang Urbanism at An-Yang
Dimension: 24km2
Population: less than 10 000
Possibly one major city among network of many
Fortified
Very non-densely organized; islands of populations linked by roads,
canals, etc.
Specialized workshops
Burials inside and outside
Development of new institution described as a temple palace
o Appears to be residence of a royal and his court
o Seat of ritual/ceremonial life
New pattern because everything is concealed w/in elite precinct
Palaces very modest
o emphasis of efforts and works not focused on the palace
o foundations: emphasis on privacy (visibility non existent) ->
not meant to be witnessed by people
shrouds it with mystery
emphasis on roofs
one room houses made of perishable material
horses and horse-drawn carriages later adopted as strategic
advantage
spiritual practice: draw symbols on breastbone, heat it up and
interpret the cracks
o used in trade or ground and used as medicine
o thought to have magical powers
o very common, elite shaman engaged in the practice very
intensively
Writing/ Scapulomancy
Oracles, diving practices
Reserved to nobility, communicating with ancestors
Used in various contexts
Sacrificial ceremonies
Predicting weather
Deciding time of harvest
Solving military conflicts
Guiding the king in his private affairs
Providing magical protection for the king
2013-01-08 8:37 AM
Peasants were probably allowed to cultivate land, even though the land
belonged to the upper class
Similar to Medieval Europe
At the center of the system would have been a king
Chinese empires always identify w. one strong ruler
There are some royal tombs
Composed of deep pits w. a burial chamber + offerings
Always accompanied by human sacrifices
Later on, sacrifices were replaced by items that would accompany
the royal to the afterlife
Increasing importance of horses + chariots
They were imported
Everything assoc. w. the elite weren’t local
Acquired the goods through contact/trade w. the West
Zhou elites/kings, unlike the Sheng, could not monopolize the manufacturing
of bronze, tin, or copper
It was present in their environment
Towards the end of the Dynasty, the Zhou became more powerful
o Partially due to invention of iron
Main Points
Shang elite monopoly of Bronze technology
Monopoly of weapons, chariots, and objects of cult
Monopoly of physical and supernatural violence
The Shang State
Based on hereditary dynasty
Weak, decentralized bureaucracy
Based on coercion
Various regional traditions
Hermetic social classes
Decline of the Shang
After the Zhou conquer the Shang from the West (1027 BC), there’s
more continuity in political structure btwn the villages
Internal conflict
Decentralization
“Debauchery and immorality”
Reunification of China by armies of Ch’in Shih Huang-ti (221 BC)
This becomes the Qin Empire
Ch’in Shih Huang-ti
China’s first Emperor, responsible for the reunification of the various
(seven) kingdoms
New code of laws
New system of weights and measures
Networks of roads and canals
Standardization of writing
Taxation relative to status and wealth
Terracotta (Fired Clay) Warriors
They’re all unique (8000 of them)
Possibly based on individuals
o Infantry, cavalry
Huang-ti created this tradition to cease human sacrifice in the
context of human burials
When he was buried, he was accompanied by Terracotta Warriors
While the 7 kingdoms fought, they lost a lot of people
Decrease in pop. = less productivity
It taught the Chinese the value of human life
o Therefore, they didn’t continue their sacrifices
o Moreover, the pop. of China had decreased so much that they
couldn’t afford sacrifices
o Maybe the Chinese believed in sacrifice (b.c. they knew they
had to be loyal to their master) but didn’t actually like
sacrifice (they didn’t want to die)
They were 6’ tall and 600 lbs each
Midterm Review 2013-01-08 8:37 AM
- Cities are instrumental to something else: gathering of people sharing
a certain project -> often construction or worship of something.
- Monumentality is less important in Indus than in other civilizations.
- Taxation is generalized except in the Indus, where it is not clearly
expressed. No good grasp of economic system except that it’s based on
craft.
- Notion of math, science and astronomy is imprecise but some
variations are being found.
- New political order -> how much of a new revelation is it? How much of
a continuity of the old is it?
- How much of power is based on three components of political power?
Ideological, Military, Economic
Mesopotamia appears to have fairly delicate balance of the 3
o Military = reliance on or threat of force; how much are people
compelled to participate in state project by force
Egypt: was it is unified, if you’re living on the Nile, you’re pretty
much involved in state project
o Justification of power of the Pharaoh is ideological
Indus appears to be mostly economic
o Can be seen as state that exists solely because of contact
with another state
o Very few parallels with Mesopotamia, such as writing
Asking you to talk about settlements in 4-5 lines.
No specific dates.
Chinese Urbanism: central precinct, fortifications, no monumental structures,
sparsely populated, network of towns and villages linked by causeways,
canals, paths.
Components of Social power: ideological, military, economic
Collapse of Sumer: conquest of Acadian empire
Seems like Sumerian state was shaken somehow, Acadian state
took advantage
Gertrude Bell: one of pioneers of Mesopotamian archaeology
Mesopotamian area was so fertile that agriculture was an earlier form of
cultural evolutionism, where given the right circumstances, civilization will
emerge.
Tiwanaku: semi-subterranean temple had steeley that represented myths;
people compelled centers all around the region to house sacred objects at
Tiwanaku -> involved in processions, ceremonies of mythical subjects/
sacred ancestors
At the height of Tiwanaku expression, nature of steeley change to
represent actual people (political characters) with real clothing and
headdress, holding snuff tablet for drugs and drinking mug for beer
Way state portrays itself is critical for understanding the state
(changes from mythical curator to provider/ wealthy nurturer
Neolithic refers to wherever and whenever agriculture is present.
