J. C. Harrington Medal in Historical Archaeology: Martha A. Zierden

Historical Archaeology -     

The Archaeology of War: A North American Perspective

This article reviews recent archaeological research on warfare in prestate societies of native North America. This survey comprises six regions: Arctic/Subarctic, Northwest Coast, California, Southwest/Great Basin, Great Plains, and Eastern Woodlands. Two lines of evidence, defensive settlement behavior and injuries in human skeletal remains, figure prominently in archaeological reconstructions of violence and warfare in these regions. Burning of sites and settlements also has been important for identifying the consequences of war and investigating more subtle aspects of strategy and directionality. Weaponry and iconography have to date provided important but more limited insights. Although considerable disparities exist between regions in the archaeological evidence for intra- and intergroup violence, all regions show a marked increase after A.D. 1000. These findings suggest that larger forces may have been responsible for escalating violence throughout North America at this time.     

世界考古学展望

许多考古学家都期望,最终会有一种统一的世界考古学,那将是一门客观的、价值取向自由的学科。对他们而言,达不到这点就意味着未能取得科学实践的一种起码准则。我认为,这是对考古学现状与未来过于简单和错误的看法。一个多世纪以来,这个学科的某些方面已经有效地国际化了,但其他方面仍有很大差异。除非世界上消除了国别、阶级或性别的差异,这种差异似乎在可见的未来都不会缩小。