ARCA1000 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Prehistoric Egypt, Social Inequality, Alfonso Caso
31 Jul 2018
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Document Summary
Settlements: burials, evidence of social ranking/inequality, evidence for domination of others/resistance. Construction method- formation processes and preservation conditions determine the archaeological remains seen at excavation. Layout- eg skara brae, orkney islands- all houses have same layout. Range of buildings- generalised or specific use, like public buildings, religious buildings, storage buildings. How the location of settlements varies in time and space. Other sites with different material culture but which traded with your site. Ancient population: palaeodemography: estimated using:-size of site. Archaeological visibility of rank: main focus: burials, evidence from burials. A very important source of information regarding rank in ancient societies. Rank is detectable by the quality and number of grave goods, grave form, and grave location. Examples were cahokia and moundville, where a few individuals were buried with rich grave goods and in close proximity to temple mounds, while many other individuals were buried with no grave goods and at a distance from temple mounds.