Edward Tyler and 19th C. Evolutionism: Western lifestyle is superior to all
others, which are all resorting to a primitive state of humanity (racist)
Nakata: equivalent of the Long Shang for China: moment in which
populations are engaged in activities that position them on the road to
statehood
Politically a time period where things change very quickly (big
tombs, mummification for kings, grave offerings)
Prehistoric, no written texts (only based on archaeology)
Presence in Upper Egypt of interrelated kingdoms that may be
fighting
Initial formation of kingdoms and transformation of them into larger
and larger states
Ur-Nammu: powerful king is Mesopotamia
Meskell’s arguments: just 4-5 lines about it
Presents a case about the presence of certain furniture in certain
houses that she projects to be associated with gendered space
(man’s room and woman’s room). Certain types of furniture and the
association of certain gods
Problems with Egyptian archaeology: flooding- flooded areas constantly
flooded and whatever existed is under several hundred meters of silt, and
not much was made out of stone. What we have found is all stone, so our
view of Egyptian life is skewed in accordance with the stone artifacts. Areas
that are repeatedly occupied are on the banks of the Nile where flooding
could not occur
Mesoamerica 2013-01-08 8:37 AM
Americas were populated much later; somewhere in the past 15-13 000
years.
Theory: land bridge to cross over from Asia
Theory: been only 3 waves of populations coming to America
o Ultimately all descendants from this
Little data indicating Mesoamerican and the Andes had any direct
contact at all; some through intermediary populations
o E.g. cultivation of corn developed in Mesoamerica and spread
to the Andes
o Similar characteristics in belief that can be traced back to
initial populations of the Americas
Tenochititlan
One of the most fascinating populations: relatively early, main
urban component well preserved; not destroyed by later
occupations
Aztec developed few decades to a century before Spanish
inquisition
o Told the Spanish about the Teotihuacan
Tenochititlan, The Aztec Capital
Hernan Cortez discovered it (1519), confirmed rumours of a
powerful king
Weird city with temples, pyramids
On a marsh, man-made island
One of cleanest, most sophisticated cities at the time
Practicing things that seem outlandish to us
o Known for human sacrifice (true, but may have been over
emphasized by the Spaniards)
Called themselves Mehica
Mythical story of creation is that they were from elsewhere
(probably northwest); migrants, being pushed around
Through war, political strategies, etc, formed central Mexico
civilization
o Prophet told them to settle where they’d see an eagle with a
snake in his mouth land on a cactus
Other Mesoamerican Societies (e.g. Aztec and Maya)
Environmental mosaic contributing to different characteristics of the
civilizations
Teotihuacan ca. 250 BC- 750 AD, Highland Mexico
Model of urbanism not found elsewhere; giant city with essentially
no other sites (not constellation of settlements)
o 90% of population concentrated w/in city
capacity to grow things isn’t most dominant, it’s proximity to places
second largest city ever in the new world, outranked only by
Tenochititlan
o probably housed around 100 000 people, perhaps more
pyramids of the sun and moon in the center, the rest residential,
etc.
very densely packed
Basin of Mexico (~2500masl)
Most cities we’ve seen are centered around a river; Mesoamerica
doesn’t have very many large rivers
High elevation, around a vestigial lake (Lake Texicoco, which has
now been drained out)
Large parts have been destroyed by modern occupations
Volcanically active area; possible that development of Teotihuacan
owes its founding to volcanic eruptions
At time of founding, existed amongst other settlements, existing
with forms of shaman or authority
o Most sites destroyed around 200BC by eruption
Mountains are prominent features of the landscape, considered
important and powerful
o Source of water (source of life, weather phenomenon)
Sources of Information
Ancient Texts
o Don’t know what language they spoke; did not employ writing
system
Survey
o Started in the 60s, revealed extent of city through systematic
surface collection
o Projects lasted 10-12 years
Excavations
Still ongoing
Art History
o Many images coming from murals within temples and houses
o Stone carvings on temple facades
History of Research
Initiated by Mexican government in 1905
o Before then, not much interest because was in pretty bad
shape and not historically documented
o Reconstruction of some of the main buildings started
Relationship b/w pyramids and surrounding mountains- act as
replicas symbolizing earthly forces
Survey of the Basin of Mexico 1960-75 (Sanders, Parsons, Santley)
o Time when this methodology was still new
o Were able to reconstruct settlement patterns and recognize
rise to prominence
Teotihuacan Mapping Project 1960-1973 (Rene Milton and others)
o Only map that is ever used
o Goals: to determine size of site, its internal organization,
location of architecture, chronology of growth, estimating
population
Apartment Complexes
City organized in a grid
Complexes organized around small patios
Probably housed related families, cooperating economically in
something (crafts)
Milton’s Perspective: Order and Elite Authority
What compelled people to take part in this project?
