After not being able to host it last year due to covid, the Department of Anthropology was finally able to have our annual Archaeology Day Open House here at IUP! We had over 50 visitors who came to learn about and explore the field of archaeology and what it means to be an archaeologist!

We had many stations and activities set up inside and outside of McElhaney Hall. Beginning at the Entrance Table, we had undergraduate students, Kaylee and Callie, along with second-year graduate students Pat and Sonja, welcoming visitors into our Open House. There were posters and pamphlets, candy and snacks, and a place to sign up for anthropology club. This is also where the Archaeology Day passport could be picked up. This passport was used to guide people around to each set-up, so that they could get a stamp for each exhibit and table they visited.

Another station outside was led by first-year graduate student Emma, who presented on the importance of mapping in archaeology. Using a poster, worksheet, and mini grid, children and adults alike could practice mapping. She instructed people on why we do mapping, what we map, why we prefer mapping over taking photographs, what we need to include on our maps, and why we use a grid system when mapping. She stated that it is our goal as archaeologists to record as much information as possible, and that because digging is destructive, we need an accurate mapping of our excavation units before we continue to dig artifacts up, as mapping provides context for the location of the recovered cultural resources, as well as a record of any features and stratigraphy in the unit.

First-year graduate student Liz also had a set-up outside, where she was teaching people about stratigraphy. She used different colored, kinetic sand and small rocks and pottery sherds in a clear box to mimic the stratigraphic layers archaeologist encounter as they dig down into the soils. She also had a bright and colorful poster, along with a matching worksheet that allowed visitors to learn more about stratigraphy, and what various layers can look like.

Also outside was Susanne Haney from PennDOT (Pennsylvania Department of Transportation) and the Westmoreland Archaeological Society Chapter #23 of the Society for Pennsylvania Archaeology. She was doing flint knapping and instructing others on how to do it as well. She also had brought many examples of prehistoric artifacts, many of which she had made herself. A few things she showcased were an atlatl, stone tools and pendants, a nutting stone, flint ridge chert, obsidian, red catlinite from Wisconsin that can be used to make pipes, bifaces and scrapers, a tiny, dried gourd to represent the ones used by ancient Native American to hold up fishing nets in the water, and cordage made from plant materials such as basswood bark and dogbane, and also deer sinew fibers.

When you entered McElhaney Hall, on one side you could enter the Children’s room. This room contained many activities to keep kids entertained, but also to introduce them to the world or archaeology. From ceramic analysis to coloring worksheets, paleolithic “cave” paintings, making wampum bead bracelets, and more, kids were guided by volunteer Heather and first-year graduate student Kahlan through a range of archaeological topics. This will hopefully serve as a foundational step for the younger generation in their archaeological journey.

The next room over held our section on Zooarchaeology, led by first-year graduate student Emily and second-year graduate student Zach. Emily discussed hominins and showcased how skulls changed over the course of millions of years to bring us to the skulls of the modern-day humans. She also laid out stone tools that correlate to each skull and displayed a replica of footprints made by the primitive species Australopithecus afarensis, or “Lucy,” from 3.6 million years ago. There was even a worksheet for students to match the pictures of the skull replicas to their corresponding names and date ranges. Zach was in charge of animal bones and skeletons and used a display that had visitors match the animal to an individual bone, which included a bear skull amongst others. He also displayed whole turtle shells, cat, fish, and frog skeletons, shells, and a pig head that had many visitors intrigued and curious to know what it was!

In the same room, third-year graduate student Ashley was displaying her ongoing master’s thesis on Modoc City. She exhibited many of the historic artifacts that she has excavated from the site, which dates from 1873 to around 1890, although these were just a few from the 9+ whole boxes Ashely has filled. She also laid out several newspaper articles describing life in the city during its time of occupation. Some of the historical artifacts presented include a broken frozen charlotte, makeup containers or compacts, utensils, suspender clasps, bells, an original Dr. Scholl’s foot-eazer, glass and ceramic pieces, pocket watch components, dresser handles, boot heels, and even a mint container!

