Bill Rathje was an archaeologist who pioneered the field of garbology, studying modern trash to learn more about what society discards. Garbologists excavate and analyze the contents of city landfills to determine the societal patterns of wastefulness. In his book, Garbology: Our Dirty Love Affair with Trash, Edward Humes reports that “17 percent of the garbage by weight… consisted of food waste,” and “nearly equal portions were completely edible” as compared to legitimate trash (Humes 159). This pinnacle of extremely high resource use and waste has been dubbed the Classical Period in a civilization’s chronological arc. In previous civilizations, this period of resource abuse has been quickly followed by a sharp decline in amount of available resources, and consequently the decline of the entire civilization.

Twin Moai statues in the quarry Rano Raraku

One such civilization that parallels our current global situation is a 63-square mile island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean called Rapa Nui. By the 1700s, transmission of diseases from South America decimated the island’s population, and that toll was only worsened by the rampant slave trade in that area. There was little evidence of a once complex society with the ability to coordinate infrastructure capable of feeding tens of thousands of people and constructing massive stone Moai statues.

However, archaeologists have discovered plenty of evidence for logical explanations regarding this isolated civilization and its gigantic Moai by performing a wide variety of tests, including radiocarbon dating and palynology. Through this evidence, scientists are able to track the use of resources on the island throughout the rise and fall of this civilization. As the islanders increased their resource exploitation, primarily by felling large palm trees, their production, output, and sophistication greatly increased.

The complete deforestation of Rapa Nui is evidenced by the lack of a single tree

However, overhunting and vast deforestation led to immediate consequences such as losses of raw materials, wild-caught foods, and crop yields (Diamond 116). The long-term consequences of the islanders’ irresponsibility with their resources “start with starvation, a population crash, and a descent into cannibalism” (Diamond 119). Clearly, this ancient people went through the predictable rise and fall of all great civilizations to date.

It may seem drastic, but this is directly analogous to our current global situation, as we are presumably isolated in space with many environmental issues pressuring our large-scale decisions. However, it is not only the major decisions about removing forests that cause all of the harm to our environment, and in turn our civilization. Rather, the small decisions we make every day about relatively simple things can make the big difference. Through his “groundbreaking” research, Rathje has provided us with invaluable insight into how we are readily approaching the end of our Classical Period. Once we use up all of these resources, our civilization will begin to collapse and continue to spiral downward. But if we each make conscious effort to make the little decisions better for our future environment, we can extend our Classical Period far into the future.

Sources:

Diamond, Jared M. Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed. New York: Viking, 2005. Print.

Humes, Edward. Garbology: Our Dirty Love Affair with Trash. New York: Avery, 2012. Print.

Images:

Twin Moais

Massive Deforestation on Rapa Nui

Further Reading:

Jared Diamond TED Talk: Why do societies collapse?

University of Washington Garbology Project

Garbage is a term that evokes images of filth and grime. However, garbage is useful to archaeology. Recently, archaeologists have analyzed garbage in landfills to gain better insight into the way people think and to better understand cultures and their value systems. Landfills can be found all over the globe, but finding garbage from the distant past proves more difficult, as archaeologists must find sites where refuse is still intact. Fortunately, many of these kinds of sites have been identified.

Interestingly, some of the best preserved garbage from the past few centuries has been found in toilets. A team of archaeologists recently uncovered a number of privy pits in Philadelphia, PA, from the 18th century. One of these pits was dated to 1776, placing it and its contents at the beginning of the American Revolution both in location and time. It is more than likely that this pit was dug around the time when Benjamin and Mary Humphreys bought a house at its location on July 10th, 1776. This pit, labelled Feature 16, had an interesting array of refuse within. In one of the holes, items typical of a tavern were found, such as tankards, drinking glasses, bowls, and alcohol bottles, many of which had been patched or repaired. Using paper records, the archaeologists found that Mary Humphreys had been arrested in July of 1783 for running an illegal tavern. These two radically different pieces of evidence work together to tell a story of a Revolutionary-era woman and her “disorderly house.”

The remains of a punch bowl found in Feature 16. The ship depicted carried a message from Philadelphia to Great Britain to pressure Parliament into repealing the Stamp Act in 1765.

Recent archaeological studies in Pompeii have been focused on studying garbage to understand how ancient people disposed of their unwanted goods. Researchers found cracked dishware, dented metal-ware, and items with broken handles in an old farmhouse, and patched amphoras at a wine-bottling facility, which would suggest that these Romans did not throw things away and instead repaired and reused them until they were completely unusable. Archaeologists have also not been able to locate glass or ceramics on the streets of the ancient city, furthering this theory.