o Cowgill weighs the pros and cons of living in the city
o Pros: physical protection and supernatural protection
o Cons: health issues, coerced labour/ taxation
o People have accepted to be involved in this state project
Giant city and that’s about it, no intense presence in the
entire region or other places
Rumours: for so many people to come together, there must have
been some coercive power (need emphasized by Milton)
o Physical remains suggest stress but no trauma
o No fortifications, etc
o Building pyramids must have been result of coerced force
Someone insisted for 100 000 people to be involved in building
exactly these orientations (built around exact angles)
o Implies authoritarian regime
o Roads are slightly off, not precisely aligned
o Could be commonly shared belief about astronomical
alignment or alignment with geographical feature
Cowgill’s Alternative View: the carrot vs the stick
As it rises in prominence and recognition, large number of people
seeking to participate/ take part in massive constructions
Some people weren’t even from the basin
o Could’ve been merchants, diplomats
Not clear if this was a bustling metropolis; fairly unexpressive about
these kinds of things (unlike Teochititlan)
o May have been a draw for people in terms of lifestyle/
excitement
Teotihuacan as Ritual Center & “Axis Mundi” (Ester Paztory +
George Cowgill)
Emphasis that ceremonial center is actual representation of the
cosmos
o Pyramids echo shapes of the landscape, suggesting
something significant
Organization of center around main north/south axis (now referred
to as the “Street of the Dead”)
o Pyramid of moon at one extremity, pyramid of the sun off to
the side, a lot of architecture/ palaces
River running through the area was manipulated and rendered
artificial
o Very straight line, very sharp 90 degree bend in course
Talud-Tablero Architecture
Facades often decorated with sculpture
o Evidence some were painting
o Assume to display religious themes
Aspect of performance to whatever was taking place
2013-01-08 8:37 AM
Whole population of basin of Mexico coalesced within one center.
Reason unclear
No evidence that it’s a defense mechanism (no fortifications)
No evidence that allows for economic process of centralization (lack
of state storage structures that would indicate distribution of goods)
Replica of the cosmos of the world?
Cowgill: rigid orientation of the buildings that appear to be 90 degree grid,
but aren’t (91.5?)
Suggests very strong authoritative component
Pyramid of the Moon
Female deity found in iconography suggesting water (source of
prosperity, wealth, nutrition presented in religious dogma)
o Cleft in headdress recalls indentation on the mountain
associated with the Pyramid
Link between the landscape and the city
o Hands held out to “bring out moisture”
Association between life, water and mountains common theme
Mountains are a powerful icon (link to pyramid more obvious)
o Bring water, etc.
o Bad: volcanoes cut some lives short
Pyramid of the Sun
Smaller pyramid
Found in the base: a network of natural caves that have been
modified and enhanced by people in history
o Divided in 4 clover-like chambers
Can be identified as place of creation of humans
Teotihuacan Creation myth?
Iconography of humans pouring out of the mountain
Line drawing of mythic cave and sacred mountain has humans
pouring out clover-shaped womb
Ciudadela & the Temple of Quetzacoatl (Feathered Serpent)
Could be residence of some important people
Aligned just off the right angle
Gigantic in size (400m)
Feathered Serpent represented on the façade of the Pyramid of
Quetzacoatl
o Hallucinogenic drugs heighten importance of religious events
Tlatoc (Rain/Storm God): also war god
o Worship suggests that war or some level of ritual violence
might have had importance for Teotihuacan state
Ambiguous relationship with forces of nature
Teotihuacan is an early phenomenon: didn’t last the entire time
Destruction of the Citadel was the overthrow of maybe
oppressive/violent rulers and a change in regime
Burials or Sacrifices inside Temple
Over 230 burials found so far, most had hands tied, suggesting they
might have been prisoners
o Were almost certainly sacrificed
No evidence that there could have been a royal burial
Found fairly gruesome body ornaments in which sacrificed
individuals are wearing necklaces made of human teeth and human
jaws
o Not sure if they’re from Teotihuacan or are sacrificed enemies
Residential Areas
Excavations have taken place to assess population, distribution of
wealth
Zacuala Apartment Compound
o If you reconstruct circulation patterns, identify units based on
doors and walls, they’re all divided in discrete living areas
opening onto a central patio
o No consistency in number of or location of entrances
o Suggest discrete living groups associated somehow
o Craft specialists making ceramics, stone tools (maybe shared)
Presence of murals everywhere in apartment compounds; some
people were probably specialized in painting them
Variations present but: all roughly quadrangular, associated with
precise alignment; all have residential spaces that are united by
common patios
Oztoyahualco Complex (by Linda Manzanilla 1985-88)
Build probably with some kind of state supervision
Essentially occupied for hundreds of years without substantial
modifications
o Suggests continuity in occupation
o Same families from generation to generation:
Ancestor Veneration:
indicated by presence of burials within compounds, some alters (of
mummies? Deceased ancestor?)
Teotihuacan Funerary Masks
o Supposedly attached onto mummied bundles
Incensarios (Sencers) in which incense would be burned, suggesting
level of ritual religious process
o One of the things massed produced by specialists
Sense of prosperity that emerges from looking at residential complexes, that
may have helped convince people to take part
Sense of active economic life
Not really sure where the wealth was coming from
o Who were the food producers? Where were the agricultural
complexes?