  Second-year graduate students Amanda and Emma, along with Dr. Chadwick, a professor here at IUP, were also in this room, discussing the PHAST (PennDOT Highway Archaeological Survey Team) program, what goes inside a dig kit, and what some of the geophysical tools used in archaeology are and how they operation. These such geophysical instruments included metal detectors and ground-penetrating radar.

Back in the hallway second-year graduate student Luke was displaying a historic artifacts collection. He explained that historic sites are those that date between European contact in America to our modern day. As part of his graduate assistantship, he takes care of the legacy collections here at IUP. Some of the artifacts he works with are from excavations done 50 years ago at Hanna’s Town, a 1700s site, so he has been going through them, organizing them, and putting them in archival bags for storage, to keep up to new standards of preservation and to prevent deterioration and disorganization. He also displayed a historic artifact learning collection of things we see often at historic sites for visitors to observe and interact with.

 There was also a prehistoric artifact collection, hosted by Westmoreland Archaeological Society Chapter #23 of the Society for Pennsylvania Archaeology. Many of the artifacts on display were recovered by Sidney Guest, a member of the chapter, as well as from the group themselves. Their exhibited collection included, petrified wood, a wide assortment of bifaces and projectile points, a large nutting stone, and even some tools archaeologists use in the field, to name a few. Mr. Guest explained that some of the artifacts were from excavations at a rock shelter near Derry, PA. He also stated that their chapter had just sent many boxes of artifacts to the State Museum after finishing up a dig they had been conducting over the past 16 years at a Monongahela village site with two overlapping village components. The Consul site (36WM100) included 49 houses and produced over 19 radiocarbon/AMS dates, with one of the villages dating to the Early Monongahela period around A.D. 1350, and the other to the Middle Monongahela period around A.D. 1450. We are so grateful that the Westmoreland Archaeological Society were able to come out and join us!

First-year graduate student Laura was next to the prehistoric artifacts set-up, and her station was about garbology, the study of modern humans through analyzing modern-day waste, and its connection to archaeology. She noted that archaeologists excavate landfills and utilize ethnographic interview methods to understand how humans create and dispose of waste, to answer questions about waste disposal, and to help apply these interpretations in other settings and studies. Laura also included a QR code on her handout that links students to “A Tale of Garbage” by Ian McTaggart for more information, and she provided a take home activity worksheet that had visitors keep track of their trash disposal habits to see what this can tell them about their trash practices. She also engaged with visitors by having them participate in an activity where they had to determine which bag of trash came from which room in the house, which simulated how trash can lead to inferences about people.

In the final room inside, we had second-year graduate student Jacob in the floatation lab teaching and instructing people about how and why we use the laboratory technique of archaeological flotation. The floatation machine is used to recover tiny artifacts and plant remains from soil samples, which visitors got to experience up close.

And finally, as people exited our Archaeology Day event, they passed by our Exit table, manned by first-year graduate student Wesley. He was passing out free posters and information on stewardship through fliers. He was also having those who left voluntarily fill out a paper with questions about their experience. We had great feedback, one visitor commented, “It was fun and interesting😊,” and many people noted their favorite activities.

A huge thank you to everyone who came out and supported this open house, and to those who put everything together, Dr. Andrea Palmiotto and second-year graduate student Mikala Hardie! We will most definitely be hosting this event next year, so please join us again, or for the first time, in 2023!

Homecoming was this past Saturday, and it was packed with fun events and activities, celebrations, a parade, a football game, and the crowning of the Crimson Homecoming Court. In America, the idea of selecting a Homecoming court and having a King and Queen arose in the 1930s. Originally, Kings and Queens were chosen based on the float the came in on during the Homecoming parade. The crowning of royalty is something other parts of the world are exposed to as well. With the recent passing of Queen Elizabeth II, sometime in 2023 King Charles III will be crowned during a coronation ceremony. In August of this year Misuzulu Zulu was crowned as the new Zulu king in South Africa, wearing a headdress of traditional leopard skin and black feathers.

Princess Blanche’s crown, ca.1399

Although receiving a cheap, bedazzled crown after being voted as the most popular by classmates does not really compare to the coronation of British or Africa royalty, the ceremonies do have something in common; something worn on the head as a symbol of royalty, leadership, and power. Typically called a crown or headdress, these physical symbols are usually made out of rare or symbolic materials, and they legitimize who is in charge and who has the authority to sometimes do whatever they want.

