Archaeological culture

An archaeological culture is a recurring collection of artifacts, structures, and monuments from a particular time and place that may be considered the material culture remains of a specific past society. Archaeologists typically attempt to define and map archaeological cultures based on both empirical evidence and their own understandings and interpretations. Archaeological cultures represent broad geographic zones where archaeologists believe people lived in similar ways and were connected through a history of interaction. The concept of archaeological cultures is one of the fundamental underpinnings of culture-historical archaeology, a distinct theory of archaeology based on the premise of using material culture to identify distinct ethnic and cultural groupings. Dating back to the late nineteenth century, when it was first developed by German archaeologists, culture-historical archaeology largely fell out of favor in the twentieth century with the rise of processual archaeology.

Background

Archaeological cultures are one element of the broader field of archaeology. Archaeology is the study of the distant and more recent human past through the analysis of material remains. Material remains include any objects the people of a culture being studied made, altered, or used during their time. Those material remains that are portable are referred to as artifacts. These often include such items as tools, pottery vessels, decorations, weapons, and clothing. Material remains that are not portable are known as features. Some examples of archaeological features include walls, buildings, tombs, hearths, and pits.

Archaeologists rely on artifacts and features to gather information about people from particular places and times and how they lived. Through careful study of the artifacts and features left behind by a culture from the past, archaeologists can often learn a great deal about what the people in question experienced in their everyday lives, what their beliefs and customs were, what system of government they lived under, how they interacted among themselves and with other people, and more.

In many cases, artifacts and features are the only evidence left behind for archaeologists to use in assembling a picture of an ancient culture and the people who were part of it. This is especially true when it comes to the study of prehistoric civilizations that existed in the era before people started keeping written records. When studying civilizations from more modern eras, archaeologists may often be able to use written records to supplement their studies of artifacts and features. While the surviving written record of some ancient civilizations includes detailed histories written by historians who lived at the time, it is often the simplest surviving documents, like letters or inventory lists, that offer the most revealing details about what everyday life was like in an ancient civilization.

Archaeology itself has a long and sometimes controversial history. From grave robbers to early archaeologists who studied ancient civilizations while traveling with invading armies or while exploring on behalf of nations with colonial interests, many people throughout history spent time scouring ancient ruins for artifacts and features. Over time, archaeology developed into a proper academic discipline, and archaeologists became more mindful of the impact of their work on the places and people they study.

Overview

Written historical records are particularly valuable to archaeologists because they offer the most detailed information about a culture. Of course, because many of the ancient cultures that archaeologists study date back to the prehistoric era, written records are not always available. As a result, archaeologists often must rely only on surviving artifacts and features to learn about the people who left them behind. When studying the material cultural remains of different communities, archaeologists sometimes discover patterns of similarity that occur through time and across geographic distances. These include patterns of similarity in how different people lived, how they supported themselves, what objects they produced and what purposes they served, and how they expressed themselves artistically. By recognizing patterns of similarity between different human communities, archaeologists may be able to identify broader archaeological cultures.

An archaeological culture differs from the normal meaning of “culture.” “Culture,” like “civilization,” is typically used to describe a particular human society from a specific time and place, consisting of people who generally speak the same language, share the same customs, and have the same historical origins. By comparison, an archaeological culture is a broader geographic zone throughout which archaeologists believe different peoples shared similar ways of life and were connected to some extent through their interactions. Some archaeologists also believe that archaeological cultures are reflective of the ways that different peoples within a certain geographic region adapted to their similar environmental circumstances.

Archaeological cultures have some limitations. For example, they are based primarily on material culture, so little knowledge may be based on the many other aspects of the historical people. In other words, they may contain an incomplete picture of a group of people or an area. Another limitation is that archaeological cultures usually have indistinct boundaries because it is difficult to ascertain exactly where one archaeological culture ends and another begins.

The concept of archaeological cultures is a fundamental element of the archaeological theory known as culture-historical archaeology. Initially developed in the late nineteenth century by German archaeologists like Franz Boas and Vere Gordon Childe, culture-historical archaeology is aimed at separating historical societies into distinct ethnic and cultural groupings based on their material culture. It also holds that cultural changes in historical societies were usually the result of the diffusion of ideas between different cultures, the migration of people from one society to another, or invasion. Culture-historical archaeology eventually fell out of favor in the twentieth century, in part because it was influenced by nationalist political ideologies and used to establish alleged and now largely disproven links between prehistoric and ancient cultures and modern nation-states.

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