“A people without the knowledge of their past history, origin and culture is like a tree without roots,” – Marcus Garvey. When we tell others about who we are, we tend to include where we came from, the dynamic of our family, and other things that have been important to us over our entire lifetime. We explain how our upbringing made us the people that we are today. Why is this so important to us? Why is this what makes us who we are? We do not tell people about our ambitions or dreams when asked about who we are. Instead, we talk about the past, because the past is what we identify with.

Mummified Native American body in an American museum.

Everything we do is rooted in the past. Language, religion, and customs have all been around for thousands of years, yet continue to have a deep meaning to billions of people in the world today. Archeology is fundamental in the process of relating these important concepts of the past to the people of today. An example of this process is repatriation. It is well known that ancestors are very meaningful in Native American culture. Respecting the body of a tribe member after their death is essential in both the fortune of the body’s spirit as well as the tribe itself. When Europeans destroyed Native American burial sites for hundreds of years, it had a serious impact on the Native American culture. Having their ancestors’ bodies rot in national museums with numbers scratched across their foreheads was an absolute atrocity to the Native American culture. The Repatriation Act brought these essentials of the past back to the Native American culture and helped current Native Americans better connect with the past and better understand who they really are. All people need items from the past to help them understand who they are today. 

ISIS destroying ancient artifact in Hatra, Iraq.

Without these connections to the past, we have no form of identity. Without identity, we have no meaning and no strength. This can be related to the destruction of significant national landmarks throughout the Middle East and Africa by ISIS. Each time the terror group destroys a national landmark, they are also destroying the strength of the group of people they are battling against. If the native people to those lands do not have any connection to the land itself, their culture begins to deteriorate, therefore separating the people as a group. People need landmarks and artifacts to have a connection to the past to make them who they are today.

The past does not restrain us to certain boundaries, but it does help give us a sense of understanding who we are and why we are that way. Each person should be given the right to connect to the past in their own way.

References:

Renfrew, Colin, and Paul G. Bahn. Archaeology Essentials: Theories, Methods, Practice with 295 Illustrations. London: Thames & Hudson, 2015. Print.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2016/11/iraq-mosul-isis-nimrud-khorsabad-archaeology/

https://www.nps.gov/archeology/tools/laws/nagpra.htm

http://www.history.org/history/teaching/enewsletter/may03/archintro.cfm

Additional Reading:

http://www.mummytombs.com/world/nativeamerican.html

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2016/11/iraq-mosul-isis-nimrud-khorsabad-archaeology/

In this fast-paced, money-driven world that we live in today, people are constantly striving to connect to the more simple times of the past. Studying ecofacts is one way people do this. As human beings, we are naturally materialistic. We are obsessed with getting that new iPhone, or that car that is a year newer and nicer than the one next door. This is how human beings have acted since the beginning of time. Those with the most gold or the most china were considered wealthy, elite, and superior to those around them. These material goods that people owned centuries ago are known as “artifacts” in the archeological world. Artifacts tend to be the findings that make the big headlines in the news or featured in the special museum event. Being that this is a materialistic world, it only makes sense that artifacts get the fame. However, I believe that ecofacts and inorganic materials are just as important to understanding the past as artifacts are.

Coming from a Native American background, my grandmother has always stressed the importance of respecting the land and all of the histories that it holds. When I was a young child, she gave me my first piece of petrified wood. It was amazing to be able to hold a piece of the world that other animals used to touch millions of years ago. This began my fascination with historical stones.

Archeologists discovering petrified oak in Wyoming.

Ecofacts such as stones were absolutely essential to the survival of the early man. Stones were used to build shelters, hunt prey, skin prey, plow land, and so many other things that were necessary to survive millions of years ago. The discovery of stone ecofacts has allowed archeologists to better understand what types of environments early humans once lived in. Petrified wood shows the type of trees that belonged in the area, which we can relate to the types of animals that were available to hunt in these days. When archeologists find petrified oak, they can assume that a forest once existed in that area, so it is unlikely that fishing was the main source of food for the people that lived there. Archeologists can use things such as petrified wood and old stones to better understand how the world once worked, and what humans did to survive.

Handaxe from Europe during the Stone Age.

Just one hundred years ago we did not know that humans existed in the Stone Age, but thanks to stone tools, some over two million years old, we now know that humans were very active in this era. Ecofacts as simple as stones play a huge role in connecting us to our past.

References:

Renfrew, Colin, and Paul G. Bahn. Archaeology Essentials: Theories, Methods, Practice with 295 Illustrations. London: Thames & Hudson, 2015. Print.

https://www.sciencenews.org/article/petrified-tree-rings-tell-ancient-tale-suns-behavior

Images:

http://humanorigins.si.edu/evidence/behavior/stone-tools/early-stone-age-tools/handaxe-europe

https://www.google.com/search?q=digging+for+petrified+wood&espv=2&biw=1436&bih=705&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjHhNO8__nRAhXBZCYKHaRtBjUQ_AUIBygC#imgrc=jh0GAcQvARRMJM:

For further reading:

http://humanorigins.si.edu/evidence/behavior/stone-tools/early-stone-age-tools

http://geology.com/stories/13/petrified-wood/