The oldest known crown belonging to the British royal family is the Princess Blanche’s crown, that dates to around 1399; it is set with pearls, diamonds, sapphires, rubies, and emeralds. Although the origins of the royal crowns we recognize today reach back to the emperors of the Roman Empire, crowns, headdresses, and other forms of adornment that showcase the leader of the group have been used by other civilizations across the world in many different periods of time.

Empress Xiao’s crown before it was cleaned,  CNS/Tian Jin

Empress Xiao’s crown after it was cleaned,  CNS/Tian Jin

In 2012, archaeologists in China uncovered a 6^th century crown that originally belonged to Empress Xiao from the Sui dynasty (AD 581-618). It is the oldest imperial crown ever discovered in China, found in a tomb in Yangzhou, in the modern-day Jiangsu Province. The crown had been resting in a rotten wooden box and was restored at the Cultural Relic Protection Institute in Shaanxi Province. It was decorated with pearls, cotton, silk, fragile copper wires, and thirteen flower decorations, each composed of gilded bronze wires with delicate representations of stalks, stamens, and petals.

Silla Gold Crown, National Museum of Korea

In Korea, five gold crowns excavated from five royal tombs, helped the ancient capital of Guemseong, modern day Gyeongju, justify the meaning of its name, ‘city of gold.’ The five crowns are from the Silla Kingdom that extended their rule from southeast Korea during the Three Kingdoms period (57 BC-AD 668) all the way to the Unified Silla Kingdom period (AD 668-935). The crowns belonged to Silla kings and queens who were buried in large, stone-lined tombs within earth mounds, when they passed. The crowns were preserved and survived because of the clay placed between the layers of stone, the lack of horizontal entrances to the tombs, and the fact that the tombs were never looted. The first of the National Treasures of Korea were found in 1921 in a tomb known as the Gold Crown tomb that dated to the second half of the 5^th century. The other four tombs with their crowns were found nearby and are called the Great Tomb at Hwangnam, Cheonmachong (the ‘Heavenly Horse Tomb’), the Gold Bell Tomb, and the Auspicious Phoenix Tomb. The Silla crowns are made up of three parts, an openwork tall conical cap, a piece resembling a wing or butterfly which fits into the cap, and a diadem; chains with pendants also hang from the sides of the crowns. In addition to the embellished, sheet-cut gold pieces that form the crowns, they are adorned with jade pendants.

Baekje Gold Crown Ornaments

Researchers note similarities to gold crowns from the Black Sea area, Bactria, Japan, and China. Baekje and Goguryeo, the other two kingdoms from the Three Kingdoms period besides Silla, also had crowns. Recognized Goguryeo crowns were made of guilt-bronze, but Baekje has famous crown ornaments, in addition to crowns, known as Geumjegwansik attributed to their kingdom, that were excavated from a tomb in Gongju, South Korea in 1971. The two gold diadems are shaped like flames with flower and vine-like patterns and were worn by the king of Baekje. They were found in the tomb of King Muryeon who was in power from AD 501-523.

Gold Greek wreath

Box the crown was found in

In 2016 a man found a 2,300-year-old Greek myrtle wreath dating to around 300 BC underneath his bed. The crown, valued at over 100,000 English pounds, was in a cardboard box in Somerset, England. Usually worn for religious ceremonies or given as prizes at athletic and artistic contests, the crown from Ancient Greece is pure gold, handmade, and weighs about 100 grams.

Assyrian crown

Tombs dating to around 750-700 BC were found by Iraqi archaeologists in 1990. One contained a gold crown with trellis vines, lapis-lazuli grapes, four-winged robed figures, and rows of pomegranates and rosettes. The crown was from the ancient Assyrian empire of Mesopotamia and the tombs were found under the floors of rooms in Ashurnasirpal II’s (883-859 BC) harem.

