BANC 134 Solved Guess Paper 2026 | Fundamentals of Archaeological Anthropology | IGNOU BAG and BAM

Methods and Types of Excavation

Question: What is excavation? Critically discuss the various methods of excavation used in prehistoric archaeology with suitable examples.

Meaning of Excavation

As opposed to exploration, excavation is the study of under-surface material by digging it out. It must have a definite objective, otherwise it becomes a waste. It is not bulldozing the earth; it is done carefully and with a clear purpose, to find the cultural sequence of a site and to record the cultural levels lying below the soil.

Two Basic Types of Digging

1. Vertical digging: finds the cultural levels lying one over the other, with tight control over stratigraphy.
2. Horizontal digging: shows how materials in the same level relate to each other and gives an areal view of the site.

Kinds of Excavation

Test pit or trial trench (sondage): dug first, before any large excavation. Wheeler (1956) had to take his trial trench 11 feet below sea level at Arikamedu in Puducherry, and at Mohenjodaro he went 10 feet below the water table with a water pump running.

Excavation of large areas: once the vertical sequence is known, trenches are extended sideways to expose habitation levels, hearths and structures.

Five Other Methods Listed in the IGNOU Book

1. Trenching: long, narrow trenches for a cross-section of the site, useful for houses, cemeteries and activity areas.
2. Strip method: used on mounds and barrows, cutting from the edge towards the centre in 5-foot strips.
3. Quadrant method: the mound is split into four quadrants with baulks three feet or wider.
4. Area or block excavation: a grid of squares with a two-foot baulk kept between blocks until the end.
5. Stripping excavation: removes the entire surface to expose the stable land below; Binford (1972) saw it as the third phase after test pit and area excavation.

Datum Point and Equipment

Every excavation needs a datum point and a datum line, and all measurements are taken from them. Wheeler also recommended a control trench for recording stratigraphy. The standard kit includes shovels, picks, half-inch and quarter-inch screens, a 50 to 100 foot measuring tape, trowels, brushes, graph paper, bags, tags and a camera.

Conclusion: Excavation is scientific, purposeful digging that recovers material in its stratigraphic context. Since digging destroys the site as it goes, careful recording matters as much as the digging itself.

Types and Techniques of Exploration

Question: Define exploration in archaeology. Briefly examine the various types of exploratory methods used in archaeological investigations.

Meaning of Exploration

Exploration is the systematic surface survey carried out to find places where early humans lived and worked. It starts with collecting artefacts and associated material from the surface, and it always comes before excavation.

Aims and Area Selection

The IGNOU book gives two purposes: locating sites as part of salvage archaeology, and locating sites to answer research problems framed in advance. Before going to the field, the explorer studies geomorphology, drainage, land contour, relief, vegetation and soil, along with topographic sheets and aerial photographs.

A. Extensive Exploration

1. General background: tools, habitation grounds, walls, roads and burials in the area.
2. Stratigraphic linkage: relating finds to geological strata so tools can be typed and staged.
3. Cultural correlation: matching tool types to the region's known cultural stages.
4. Environmental reconstruction: reading past environments from exposed sections and relief.
5. Ethnological link: connecting past culture to present-day practices in the region (Greene, 2003).

B. Intensive Exploration and the Grid System

Intensive work has specific objectives. A datum point is fixed, and two lines are drawn from it: the Site Meridian running north to south and the Base Line at a right angle. Stakes and strings divide the area into numbered squares, and every find is recorded against its square. Debitage matters as much as finished tools, since it reveals how the tools were made.

Indian Examples

• Robert Bruce Foote: the Father of Indian Prehistory, who found the first handaxe at Pallavaram near Chennai in 1863.
• Yale-Cambridge Expedition (1936): explored the Kashmir Valley, Punjab Plateau, Narmada and Kortallayar valleys.
• De Terra and Patterson (1939): rebuilt the glacial sequence of the Pir Panjal and found the Soan culture in the Potwar Plateau.

Conclusion: Exploration is the first and indispensable step of fieldwork. Its two types, extensive and intensive, and the grid-based recording system turn a random walk over the land into scientific evidence.

Cenozoic Era, Quaternary Period and Human Evolution

Question: Discuss the importance of the Cenozoic Era in understanding human evolution. Briefly explain the Quaternary Period, Pleistocene glaciations, and pluvials and interpluvials.

Meaning of the Cenozoic Era

Cenozoic means "new life", from the Greek kainos (new) and zoico (animal life). It began about 65 million years ago, after the non-avian dinosaurs died out, and continues today. It is called the Age of Mammals, and the evolution of fossil primates, including humans, took place within it.

Pleistocene Glaciations

The Pleistocene was not one long Ice Age. It was a chain of cold glacials broken by warmer interglacials, and at the peak ice sheets reached as far south as 39° N. Penck and Bruckner named four Alpine glaciations: Gunz (about 600,000 BP), Mindel (400,000 BP), Riss (200,000 BP) and Würm (100,000 BP).

