ANTH 3: INTRO TO ARCHAEOLOGY – Fall 2025

ESSAY #1 PROMPT

For this essay, you will pick ONE of the two hypothetical excavation projects detailed below. Your job is to write a proposal that will convince a funding agency (such as the National Science Foundation or the National Geographic Society) to pay for your excavation of the site. Since funding agencies can only fund a small fraction  of the proposals they receive, you must explain why your excavation project is a valuable investment. Remember that this paper is worth 15% of your grade.

Based on the map and information that you have been given, design an excavation strategy for understanding this particular site. Be sure to have an introductory and concluding paragraph, cite sources (for example, “We will use scientific method X, as described by Y for the following reasons”), and include a bibliography at the end. You will also need to upload pdfs or screen shots of your sources as well as a copy of your Essay 1 Outline from the Week 3 Section Breakout discussion.

Address the following:

Why should the funding agency pay for your proposed project? Will your proposed excavation likely answer your research questions? State your main argument in your thesis.

What specific sampling strategy and field methods will you use (i.e., where and what kind of excavation will you undertake and why)? Refer to the discussion of sampling in Prof. Smith’s lectures and on Canvas.

What specialists will make up your team? Why are they needed? This will be driven by the research questions outlined in the prompt. Discuss only the specialists needed for the goals outlined in the prompt.

What dating method(s) will you use? What makes your dating method(s) appropriate for this site?

What type(s) of laboratory analysis(es) will you need to conduct to get the evidence you need (e.g., typological, scientific)? Why are the analysis(es) appropriate?

Remember to clearly justify your choices.

Note that you should NOT make up discoveries; this is an exercise in planning (similar to the proposals archaeologists must write in order to obtain funding from organizations such as the National Science Foundation or the National Geographic Society). The best answers will draw upon the textbooks, study guides, lectures and film. All materials should be uploaded by 11:59pm on the day your Section meets to avoid a late penalty.

Follow the instructions under the Essay 1 Module “First Essay General Guidleines” link and use the following resources found on Canvas:

•   Writing guide (includes tips on grammar and word choice)

•   Citation guide (explains in-text citations and bibliographies)

•   Rubric (listed under the button “How you will be graded” and on the Assignments page where you will upload your essay and supporting materials)

Project 1. The urban landscape at Vijayanagara, India

Introduction

The South-Central Indian city of Vijayanagara was the capital of a large empire that dominated South India from AD 1350 to 1565. This Hindu empire was defeated in 1565 by a confederacy of five Muslim Sultanates, and the city was burnt to the ground during and after the siege, evidenced by deposits of burnt wood and ash still visible over the surface of the site and inside the remains of stone buildings. As is so often the case, this was bad for the Vijayanagarans but great for archaeologists, as it means that many objects remain in the same spots where they were used just before the sack of the city. Based upon historical records and remains visible at the surface, you have identified a royal  center and  nobleman's  quarter, an urban  core where ordinary people lived and worked, and a sacred center separated from the main city by a river and fields.

Research Questions

Your goal is to understand the social dynamics of the city through targeted excavation.

•    Do house size and layout correlate to status?

•    How does the diet of the nobility compare with the ordinary people in the urban core and the priests and other staff in the sacred center?

•    Do you see evidence of later caste-based status and food proscriptions both in the form. of diet and specialized pottery vessels?

•    Can you identify any areas where specialized activities such as food preparation, ceramic production or metallurgy took place?

Details to address in your Proposal

You will want to identify luxuries like jewelry and furnishings of valuable materials like gold and ivory, and/or metal and pottery that might point to more prosaic activities. Because the site is so large, you should think big, with a large team working in multiple areas with up to a dozen excavation units and a number of specialists. Use the site map below to plan your excavation.

Project 2. Ritual architecture among Pacific Northwest Complex Hunter-Gather Communities

Introduction

Scholars have debated the role of ritual power and hierarchy in the emergence of social complexity among hunter-gatherers in the Pacific Northwest in the Plateau Pithouse Tradition (c. 4500-200 BP). In collaboration with the local Tribe, you have identified a site at Keatley Creek that could help assess whether the ritual power embedded in organizations of secret societies at the site really does correlate with increased social complexity during this period. You have identified three zones, including the main core of the site with indications of numerous house pits visible on the surface, and two outlying areas that include not only a scattering of house pits but evidence of roasting pits of various sizes and other more enigmatic depressions (Terrace 1 and 2 and South Terrace Complexes, see map below).

Research Questions

Archaeologists Brian Hayden and Ron Adams have suggested that the peripheral areas were the location for secret society meeting houses or cult facilities in association with feasting, but other explanations are possible.

•   Were the peripheral areas the location for ritual activities in association with religious feasting?

•    Or were all the house pits in these outlying areas domestic structures with evidence for personal feasting?

•    How do the house pits in the peripheral areas compare to the domestic house pits in the Core area?

Details to address in your Proposal

Because you can't dig everything, you need a good sampling strategy to assess these questions. You will want to consider the location of  the different structures in relation to natural features on the landscape, evidence for large scale food production (feasting), the correlation of rare classes of objects probably used during rituals with different parts of the site, and the abundance or rarity of  artifacts, including lithics, that might indicate a general domestic pattern of use or something more specialized. You think that you could secure funding for six to eight excavation units and a large enough team to include any needed specialists. But first you have to write the proposal! Use the site map below to plan your excavation.

Note:  The dashed circles in the site’s Core indicate house depressions. “Cultural depressions” are of unknown purpose and might be worth testing. And while some of the  housepits have already been tested, they might (or might not) be worth revisiting for fuller excavation.