Late Indus Valley civilization copper crown remnants, A.K. Pandey/Archaeological Survey of India

Archaeologists uncovered a 4,000-year-old copper crown in modern day India in 2015 that belonged to the late Indus Valley civilization. It is one of two crowns from an Indus Valley site ever recovered, was found resting on a skull, and is decorated with a carnelian and a fiance stone. Along with the skeleton and crown, pottery and animal bones were also found nearby. Researchers suggest that this person could have been someone important, like a local leader of some kind, based on the crown. However, the crude, simple, local decorations on the pottery, suggest that this person might have not been all that powerful, that they were more likely to have been someone who was rich or had good taste, rather than a political figure.

6,000-year-old Dead Sea Cave crown

One crown that has claimed to be the oldest in the world is a 6,000-year-old crown found in 1961 in a Dead Sea Cave. The cave was in the Galilean highlands of the Judean Desert of Israel and recovered by archaeologists Pessah Bar-Adon. The crown dates to the Copper Age between 4000-3500 BC, more specifically the Chalcolithic period (4500-3600 BC), and was amongst 400 other artifacts in the cave, a finding that has become known as the Nahal Mishmar Hoard. The thick copper ring with vultures and doors jutting from the top was one of five crowns from the hoard. The objects are thought to have been placed in the cave for safe keeping, and from the Chalcolithic Temple of Ein Gedi, which is around 12 kilometers away. Some question if the “world’s oldest crown” was even used as a crown at all; perhaps it was a stand for an urn, or something else, but the seven-inch tall with about equal diameter band of blackened copper, is eye-catching, with its rim of pointed figures, hilt-shaped cross, long-necked birds, and gates or grilles with horns.

The largest fragment of the ivory tiara found in the Denisova Cave, depicted from three separate angles, Institute of Archeology and Ethnography

The claim to the “world’s oldest crown” is challenged by what some believe is a 35,000-50,000-year-old crown or headband made of woolly mammoth tusk ivory and broken into three pieces. Rediscovered by archaeologists in a Denisova Cave in the Altai mountains of Siberia, the head piece was worn by a man, but it is up for speculation if it was used to designate royalty or leadership, a mark of a family or tribe, or if it was just used to hold his hair back. Diadems such as these are rare, and there would have been several steps taken to create this item. The tusks would have to have been separated from the animal, cut into pieces, soaked in water to be shaped, then physically shaped, scraped, cut, grinded, drilled, and finally polished. This crown was too long to be a bracelet, had microscopic wear that showed it had contact with organic material like skin, was bent to fit to an adult male’s temple, and the longest piece had half a hole on one side drilled into it that was most likely used with cords or straps to affix to the head; all reasons that contributed to the belief that these pieces of ivory potentially had a crown-like function.

Crowns and other head-adorning symbols of leadership are prevalent in many other societies and civilizations; some have survived, while others are recognized through art, written records, oral histories, carvings, and sculptures. Native Americans in Pre-Columbian times wore headdresses, headbands, and war bonnets, in various styles and sizes depending on the tribe and location in the country. They could be made from the hairs of animals such as porcupines, moose, and deer’s tails, from feathers, buffalo fur and horns, and otter fur and tails, in addition to beads, quillwork, and decorative patterns. Ancient Maya headdresses were worn by the elite, with the King’s being the largest, the larger the headdress the more important the person. Wood, cloth, jade, shells, and colorful feathers were used to carefully craft these headdresses that were made to look like animals that were important to the culture, such as the jaguar, snake, or falcon. The quetzal bird was coveted by the Mayan culture and its feathers were used solely for royalty.

Ancient Egyptian pharaohs also had recognizable crowns and headdresses, each with a certain meaning indicated by their shape. The Deshret or Red Crown, established the king as the ruler of Lower Egypt. No physical examples of this crown survive today. Hedjet, the White Crown, establishes the king’s rule over southern Egypt; it too has no surviving example. The Pschent, the Double Crown, also known as Sekhemti or the “Two Powerful Ones”, symbolizes the king’s rule over both Upper and Lower Egypt. This crown is the merging of the Red and White Crowns, a move done under King Narmer during the Pharaonic period (3000 BC-332 BC). Nemes, was a striped head cloth that is easily recognized as being worn by King Tutankhamun on his coffin. The earliest depiction of this headdress was found on an ivory label of King Den from the 1^st dynasty. It was typically worn to cover a crown and the backside of the head. The Khepresh, or Blue Crown, made from stained leather, became popular by the 18^th dynasty, but is known as a war crown, as it was depicted often as being worn by Ramesses II in the Battle of Kadesh. The Atef Crown was the crown of the first mythical king Osiris but was worn by other deities. Its earliest depiction is of being worn by the Pharaoh Sahure in the 5^th dynasty of the Old Kingdom. The Hemhem or Triple Atef became popular during the reign of Akhenaten (1353-1336 or 1351-1334 BC) and the Ptolemaic period or dynasty (323/305-30 BC). It was a variation of the Atef Crown, was also called the “Roaring One”, and was worn by Heka, the god of magic.