Possible they were travelling to satellite communities/ camps for the
purpose of agriculture
o Camps later destroyed
o Would explain how agricultural surplus produced
Central Authority of Egaliatian Utopia
Size of monumental architecture testifies that someone is calling
the shots: someone is responsible for religious life, protecting, etc.
o No clear sense of whether it’s a group of priests of some kind,
a committee, king and/or queen
o Mainly Mexican scholars and saying this is a model of society
that hasn’t been produced elsewhere
No such thing as a poor, wretched person from Teotihuacan
Effective distribution of wealth + resources w/in the society
Teotihuacan is distinct from other settlements in the area
Maya very autocratic, dominated by elite
Teotihuacan had regional influence:
There were immigrants there, people coming from elsewhere
Neighbourhoods associated with certain network groups that were
non-local, possibly engaged in commerce
Engaged in contact with Maya (who wrote about Teotihuacan)
Almost certainly some level of coercion
Element of military might, physical violence expressed outwards but
also possibly inwards where threat of sacrifice always present
Relationship b/w P of Moon and the mountains and relationship b/w P of Sun
and the caves, all suggest that the legitimization of the place was religious.
Cuzco- Capital of the Inka Empire 2013-01-08 8:37 AM
(TAHUNTINSUYU 1400-1532)
Inka best known of Andean civilizations b/c of contact w/ Spanish, but exist
at the end of millennia of cilivizations.
Existed an empire for 75 years
By the time Spanish showed up, two brothers claiming the throne,
in the midst of a civil war
The word Inca refers to the Royal families of the empire who resided in
Cuzco.
Tahuntinsuyu= the realm of the four quarters
o The “tin” suggests the parts are inextricably linked. None of
the parts is something without the other.
Cuzco = naval (belly button of the empire)
The Inca are a highland phenomena
Capital is 3400m above sea level
Conquered places in Chile, Ecuador, Southern forests of the Amazon
Patchwork of very very diverse people
o 7 million people, many linguistic groups
o talent: integrating everyone into political and economic
system
Cuzco as exemplary centre
Cosmogram
Social and political map
Ritual center
History and myth
Imperial city
According to some, meant to resemble a puma or jaguar
Not meant for centralization of goods, important administrative
center
o Becomes that by necessity
o Initially founded as ritual place of ceremonies and residence
of royalty
Not a fortified city
Archaeology in the city never existed; has been continually
occupied
o Everything there is original
Most elaborate masonry reserved for most important structures
Many buildings at the time of the Spanish conquest would have
been covered in gold
Quipu
Notation device used for administration, biographies, history, etc.
A recording/ coding device; Inca never left writing
Guaman Poma de Ayala wrote a letter to the King saying the the
Spanish were destroying the civilization; he tells the mythical
history of the Inca, as well as an exposition of the politics,
economic, religion, etc of the empire.
Inka Agriculture
Many technologies had been pre-established; the expanded on
terracing systems
o Extensive, massive agricultural complexes characterized by
elaborate systems of terraces allowing for irrigation of parcels
of land
o Allows agricultural growth to extend later in the season
o Raises altitude where agriculture is possible to maximize the
growth
o Walls of stone absorb heat during the day, release it at night -
> delays the first frost
Sapa Inka = Unique Sovereign
Considered divine, the son of the Sun
Existed before the Inka became an empire
Likely the early kings were chieftains of small, modest tribe
centered in Cuzco; messy political system with lots of fighting/
alliances
o One group, through violence, strategy, started incorporating
their neighbours
Manco Capac = first (maybe mythical) founder of the lineage of
Kings
o Born out of divine creation and responsible for founding Cuzco
o Priest told him that wherever his staff would sink into the
ground, that’s where he should found the city
o Rivers were channeled in order to build the city
Pachacuti = hero of the Inka, responsible for turning the local group
into an Empire, first conquests
o Changed the religion, defined the architectural style
o Conquered the Titicaca basin
o Rumoured to have showed up at Tiwanaku and deduced from
the giant stelae that they were a race of giant humans;
impressed by the find masonry, tried to emulate that
Pre-Pachacuti state formation was a chaotic and unstable mix of:
Alliance-building based on traditional reciprocal relationships and
strategic marriages
Intimidation
Isolation of rivals
Creation of wealth by reclaiming and developing former buffer
zones
o Pre-Inka area tense with rivalries
o When Inka controlled zones, wealth of entire empire increased
Creation of Prestige (i.e. popularity contest) attracting further allies
Pachacuti’s impact
Transformed petty tribe into a State
Formalized inheritance laws along royal lineages (panaqas, royal
kinship groups)- split inheritance
o When an Inka dies, he has an heir that inherits his
office/throne, but doesn’t inherit the wealth/land. No longer
part of the panaqa kinship group of his father, is removed and
becomes founder of new group for whom he must gather
wealth
o When Spanish arrive, mummies treated as if they were alive;
massive wealth used to parade them around, etc.
Rebuilds Cuzco into royal city
Reorganizes Cuzco valley
Establishes state religion
Made allies Inkas by privilege
o Allies that aren’t related to you, aren’t royals, that still
deserved status
o Shared rights, wealth of royals without coming from royal
kinship group
Credited with instating Mit’a labor tax
Link to Tiwanaku
Sometimes seen as a place of creation
Rio Huatanay & Rio Tullumayo
Camay- animating force associated with flowing water
o Constant transition from one thing to another
o Repetition through the water cycle
o Fundamental power that the Inka have (channeling rivers) and
control of the force
Tinku- meeting point of two opposed things
o Two rivers flowing together
o Distinct yet coming together in single being may be related to
sexual reproduction
Cuzco, cont’d 2013-01-08 8:37 AM
Once Pachacuti solidified valley of Cuzco and appointed himself emperor, he
ended the wars/ battles with enemies by defeating all the enemies, chasing
them back home, and destroying their homes.
