Archaeological culture Facts for Kids

An archaeological culture is like a special collection of things archaeologists find from a certain time and place. These things include artifacts (like tools or pottery), buildings, and monuments. When these items are found together over and over again, they might show us what a past human society was like.

Archaeologists study these groups of items to understand ancient people. Sometimes, it's hard to know if these collections truly represent a specific group of people or just a way of life. This idea is very important in a field called culture-historical archaeology.

What is an Archaeological Culture?
- What Does "Normative Culture" Mean?
How Did This Idea Develop?
- Early Ideas and German Scholars
- Gordon Childe's Influence
Why Do Some Archaeologists Criticize This Idea?
See Also

What is an Archaeological Culture?

Different groups of people in the past had their own unique items. These items looked and worked differently because of their different ways of life. For example, the tools used to make tea can look very different around the world! The things people owned often showed their identity or importance in society.

Archaeologists who follow the "culture-historical" idea believe that groups of items can help us find ancient societies or ethnic groups. An archaeological culture helps us sort and understand old information. It focuses on the items themselves as a way to understand the culture, not just the people.

A famous archaeologist named Gordon Childe explained it well:

We find certain types of remains – pots, tools, decorations, burial customs and house styles – always appearing together. We call such a group of linked features a "cultural group" or just a "culture". We believe that such a group of items shows us what a "people" would be like today.

This idea of an archaeological culture was key to understanding how things changed over time. Archaeologists thought that changes happened either because ideas spread from one group to another (called diffusionism), or because groups of people themselves moved (called migrationism).

For example, if a new type of pottery suddenly appeared everywhere in a region, it might mean a new group of people moved there. But if a pottery style slowly changed, maybe ideas for new designs spread from nearby groups.

What Does "Normative Culture" Mean?

This way of thinking about culture is called normative culture. It means that the items found show the "normal" ways of a culture. For a site to be part of a specific archaeological culture, many different types of items must be found together. One item alone is not enough; it's the combination of many items that defines the culture.

This view makes the items seem almost alive. It's like we can talk about "cultures" doing things, as if they were living beings.

Archaeological cultures were often thought to represent separate "peoples" or ethnic groups. This sometimes led to ideas that supported nationalist views in archaeology.

Most archaeological cultures are named after a special item or the place where they were first found. For example, the Linear Pottery culture is named after its pottery. The Hallstatt culture is named after the place where it was first discovered.

How Did This Idea Develop?

The word "culture" came into archaeology from German studies in the 1800s. In Germany, Kultur meant the special ways of life of tribal groups and country people. This was different from Zivilisation, which meant the way of life in cities.

The first time "culture" was used in archaeology was in 1836 by Christian Jürgensen Thomsen. Later in the 1800s, archaeologists in Europe started using the German idea of culture more often. They used it to describe different groups they found in their digs.

Early Ideas and German Scholars

In the 1900s, a German archaeologist named Gustaf Kossinna made the idea of archaeological cultures very important. He believed that archaeological finds showed clear cultures or "culture groups" that were strongly linked to different races. He wanted to trace the movements of ancient people he saw as the direct ancestors of Germans and other major European groups.

Kossinna's ideas were very focused on race and were even used by the Nazi Party. Because of this, his work wasn't widely accepted outside Germany, especially after World War II.

Gordon Childe's Influence

However, the general "culture history" approach that Kossinna started became very popular. It replaced older ideas about how societies changed. Vere Gordon Childe, a very important archaeologist in Britain, adopted Kossinna's basic idea of archaeological culture, but without the racial parts.

Childe defined archaeological culture as items and remains that are always found together. This was a new way to use the term, different from how it was used in other studies of people. His definition was mainly a way to sort and organize archaeological information.

Even though Childe didn't believe in linking cultures directly to specific ethnic groups, he and other archaeologists still often thought of separate archaeological cultures as separate "peoples."

Later, archaeologists started to question if material items always directly showed human societies. The link between archaeological cultures and past people became less clear. Sometimes, what was thought to be one big culture was actually several different groups. For example, the Windmill Hill culture is now a general name for several groups in southern Great Britain during the Neolithic period.

Also, sometimes archaeologists might separate material cultures that actually belonged to the same group. For instance, village-dwelling and nomadic Bedouin Arabs have very different items, even though they are very similar in other ways. In the past, such differences were often thought to mean that other groups had moved in.

Why Do Some Archaeologists Criticize This Idea?

The idea of archaeological cultures is still debated among archaeologists. When it first started, it was believed that archaeological culture directly showed real human culture.

...in the old way of thinking, we turn the present into the past by putting artifacts into groups, and calling those groups archaeological cultures. We then say an archaeological culture is the same as a human culture by assuming that artifacts show cultural ideas or norms. (...) This way of thinking (...) was called "culture history" by many (...).

This view would be fine if archaeology only wanted to describe these groups. But in the 1960s, archaeology wanted to be more scientific. Archaeologists wanted to do more than just describe items.

Some critics said that archaeological culture was too focused on "ideas." They argued that it assumed ideas and norms were the most important things in defining a culture. It focused on how cultures were different from their neighbors.

Archaeologists who follow Processual archaeology and others argued that archaeological culture treated culture as "just a random collection of ideas."

Even with these criticisms, archaeological culture is still useful for sorting and organizing artifacts, especially in European archaeology.

Archaeological culture facts for kids

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