The craftsmanship that has gone into making crowns of all shapes, sizes, and materials throughout the centuries is astounding. But archaeologists have to be careful when determining what should be labeled as a crown, or whether the artifact they are studying just resembles the familiar shape. From fakes to mistakes, like when researchers initially concluded that a 6^th century bucket fitting was a crown, archaeologists and scholars need to be vigilant when examining and labeling artifacts.

Crowns will always fascinate people because of what they stand for; power, authority, and even popularity. They are still used by royal families, in Halloween costumes, and to adorn the heads of Homecoming Queens and Kings today. As you celebrate occasions such as Homecoming, take some time to recognize that so many of the mundane parts of customs we celebrate today, are reflections of objects used in ancient traditions for many, many years.

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Further Reading and Sources:

https://visual.ly/community/Infographics/history/history-homecoming

https://www.dw.com/en/south-africa-thousands-witness-crowning-of-new-zulu-king/a-62877697

https://www.grunge.com/865856/this-is-the-oldest-known-british-royal-family-crown/

https://www.ancient-origins.net/news-history-archaeology/6th-century-crown-chinese-empress-revealed-first-time-its-full-glory-006631

https://www.worldhistory.org/article/957/the-gold-crowns-of-silla/

https://www.worldhistory.org/image/5961/baekje-gold-crown-ornaments/

https://www.primidi.com/crown_of_baekje/national_treasure_of_korea_no154

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3610916/Incredibly-rare-2-300-year-old-Ancient-Greek-gold-crown-worth-100-000-kept-decades-tatty-box-old-newspapers-bed-owner-no-idea-was.html

https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ancient/cultures/mesopotamia_gallery_08.shtml

https://www.ancient-origins.net/news-history-archaeology/4000-year-old-copper-crown-found-india-002558

https://www.thehistoryblog.com/archives/34290

https://www.ancient-origins.net/news-history-archaeology/6000-year-old-crown-found-dead-sea-cave-revealed-001436

https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/the-worlds-oldest-crown

https://www.livescience.com/64297-ancient-woolly-mammoth-tiara-denisova-cave.html

https://theamericanhistory.org/important-facts-native-american-headdresses.html#:~:text=The%20roach%20headdresses%2C%20also%20known%20as%20porcupine%20roaches%2C,headdresses%20were%20often%20worn%20by%20dancers%20and%20warriors.

https://mayansandtikal.com/mayan-clothing/mayan-headdresses-clothes/

https://ancientegyptonline.co.uk/crowns/

https://www.ancient-origins.net/ancient-places-africa-news-general-opinion/crowns-pharaohs-00579

https://quickjewelryrepairs.com/articles/what-is-the-history-of-the-royal-crowns/#:~:text=The%20oldest%20crown%20in%20the%20world%20was%20discovered,of%20this%20culture%20is%20their%20mastery%20of%20coppersmithing.

https://www.dw.com/en/a-crown-or-a-bucket-when-archaeologists-make-mistakes/a-46807172

It’s been getting chilly and crisp in Indiana, PA this past week and I don’t know about you but fall weather makes me want to sit inside and make something. If you are like me, you might be interested in experimental archaeology which is a practice where archaeologists make and utilize technologies of past people in order to understand them better. Archaeologists use experimental archaeology to test hypotheses of how and why people used different technologies. Typically, materials are gathered from the environment around you making it an accessible hobby for anyone interested in the technologies of the past.  Here are some experimental archaeology crafts that you can do while you enjoy the lovely fall weather! 