Provided Pachacuti with a lot of new territory
Began the Inca organization of colonization
Reforms Pachacuti enacted
Establishment of asymmetrical marriage alliances with allies
o Increasing amount of labor tribute available
o Bride would change locations/hometowns
o City increasingly populated by rich/powerful exclusively
Development of new agricultural lands, prestige = immigration into
the Cuzco valley
o Undercutting of the authority of other local leaders
o Attractive option to neighbouring groups
Weak neighbors may accept subaltern position of
actually seek patronage from the emerging power
Temptation of becoming inkas by privilege
Panaqa = Royal Lineage (ayllu); split inheritance
Basic form of Andean civilization
Always exist in pairs
Averaging 1500 people per kinship group
Organizes economic relationships, marriage, rituals, etc.
All communities are organized within the principle of paired ayllus
Conceptualized in terms of upper and lower
o Tends to invoke hierarchy, but very subtle
If member of upper ayllu in a geographic area, may have familial
relationship with someone else in another village
Cuzco organized as Hanan (Upper Cuzco) and Hurin (Lower Cuzco)
Population of Cuzco
Sacred precinct b/w the 2 rivers: Panaqa members (royals)
Ultimate activity to maintain mummy cults of past kings
Elsewhere:
o Non-royal inka (“by privilege”), incl. allies of early kings
o Retainers (“Yanacona”)
o Mitimae (labourers, living part-time near Cuzco)
Would encourage noble sons of conquered villages to come to
Cuzco
Rearranging populations around the realm to avoid conflicts, break
social cohesion, distribute populations in a more efficient way
agriculturally
Huacaypata and Cusipata
Opposite plazas, still exist today
Huacaypata: in upper cuzco
Seat of many ritual ceremonies
Many palaces nearby (every inca built and occupied his own palace)
Meeting halls (kallankas)
Ushnus (throne/altar)… symbolic reminder of the Sapa Inca’s
presence
Astronomical towers
Where phenomenal wealth was generated
Foreign Huacas (sacred objects), displayed
o Appropriated Huacas from conquered peoples (hostage
situation?)
o Similar to what Tiwanaku was doing
Cusipata: in lower Cuzco
Smaller, not as much going on
Saved for future palaces?
Palaces of mythical first kings
Korikancha was in Lower Cuzco (Golden Enclosure)
o Place of foundation, temple of the Sun
o Center of the center of the universe
o Curved, semicircular outer wall
o Elegant mix of Inca architecture and Spanish
o Garden: idealized reproduction of the world as conceived by
the Inca; included most known plants, animals, landscape
forms, mountains, canals in small scale reproduction
All made of gold and silver
Cuzco Stonework
Each stonecutter tries to demonstrate their talent in their work
Try to outdo previous stonecutters
Each emperor had a different taste in stonecutting
Inka King and Queen initiate the agricultural season
Would ritually plant the first stock
Sacsayhuaman (head of the puma)
Fortress that dominates the city of Cuzco
Spanish impressed by quality of masonry
Taxed people with labour; 4 months out of the year, people worked
for the Inka.
o Moved palace stone by stone and had it reassembled in Kito,
say Spanish
o Once they institutionalized the fact that people had to work
for them, they had significant manpower
Cuzco as Imperial Capital
Marking difference
Tension b/w inclusion and exclusion
o Wasn’t fortified, yet wasn’t accessible; not easily entered
o Ritual of covering streets of Cuzco with very fine sand; would
be ritually cleaning the sand out of the streets, and cleaning
themselves out of the city as well; reminder you’re not
allowed in the city
Inka Ritual
Military processions
Muru Urco Muru (scarf)
Situa (sweeping out the sickness)
Ceque (line) System of Cuzco
Divided into radial pattern/ sectors
Idea is structured around the landscape of the realm surrounding
Cuzco
Series of imaginary lines connecting the Korikancha with the huacas
(shrines)
o 328 huacas in total, each belonging to single Ceque
o broad category of sacred objects that can be a variety of
things; very often are different or odd
contrasting, weird shape or colour
heightened the odd qualities through modification
The basics:
o 328 huacas
o 40 ceques
o 3-15 huacas/ceque
o Coricancha origin point
o 3-5km in length
o system divided into 4 parts, or suyus: Antisuyu (9), Cuntisuyu
(15), Chinchaysuyu (9), Collasuyu (9)
each huaca was the responsibility of a certain kinship group
o involved taking care of it: various rituals, offerings, decorating
(gold etc., poured beer over them)
parallels drawn between the radial pattern and the Khipu
Huacas not just sacred things, have a history
o Many have to do with history of foundation of Cuzco/ journey
of primordial family from place of creation
o Events commemorated by Huacas
Agricultural Landscape (irrigation districts)
Huacas mark agricultural districts
Water is limited, allocation is a potential source of conflict
o Ceque system established certain structure helps distribute
Bones of Contention
Did the Ceque system ever change?
o Has it maintained the same social organization?
o Were some huacas decommissioned?
Were the Ceque lines really straight?
o Not entirely
Each successive Inka gained revenue through royal estates (Urubamba
valley).
