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| Archeology works at Iža locality near Komárno Photo Credit: Trnava University |
Archaeology (Branch of Anthropology) is the scientific study of the human past through the recovery and analysis of material remains. It seeks to reconstruct and understand past human behaviors, cultural practices, and societal development by examining the artifacts, structures, and environmental data that people left behind.
Archaeology is the primary method for investigating human history before the invention of writing (representing ~99% of the human story), and it provides a crucial complementary perspective for time periods that do have written records.
The Branches of Archaeology
Archaeology is a broad discipline often specialized by time period, geographic region, or methodology:
- Prehistoric Archaeology: Studies societies that existed before the development of written records. This field relies entirely on material evidence to reconstruct human life, from early human ancestors to the emergence of the first states.
- Historical Archaeology: Studies societies that did have written records. This field uses material culture to supplement, verify, correct, or challenge the historical (written) record, often providing powerful insights into the lives of everyday people, the disenfranchised, and groups left out of formal histories.
- Underwater Archaeology: Explores submerged archaeological sites, including shipwrecks, sunken cities, and prehistoric landscapes now covered by water, to understand past maritime activities, trade, and coastal life.
- Bioarchaeology: The study of human skeletal remains from archaeological contexts. It provides direct evidence about the health, diet, disease, injuries, and demography of past populations.
- Zooarchaeology: The study of animal remains (bones, teeth, shells) from archaeological sites to understand past human-animal interactions, such as diet, domestication, hunting patterns, and ritual use.
- Paleoethnobotany: The study of plant remains (seeds, pollen, charcoal) from archaeological sites to reconstruct past environments, human diets, and the origins of agriculture and plant domestication.
Core Concepts and Methods
- Artifacts: Portable objects made, modified, or used by humans, such as stone tools, pottery, metal weapons, or jewelry.
- Features: Non-portable, human-made elements of a site that cannot be removed without being destroyed, such as hearths, postholes, building foundations, or burial pits.
- Ecofacts: Natural, organic, or environmental remains that provide information about the past environment and human activities, such as animal bones, seeds, pollen, or soils.
- Site: A distinct location with concentrated evidence of past human activity.
- Context: The precise location of an artifact, feature, or ecofact in three-dimensional space and its relationship to all other items and layers (strata) at a site. Context is the most important concept in archaeology; an artifact removed from its context (e.g., by a looter) loses almost all of its scientific value.
- Stratigraphy: The study of the layers (strata) of soil and debris at a site. Based on the Law of Superposition, in an undisturbed sequence, the oldest layers are at the bottom and the youngest are at the top. This is the primary method for establishing the relative chronology of a site.
- Excavation: The systematic and destructive process of uncovering archaeological remains. Because excavation is destructive, it must be accompanied by meticulous documentation (e.g., mapping, photography, detailed notes) to record context before it is removed.
Relevance of Archaeology
Archaeology provides the only long-term perspective on the human condition. It allows us to study the origins of key human innovations (like agriculture, cities, and states) and to track large-scale processes over millennia, such as human responses to climate change, the development of social inequality, and the history of human health and disease. Its findings are essential for cultural heritage management and preserving a shared human past for the future.
Category page: Archaeology
Reference Number: cat110925_02
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