Archaeology's Super Power: Telling Untold Stories and, Let's Face It, Making History More Intriguing!

Often we hear that history is written by the victor. Well, more often than not, that author is also male. In 2015, a survey of popular history books found that 75.8% of all history titles published that year were written by male authors. That same year 71.7% of all biographies were written about men and only 6% of male biographers wrote about women. A National Endowment for the Arts report found that men are more likely to read nonfiction than women, therefore, overwhelmingly men are writing about men for a male audience. So, what does this have to do with archaeology you ask? 

One of the biggest strengths of archaeology is its ability to tell the story of those that are not often written about in the history books. Women, children, slaves, immigrants, the poor, minorities, the disenfranchised...they all have left something behind to be found by archaeologists later and they all have a story to tell. And archaeologists then have the distinct honor of revealing those stories. Archaeology has the ability to round out our understanding of history, making it more complete and often, more accurate (and let's face it, more intriguing too). Archaeology is essentially written by those who created it, through careful interpretation by the archaeologist. There is no embellishment, or at least, if the archaeology is done well, there shouldn't be. Archaeology lets the artifacts and features left by previous occupants, no matter who they were, tell their story. 

There have been several instances where an archaeological investigation has challenged our traditional views on gender and sex.  It is important to note that while we may find skeletal remains that are biologically female, we cannot necessarily determine what gender that individual identified as. Even so, archaeology has the ability to provide us with information that gives us a more accurate and nuanced interpretation of sex and gender roles throughout history, based on evidence. Indeed, it is apparent that history is no stranger to challenging the  notion of gender binaries or "traditional" gender roles.

We hold common assumptions, some of which are based on anthropological evidence of more recent cultures. But those assumptions do not necessarily hold true for cultures that existed long ago. For example, based on anthropological studies, we have long held the assumption that men hunted and women gathered in hunter-gatherer societies. These "traditional" roles were observed by anthropologists in the 19th century and many have assumed that they stemmed from a long tradition of similar roles in more ancient cultures. Archaeological evidence is showing that this isn't necessarily the case. In 2018, the excavation of a hunter in Peru was identified as biologically female. The burial dated to about 9,000 years old, and included an extensive kit of hunting tools. Many considered this to be "the exception", but an analysis of previously discovered burials showed that 30% to 50% of big game hunters were potentially biologically female. 

Artistic rendering of what the Birka female Viking
warrior may have looked like, by Tancredi Valeri.
(image from Smithsonian Magazine).

There have long been tales of female Viking warriors, but scant evidence to show they were real. It was long thought of as just a myth. Legends existed of the "Shield Maidens", as many call them. In 1878, an excavation took place in Birka, a Viking village in Sweden. Archaeologists uncovered numerous burials, including one 10th century ornate burial of a warrior. It was only one of two that had a complete set of weaponry. In 2017, genomic testing found that the skeletal material was biologically female. The artifacts within her burial lead archaeologists to believe that she was of high status in the military. In the past, archaeologists have misidentified the biological sex of human remains because they made assumptions based on the grave goods buried with the individual, rather than examining the skeletal remains. Technological advances in skeletal analysis are allowing us the opportunity to more accurately interpret these burials based on the individual, not just the items found in their grave.

We have discussed women in archaeology as a celebration of both Florida Archaeology Month and Women's History Month, but we thought this was also a chance for us to share how archaeology helps to shed light on women of the past, as well as others not often written about. Some have gone so far as to say that as more women enter the field of archaeology, we will see more extensive archaeological studies of gender and women. While this may be true, we also need to be careful not to pigeonhole archaeologists who identify as female or any other minority. That being said, there have been women archaeologists that have devoted their career to studying women of the past, including everyone from prostitutes to homemakers. All of which is fascinating and challenges our notion of the popular narratives of gender, the disenfranchised, and minorities, and thus provides us with a more complete and accurate interpretation of our past.