Were architecturally elaborate, established in aesthetically
appealing places
Autonomous microcosm of society
Best example: Machu Picchu
People working there would be set apart, exempt from normal
taxation
Everything produced was for the exclusive use of the Inka
Many of these estates were Pachacuti’s, some are his successors
Landscape architecture: fascination with landscape forms, not straight lines
Didn’t try to conquer the landscape, but played with it/ enhanced it
Capacocha: Child sacrifices
Inkas relied on force and diplomacy for conquest; diplomacy was
always accompanied by 50 000 men over the hill
o Violent intervention was sometimes necessary
Sacred women: Cuzco and other Inka sites had nunneries
o Most beautiful women would be taken from families and
would become symbolic wives of the Inka (was a privilege)
o Mostly creating textiles, brewing beer
o Sometimes, the women were sacrificed
Beautifully preserved children’s bodies found on high mountain tops
o Likely a fairly infrequent event; seen as a last resort/ extreme
Things not going well in the empire before Spanish showed up.
Maybe emperors were desperate, went to extremes of sacrifice.
“Juanita”: The Ice Maiden
Wari Urbanism in Prehispanic Peru 2013-01-08 8:37 AM
What was Wari?
city built in central Andean highlands in Peru (city spelled Huari)
grew to control and influence entire Ayachucho basin (state)
became an empire, established administration centers and colonies
The emergence of Huari Urbanism
Ayacucho = 3000m above sea level, extreme temperatures, dry
Only rains about 3 months/year, agriculture difficult
o Potatoes formed a lot of diet
Used camelids
Huari Urbanism (ad 400-600)
Consisted of residential areas, temples, walled streets
very distinct style of architecture had not yet emerged
o both circular and rectangular buildings
o square shaped semi-subterranean temple
o large and well-built walls
Early Wari Society
Canals had been dug connecting to rooms, etc.
Rural faming communities in countryside
o Proximity to springs
Elites in large towns
o Religious/ceremonial importance
o Not producing own food
Nawinpukyo dominant because of religious knowledge
o Plaza was restricted local accessible only to certain elites
o Number of ceremonies and rituals would have occurred
o Circular temple for offerings, “smashings”
Emergence of architecture designed to control how people are
moving around
Agriculture and subsistence
o Advanced agricultural technology
o 5 times more land productive
o people living w/in river valleys have difficulty farming b/c of
steep slope
erosion, soil washed away
o terracing: established much more useable surfaces
terraced differently depending on slope
o irrigation canals and reservoirs
transported water to areas that did not have springs
plaster lining made them impermeable
still series of small cities and communities
combined importance of Huari and Conchopata set Nawinpukyo
aside (becomes gradually abandoned)
o Huari grows to become capital
o Conchopata becomes thriving urban center, producing pottery
Many elite administrators and artisans
Important ceremonial site
The Wari State- organization in the heartland (AD 600-750)
At this point, the city would have been occupied entirely.
Construction of number of sectors of the site
Engineering and access to resources
Rectilinear architecture, “orthogonal”
Series of corridors, hallways attached to patios/rooms/nooks
How fully it constricts and controls movement of people
Liked to limit who could enter spaces
Contrasts with Tiwanaku (open, designed to bring in many people)
Cheqo Wasi sectors consist almost entirely of subterranean
tunnels/pits
o Likely used for ceremonial activities
o Tombs likely burial grounds of high status elites
Moraduchayuq sector was residential
o Like high-level barracks
o Plaster floors suggesting nice finishing
Vegachayoq Moqo: ceremonial zone w/in the city
o Temple exemplifying “D-shaped” structure; big plaza with
single doorway
Would have been where rituals and ceremonies occur
Conchopata
Large area of elite residents
Sister-city to Huari (main civic center)
See “smashings” occurring in D-shaped temples
Cemetery and trophy head caches for burials in D-shaped temples
o Some evidence trophy heads taken from living individuals, but
most from already deceased or buried
o Holes placed in type of head to put a cord through so that
they could be used
Elite Wari Culture
Textiles very elaborate; tunics made of wool, sometimes imported
cotton
o Tunics and hats made of feathers
Mortuary practices very distinctive
o Almost always square, adobe/stone lined pits
o Often very elaborate goods (pottery, textiles)
o Given face masks, sometimes jewelry
Agriculture and Subsistence
Hunting and herding
City of Huari completely lacks natural water -> reliant on people
living in countryside
o Even more irrigation canals and reservoirs; pushing the
boundaries of what was possible
The Wari Empire- motivations and modes of expansion (AD 750-
1000)
City of Huari; went from state centered in Ayocucho to state
established with colonies throughout the Andes
Motivations for Expansion:
Agricultural resources
Populations exploded over what the countryside could support
Desire for more objects because of more elite (resource extraction)
o Cotton, allows for more finely woven textiles
The sacred landscape and shrines
o Sees natural features as being very ritually powerfully
o Rather than extracting textiles, was trying to extract esoteric
power
In reality, probably combination of all these
Modes of Expansion:
The “mosaic of control”; recognized not everyone is the same, and
adapted strategies of imperialism to local contexts
o Cerro Baul, far southern colony w/in Tiwanaku territory
Site directly on top of mesa
Series of residential areas, ceremonial zones
Everything had to be brought up (water, etc)
Essentially a “prehispanic embassy”
Elite residences and palace
Brewery: Chicha (Maize) beer, ceremonial drink
Plazas for feasts w/ 2 D-shaped temples
o Pikillacta: Diplomatic control and resource extraction
Located in Cuzco valley
Incredibly large
Housed seasonal work groups who came
Violence and Wari warrior culture
o Geochemical analysis indicates that some trophy heads are
not local; died in battle
o Human remains suggest violence
o Force not primary coercive element in Wari imperialism, but
still present
Conclusions
Importance of natural resources
o resources played key role in emergence of elites and
expansion
Importance of sacred landscape and ritual practices
o Ideologies associated with pottery, mortuary practices, trophy
heads
o Looking at something that is the result of a number of factors
Cahokia 2013-01-08 8:37 AM
Wari architecture models the natural forms (mountains, etc…)
Pikyata is just a few kilometers from Cuzco
Dissemination of Imperial ideology through aesthetics?