The evidence includes moraines, U-shaped and hanging valleys, erratics, shifts in sea level, loess such as the Karewa deposits of Kashmir, and river terraces.

Pluvials and Interpluvials

While the north went through glacials, the tropics passed through wet pluvials and dry interpluvials. River terraces show alternating gravel and silt, as on the Subarnarekha, Luni, Narmada and Kortallayar. In Kenya, Lakes Nakuru, Elementaita and Naivasha merged into one lake during pluvial peaks.

Link to Human Evolution

Homo sapiens evolved in the Pleistocene and spread across the world. Lower Palaeolithic cultures match the early Pleistocene, Middle Palaeolithic the upper Pleistocene and Upper Palaeolithic the late Pleistocene, while the Holocene brought farming, metals and civilisation.

Conclusion: The Cenozoic, and the Quaternary in particular, is the climatic stage on which human evolution played out. Without this framework, fossils and tools cannot be placed in time.

Upper Palaeolithic Tools and Techniques

Question: Briefly describe the stone tools and techniques of the Upper Palaeolithic culture with suitable diagrams. Mention major Indian sites.

Meaning of Upper Palaeolithic

The Upper Palaeolithic is marked by blade and burin industries made by fully modern humans, Homo sapiens sapiens, who also worked bone, antler and ivory. It ran roughly from 40,000 BCE to 8,000 BCE. In India, bone tools and art are rare because of the tropical monsoon climate, so some scholars prefer the term Flake-Blade culture.

Blade Technique

A cylindrical core is chosen and one end is struck off to make a striking platform. Long flakes are removed along the sides, and a final blow at the platform detaches a thin blade. A true blade is thin, long and almost parallel-sided, its scars are parallel too, and the platform sits at 90° to the scar axis.

Two supporting methods were used: the punch technique, where a stone, bone or wood punch sits between hammer and core, and the backing technique, where one edge is blunted so the blade can be gripped.

Stone Tools

• Knife blades: retouched or plain blades; backed knives have one blunted edge.
• Borer or awl: a thick point made by cutting two notches on either side.
• Burin or graver: a chisel edge formed by two oblique cuts, used for engraving bone and cave walls.

Bone Tools

The IGNOU book lists six: baton-de-commandement, fish hooks, harpoons (from barbless to double-row barbs), needles, bone lance points and the spear thrower.

Indian Sites

• Renigunta (Andhra Pradesh): blade localities along the Ralla-Kalava near Tirupati, reported by M.L.K. Murthy.
• Muchchatka Chintamani Gavi (Kurnool): the first bone-tool industry from a primary context, 90.30% bone to 9.70% stone.
• Bhimbetka (Raisen, Madhya Pradesh): a layer between Middle Palaeolithic and Mesolithic with 6 to 10 cm blades, burins and end-scrapers.

Diagram tip from the file: draw five tools in one row (end-scraper, backed blade, Gravettian point, tanged point and burin), label them a to e and add a 2 cm scale bar. Even a rough labelled sketch can add three to five marks.

Conclusion: The blade technique, backed by punching and blunting, defines the Upper Palaeolithic. Renigunta, Muchchatka Chintamani Gavi and Bhimbetka confirm it as a distinct stage in India.

Ethnoarchaeology, Its Importance and Application

Question: Define Ethnoarchaeology. Discuss its importance and application in archaeological studies with suitable examples.

Meaning of Ethnoarchaeology

Stanislawski (1974) describes it as the direct field study of how living, non-industrial people make, use and discard artefacts, carried out to build better models for archaeological inference. Gould (1978) calls it ethnographic research for an archaeological purpose. David and Kramer (2001) add that it is neither a theory nor a method but a research strategy.

Origin and Growth

Jesse Fewkes first used the term around 1900. Early studies looked at hunter-gatherer camps to interpret early campsites at Olduvai Gorge. Today it covers tool manufacture, discard, use of space, style and how sites are abandoned and decay.

Analogy and the Direct Historical Approach

1. Formal analogy: objects that look alike are assumed to share other traits. Gould (1971) found Mousterian Quina scrapers had steeper edges than modern Aboriginal scrapers, suggesting heavier retouching.
2. Relational analogy: the link between the living and the ancient artefact must be proved, not just assumed (Lane, 2014).

The direct historical approach moves from the known to the unknown, using living cultures closely related to the archaeological one.

Case Studies

!Kung San, Kalahari: Richard Lee (1976) studied food collecting and hunting, while John Yellen (1977) mapped hearths and camps. Yellen noticed that skins were pegged out away from living areas and that activity areas shifted into shade on hot days.

Nunamiut Eskimo, Alaska: Lewis Binford (1978) studied a people who get 80% of their food from caribou. He showed that local adaptation creates site variation, even when the underlying decision-making stays the same.

Conclusion: Ethnoarchaeology bridges present behaviour and past remains. Through analogy and case studies like the San and the Nunamiut, it helps archaeologists read the record with far more confidence.