A street uncovered in the ruins of Pompeii

Analyzing garbage from before the Industrial Revolution reveals much about how people valued their belongings. After the Industrial Revolution, the concept of “disposable goods” arose. This is evident in what we throw away, from plastic wrap to half eaten meals. Garbage found from before this time reveals reveals artifacts that had been patched up and repaired numerous times until they were no longer usable. This reflects an entirely different mentality. What was thrown away had value, and was only discarded reluctantly after it had been well-worn. Histories gleaned from garbage are important, but understanding how people value their belongings is just as important to archaeology.

Links:

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2016/07/america-revolution-independence-philadelphia-colony-archaeology-garbage-history/

http://www.archaeology.org/news/5217-170120-italy-pompeii-trash

Images:

Punch Bowl

Pompeii

Further Reading:

Ancient Trash Collection

Oxyrhynchus

Tollund man, discovered in a bog in Denmark in 1950, is so well preserved that the two brothers who found him thought he was a recent murder victim. Based on carbon testing, he lived during the Iron age and died around 3-400 BC aged 30-40 years. After being hanged he was laid in the peat bog in a sheepskin cap, a belt, and a noose tied around his neck. Instead of decomposing, the peat moss killed bacteria and prevented the decomposition of the body.

Tollund Man’s Preserved Remains

Ever since Tollund man was found, both archeologists and the media have debated and posed questions about the manner of his death. Superficially, the circumstances of Tollund man’s death seems to correspond with a section of Tacitus’ later description of the Semnones, a germanic tribe. He wrote in the second century, that, “They hang traitors and renegades in trees, cowards, combat evaders (afraid to go to war) and unnaturally immoral people they lower into filthy swamps and cover them with branches”(“Why Did He Have to Die?”). However, Tacitus was writing about 400 years after Tollund man was left in the bog and Tollund man’s burial does not seem to line up with the burial of a criminal. Archeologists have pointed out that he was placed in the bog in a sleeping position. It is also likely that those who buried him closed his eyes and mouth after death. Because of this his death is often seen as a sacrifice to a god. Other bog bodies do not show the same special treatment that Tollund man’s does. The bodies of Kayhausen boy (500-100 B.C.) and Yde girl (54 B.C.-128 A.D.) may have had physical deformities that ultimately led to violent deaths. Yde girl’s hair was also shaved on one side a sign that she might have been an adulteress (French).

Tollund Man’s Preserved Head

Though Tollund man was likely put in the peat bog to be forgotten, either as a criminal or more likely as a sacrifice to the gods, it was this location that insured his preservation. Bogs are treasure troves for modern archeologist, and the artifacts recovered from them can often reveal information about people’s lives that would not otherwise survive. Bodies are not the only things found in peat bogs, archeologist and locals have also found jewelry, weaponry, battle armor, farming equipment, and even butter (French). In the peat surround the Tollund man two peat spades and a wooden walkway were also found (“The Bog Where the Tollund Man Was Discovered”). Reconstructed image of peat cutting during the Iron age, when Tollund Man would have lived. The existence of these artifacts also point to the important role that peat bogs also played for ancient cultures. It has been argued peat bogs, were seen as ‘gateways to the spiritual world’ as well as a source of fuels, as it is still seen today (French). All together the bog artifacts can indicate what peat bogs meant to Iron age cultures and can help unravel the continued questions that the Tollund man and other bog bodies pose.

Reconstructed image of peat-cutting during the Iron Age

Sources:
French, Kristen C. “The Curious Case of the Bog Bodies – Issue 27: Dark Matter.” Nautilus. N.p., 06 Aug. 2015. Web. 02 Feb. 2017. http://nautil.us/issue/27/dark-matter/the-curious-case-of-the-bog-bodies
“Why Did He Have to Die?” The Tollund Man – Death. Silkeborg Museum and Amtscentret for Undervisning, 2004. Web. 02 Feb. 2017. http://www.tollundman.dk/doeden.asp
“The Bog Where the Tollund Man Was Discovered.” The Tollund Man – The Bog. Silkeborg Museum and Amtscentret for Undervisning, 2004. Web. 02 Feb. 2017. http://www.tollundman.dk/mosen.asp

Read More:
More on the Tollund Man: http://www.atlasobscura.com/places/tollund-man
Bog bodies and violence: http://archive.archaeology.org/online/features/bog/violence1.html
Bog bodies poetry and science: https://www.elsevier.com/connect/the-bone-vault-poetry-and-palaeontology-of-the-bogs