Disregard for natural landscape
Pikillacta a show of brute strength?
Are Wari the ancestors of the Chanka (the traditional enemy of the
Inka?) -> collapsed remnants of the Wari
Inka seek their own place of origins around Lake Titicaca area.
Perhaps this could be the local remnants of a Tiwanaku
empire/state
Wars that make Inka emerge as conquering empire would be one
manifestation of long lasting cycle of growth and centralization/
decentralization that roots to Wari and Tiwanaku.
Wari textiles were completely patterned, usually with a small error
Makes were extremely skilled, wouldn’t have made this error w/o
purpose
Hypothesis that Pikillacta represents a conquered land with
aesthetics that represents power and replicates the textiles
As long as the Wari empire was there, they would have kept people
working on projects
CAHOKIA- (AD 600-1400)
During 11th century grew from fairly modest settlement to dominate whole
center of the North American continent
Est. population of 10-15 000 people in what is now St. Louis
Not innovative other than for its size and some practices.
Mound builders of North America
o Yearly rituals, etc.
o Groups collaborated on a project then went separate ways
o Not single projects, were built up over centuries
o Poverty Point, LA ca 2200BC- AD 700
o Serpent Mound, OH, ca 800BC-AD 100
Mississippian Culture characterized by large settlements continues to employ
this activity of mound building.
Mounds are networks w/ ceremonial center in the middle
Build up in ceremonial sense probably yearly
Characteristic of Cahokia: not densely populated.
Walking through, settlements go from more densely populated to
increasingly less dense
Southeastern Ceremonial Complex (SECC)
Shared a lot with Mesopotamia
May be able to trace its origins to trade relations w/ Mesoamerica
Iconographic influence and concepts of religion, wealth and politics
Possible that a merchant of Mississippian explorer went along coast
of Mesoamerica and traded/ had relationship
Assumed that Mississippian and Cahokian states developed with
little or not contribution from Mesoamerica
SECC pottery
Involved a lot of participation
Some form of taxation or contribution of material; in return got the
experience, sort of religious entitlement, pottery to bring home
(symbolized privileged participation)
o Desire to achieve status once others did encouraged people
to participate
SECC Ceramic and Stone Effigies
Chunkey Game
Sport practiced in semi-ceremonial way
Pitting kinship groups against one another for prestige, wealth
Round stones w/ hole in middle that are rolled across field of some
kind while players try to javelin at it
Served as social lubricant by settling conflicts
Stones being found in burials across Mississippian area
After 1050AD, something happened that allowed Cahokia to rise to
prominence-> what causes this kind of social change?
Mounds and Early American Archaeology
When Europeans came, there was a lot of questioning as to who
made them, when, etc
First systematic excavation of a mound was done by Thomas
Jefferson in Virginia, 1784
o To answer questions of what they were used for and how they
were built (discovered: built over long period of time)
Early interpretations:
o Built by the lost tribe of Israel
o The Egyptians
o Atlantis
o The “Toltecs”; Mesoamerican people
o Vikings?
o Everything but Native Americans
Greater Cahokia and the “American Bottom”
Composed of very large floodplains
o Composed of rich soil resulting from the Mississippi River
changing courses over time
Distinctions in fertility and agricultural potential
St. Louis Mound Group
Because of freeway construction, the area was excavated extremely
quickly; artifacts were saved, but little of the mounds remain
17th-18th century: French monastery had monks living on a mound,
now called Monk’s Mound
o KKK used it in rallies
Mid-20th Century Cahokia
Haphazard urban sprawl processes; drive-in theatre, 1930s housing
development
Questions
Is it a state or is it a chiefdom?
Is it a ceremonial center?
o has elements of the exemplary center/cosmogram as city
planning; very rigid orientation of all buildings except one
o large plaza, chunkey fields, mounds
Is it a form of new/different kind of social formation?
Lohman Period (AD 1050-1100)
Emergence of Cahokia as an important center
Period of political and regional consolidation
Settlement patterns suggest a reorganization at the regional level
Moving of entire villages, abandonment of others
o Perhaps due to accommodate increased food production
No indication of agriculture prominence/development
o no evidence of significant irrigation, use of fertilizers
o agricultural practices are the same, no changes, but probably
larger areas of land
Stirling Period (AD 1150-1200)
Peak of Cahokia
Period of greatest influence (both politically and culturally)
Site measures approximately 8 square km
At least 120 earthworks (mounds)
Of these, 80 survive, 50 have been excavated
Ancient population estimated 10-15 000 people
Plan of Central Cahokia
Ceremonial importance suggested by rigid orientation of mounds and houses
Seems to have been requirement of some kind
Change in house construction
Regarded as being very solid, iron clad (doesn’t change easily);
these changes indicate profound change
May have something to do with requirements of
orientation/intersession of specialist
Units organized around plaza, pole, mound. These units organized around
larger plaza, larger pole, larger mound….
