What is Archaeology?

Fossils/Artifacts An archaeologist is someone who tries to figure out what life was like in the past by looking at the remains of ancient people – their fossils and their artifacts. An archaeologist must know the difference between an artifact and a fossil. Fossils are remains of living things (plants, animals, people), not of things that were made. Artifacts are remains of things that were made, not the remains of living things.

What is a site? A "site" is a place archaeologists wish to explore. At the site, archaeologists dig to look for the remains of past civilizations. That is why they call the site at which they are working a “dig”.

Finding a site How do archaeologists find sites to explore? 1. They think about what people need to stay alive. Some of those things include access to clean drinking water, a protected place to live, and easy access to trade routes. With this in mind, archaeologists look for remains of civilizations along the banks of rivers and streams.

Finding a site 2. They check out reports of artifacts that have been discovered. Artifacts have been discovered by farmers and construction companies while working at their jobs. 3. They check the land from the air, looking for large depressions that could be the ruins of an ancient living area. 4. They use scientific instruments like radar and sonar to look for ruins.

Permission to Dig An archaeologist must receive permission to explore a site. The owner of the land must grant permission. Sometimes the government of a country must issue permits.  Once permission is received, archaeologists work in teams to survey the area. While they explore, they look for evidence that people once lived in the area. Evidence includes fossils, artifacts, and structures.

Grids & Recording Finds Before they begin digging, archaeologists design a grid on the ground using stakes and string. Since they excavate many grids in a dig, each of these “Test Units” is given a number. Each square in the grid must be carefully searched. A record must be kept of anything found, Every inch of the unit must be inspected and every artifact and soil anomaly carefully recorded. The team usually digs down 10cm at a time to see what is in the ground at each level.

Tools of the Trade The tools they use are sometimes very simple. Tools include trowels, brushes, spoons, mesh screens, saws, buckets, dustpans, shovels, wheelbarrows, and even machetes! They search each unit very carefully. Digging at a site is slow and careful work. 8

Back in the Lab Once objects are labeled and removed from a site, they are taken to a lab, relabeled, and placed into a database. Archaeologists use this information to put together pieces of the past. It takes a great deal of education, training, patience, and attention to detail to work as an archaeologist.

Basic Rules of Archaeology Learn how to read the earth. A basic knowledge of geology is necessary to understand the process of deposition that affects all archaeological sites. This includes learning about soil types, vegetation, animal and insect disturbances, and the natural strata below the surface.

The Law of Superposition Soil and Rock layers beneath the surface form natural groupings called Strata. The law of superposition states that if these strata are undisturbed, the surface layer is the most recent to form, with all layers beneath getting progressively older as they go deeper into the ground

Stratigraphy The word stratigraphy refers to the order of these strata in relation to each other and what we find in them. Stratigraphy helps us determine the relative age of artifacts under the ground, as well as what comes from the same period in history as something else.

Typology Man made artifacts go through changes over time; whether it's shape or material or decoration- the pattern of these changes is called a “Typology”

The Challenge to Archaeology We must start with what's in the ground. From our knowledge of geology and excavation experience we examine the stratigraphy of the site's material evidence... This helps us determine what period the materials are from, how they ended up in the ground, and what the site looked like when it was functioning.

The Challenge to Archaeology As we study the artifacts and structural features, it's important to look for changes in the typology of these materials. There are many reasons a people changes the way they use their resources. A major change will often introduce a new period in a people's history and material culture.

Conclusion It's only after we have uncovered and studied the archaeological remains of a culture that we can begin to understand who they were, what happened to them, and how they lived in the past...