The first and most beloved example is flintknapping! This is a process that pre-contact societies used to make stone tools. It involves carefully chipping away at specific parts of a “raw” stone, also called a core. You first start with percussion flakes which chip off because of the force you apply to certain parts of the core. Then, you take off smaller pieces by applying pressure to an edge of the core with a deer antler or some other type of sharpened tool. This step refines the tool into whatever you want it to be such as an arrow/spear point or an adze. If you have kids or if you’re worried about injuring yourself you can also try “soapknapping” which takes some of the same ideas of flintknapping as you carve your stone tool out of a bar of soap. The supplies needed for flintknapping are flint/chert which is what you make your stone tool out of, a hammerstone, a piece of leather to protect your leg, a billet made from deer antler or hard wood, and an antler tine or sharpened wood for pressure flaking. 

The process of flintknapping. Credit: Closter Nature Center

If stone tools aren’t your thing maybe you would like to make a basket out of pine needles, sweetgrass, or other dry plant materials that you can forage. There are many ways to make a basket but one of the most comprehensible ways is by coiling. To make a coiled basket you first have to collect the materials. Once you have your pine needles or sweetgrass make sure to wash them, bundle them, and lay them out to dry before you start working with them. Once they are dry, you can finally begin by wrapping a cord that is attached to a tapestry needle around a bundle of around four to six pieces of your material. Your foundation cord should be wrapped 10-15 times and be ¾ inch long at first. Then, you will curl the end in and start the spiral formation by pushing the needle through the middle of the two beginning rows and sewing the new rows into the previous coil. If this sounds incredibly confusing don’t worry, there are step-by-step instructions linked at the bottom under “Sources and Further Reading”. 

Making a coiled pine needle basket.

If you’re looking for an easier project, you could make a pinch pot which is one way Native Americans made pottery for food storage and cooking. To make a pot you need to either find clay in a local clay bed,  buy it at your local craft store, or make it by looking up a salt-dough recipe. If you collect your clay, you will likely have to process it so if you are looking for a really easy project you might want to stick with air-dry clay. Once your clay is prepared, roll it out and then roll it into a ball. Then you will put your thumb in the center to make a crater in the clay and from that crater you can pinch the sides of your pot to your desired thickness. From there you can add imprinted designs using a pencil or anything else you have around your house! If you are using air-dry clay then you can simply set your project out to dry but if you are using a salt-dough or you gathered clay you will have to bake and fire it respectively. 

A pinch pot made by a young girl from Abbott Farm excavations. The center scar is from a twig impression in the clay. NJSM # AE98089.

No matter what project you choose, you will be able to get into the mindset of the people who created and used these technologies many years ago. This is what archaeologists are interested in, understanding the people of the past through the materials that they produced. By making these materials ourselves, we can get a sense of what it was like to make them and experiment with different processes to test the feasibility of certain hypotheses. We can also have fun while we’re at it which is a big benefit! 

Sources and Further Reading: 

https://exarc.net/experimental-archaeology

Flintknapping: 

https://archaeology.uiowa.edu/flintknapping-0 https://www.elymuseum.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/HAH-worksheet-Pre-history-Stone-Age-Knapping.pdf 

https://wildernessawareness.org/articles/stone-tools-and-flintknapping/

Basket Weaving: 

http://www.nativetech.org/basketry/coilinstr.html

https://www.knowitall.org/interactives/anaturalstate/pine-needle-basket/

https://www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/sflarch/collections/seminole-baskets/technique/

Pinch Pot:

https://exploreandmore.org/sanity-savers-make-a-pinch-pot-for-the-archaeological-society-anniversary/

https://www.instructables.com/Harvesting-Your-Own-Clay-Dirty-But-Delightful/

https://exploreandmore.org/sanity-savers-salt-dough-unicorns-and-easter-eggs/

https://thepotterywheel.com/pinch-pot-history/

https://newjerseyarchaeology.wordpress.com/2016/02/04/miniature-clay-pot-an-ancient-toy/

Image Credits:

https://closternaturecenter.org/?event=primitive-technology-2

https://thekidshouldseethis.com/post/how-to-weave-pine-needle-baskets

https://newjerseyarchaeology.wordpress.com/2016/02/04/miniature-clay-pot-an-ancient-toy/