Nested sort of series of memberships
What is it that happened that made Cahokia more important?
We don’t know, no definitive answer (but can dismiss some)
Suddenly clear that those in charge were good at something
(religious actions, contact w/ supernatural)
Interesting timing, needs trigger: “Big Bang Theory”, AD 1050
Statement that aligned w/ Haley’s Comet in 1066?
2013-01-08 8:37 AM
Massive concentration of population within Cahokia itself, reorganization of
population in the area (some site abandoned, some populated).
Immigration exists from the region and outside the region
Major transformations in settlement types. Focus of organizations is 3-part
plaza, mound, pole.
Kinship groups are ranked -> smallest plaza, mound, pole is of least
importance
Monk’s Mound
Overlooks the 19 ha Great Plaza
Massive earthen structures
With 3 or 4 terraces
30m height
o base is 290x255m
o had 32x 15 m summit structure
o 730 000 cubic meters of fill
3rd largest Pre-columbian structure in N.A
Big Bang Theory
Someone made right call accidentally about Haley’s comet
Or someone noticed the pattern of the comet and made the call
Settlement Data
Estimated that population w/in American bottom (floodplain) would
have been insufficient to feed entire population
o There must have been imports
Richland complex: rich series of large sites where they didn’t exist
before
o New form of spatial organization, producing food for collection
and redistribution
Higher proportion of corn in the Richland complex, but higher
concentration of corn kernels in Cahokia
Food Production
Full time farmers (corns, squash, beans -> three sisters; starchy
grains; oily seeds)
Supplemented with wild plant and animal resources
No evidence of intensive agriculture
New Spatiality of Cahokia
About 120 mounds
Plaza is extremely labour intensive
o Leveling, filling natural ditches, etc to make the area flat
Site Planning
Based off cardinal direction
Had to be organized in precise way
Arrangement of mounds according to solar episodes
Ceramics
Containers; potentially for redistribution of food by being able to
bring things back home
o Expected to contribute labour/strengths in return
Mound 72
Not meant to be a stage or anything; no flat top
Only known structure not oriented along cardinal dimensions; very
diagonal
Found some of the richest burials (probably members of elite or
ruling kinship group)
o No evidence of a king/palace/single ruler at Cahokia; instead
it’s a group of rulers
o Thousands of shell beads
Evidence of massive human sacrifices (typically women)
o People all serve different role when sacrificed
o Theory that one person’s death/sacrifice is repeatedly
celebrated; they keep sacrificing others
Residential Space
Build square houses by planting posts dug into the ground and then
thatched
When Cahokia rises in prominence, stop building w/ posts; instead
begin building with wall trenches (generalized)
Change due to matter of identity
o Powerful message sent by building houses by own accord
Change could be made b/c walls could’ve been made elsewhere and
brought to Cahokia
Woodhenge (analogy to Stonehenge); circular structure
o Interpreted as an observatory, place of astronomical sightings
o
Great Zimbabwe 2013-01-08 8:37 AM
No evidence that state existed only by virtue of contact with Egypt or
colonial powers (Britain), etc.
Interesting socio-cultural system of their own
Lacks specialization and army (according to Childe’s criteria)
Powerful machine with capitals, secondary cities, likely rulers
Lacks iconography of single individual power (like Cahokia)
Evidence that kinship groups are ranked
“Zimbabwe”- large stone house, sacred houses,
referred to as court of a chief
previously named Rhodesia (Cecil Rhodes)
Main feature of Zimbabwe cities:
distinction b/w enclosed and open structures
mix of either stone or perishable architecture (commonly both)
o round huts: without these, just looks like bunch of fragmented
walls
ranking of kinship groups associated with ownership, occupation of
higher ground
Use of Stone: symbol of elite status
Houses made of stone
Single hallway/entrace which isn’t really defended; symbolic
entrance
o Second hallway leading to tower; tower probably storage
space used to preserve economic resources
Largest of a series of stone ruins on the Zimbabwe Plateau
Zimbabwe-style sites characterized by single or multiple enclosures
of free-standing drystone walls
Site consists of several ruins:
o Hilltop Complex: group of enclosures at top of granite hill
o Great Enclosure
o Valley Complex: structures located east of the Great
Enclosure
o Non-elite daga (perishable) buildings
Carl Mauch
First European to visit Great Zimbabwe in 1871
Discredited local populations as responsible; looked to Bible for
interpretation
o Attributed construction of site’s stone monuments to King
Solomon and Queen of Sheba
Geographic Location
Elevation on central plateau
o Many settlements located on ridge to maximize cattle
herding; edge gives access to difference environments,
depending on whether rainy or dry
o Easy to move from low-> high elevations
Cattle herding transhumance
o Always fresh
o Get meat, milk
Tsetse fly?
o Activated in rainy season
o Carries lethal diseases to humans if untreated
o Don’t live on high elevations
Indian Ocean trade network
o Access to dynamic cosmopolitan world, allowed for economic
contact
o Before Europeans, objects came from China
Some kinship groups not allowed to own more than certain amounts.
Socially and politically mandated differences in wealth acquisition
and maintenance