1. Mammoth Cave National Park.
Archaeology
This PowerPoint was created by Amy McCray, a trained Anthropologist. You can download and use this PowerPoint for personal or classroom use. Please enjoy it, I hope it is informative and helpful in learning the basics of archaeology and what archaeologists do.
Photo from my work at
Mammoth Cave National Park.

2. Archaeologists DO NOT:
Study dinosaurs.
Just look for pretty or valuable objects.
Just pick up artifacts.
Spend all their time just digging.
Buy, sell, or put a price on artifacts.
Many people have the wrong idea about what archeologists do. But before we learn what they do, lets learn what they don’t do. Archeologists do not study dinosaurs, that is paleontology.
We do not just look for pretty or valuable objects. Every day, seemingly boring items can tell a lot about a person or group.
We don’t just pick up the artifacts we find. Archaeologists must take notes, take photographs, and make maps so that we can recreate how objects are associated or in relation to one another. The placement of items can tell us what an item may have been used for, not just what the item is.
We do not spend all our time digging, that’s actually a minor part of the process—we spend most of our time analyzing artifacts.
We do not buy, sell or put a price on artifacts; professional archaeologists consider this unethical. If you ask an archaeologist they will tell you what something is if they can, but they will not tell you what it’s worth.

3. What Is Archaeology?
Archaeology is one of four sub-disciplines of Anthropology.
Anthropology is the study of people and their biology and culture across space and time.
Anthropology Subdisciplines:
Archaeology
Cultural Anthropology
Linguistic Anthropology
Biological or Physical Anthropology
Archaeology
Culture
Speech
&
Language
So what do we do? What is archeology? Well first Archeology is a sub-discipline of Anthropology. Anthropology is the study of people any place and any time. There are four sub-disciplines or branches of Anthropology: Archeology, Cultural anthropology or the study of living people, linguistic anthropology or the study of language and how it’s changed over time, and biological or physical anthropology is the study of the evolution of man.
Biology of Man

4. What Is Archaeology?
Archaeology is the systematic, scientific recovery and analysis of artifacts in order to answer questions about past human culture and behavior.
Archeology is the systematic, scientific recovery and analysis of artifacts in order to answer questions about past human culture and behavior. But what do these words mean?

5. Archaeology Terms Systematic: A consistent way of studying anything.
Science: Methods and knowledge of studying anything.
Recovery/ Analysis: To collect and study artifacts.
Artifact: Any item resulting from human activity.
Systematic: a consistent way of studying anything. Or doing it the same way every time.
Science is the methods and knowledge of studying anything. Archeologist, like any science use the scientific method.
Recovery/ Analysis is to collect and study artifacts. Archeologists use several methods borrowed from other scientific fields to do this.
An artifact is any item resulting from human activity whether they picked something up to use or made something. Fossils are not artifacts, they were not made by humans.

6. Archaeology Terms
Question-based: Archaeologists study artifacts in order to answer questions about how humans lived.
Past: Archaeologists study human cultures that are no longer living.
Culture: Any learned behavior that is shared with others.
Archeology is a question-based science. Archeologists always develop a question they want answered before they do anything else.
The past can be 50 years ago or 4.5 million years ago. Archeologists study artifacts of people no longer living in order to learn about how they may have lived.
Culture is any learned behavior shared with others. This could be writing, making a pot, or how you relate to family.

7. History of Archaeology
The first archaeologists
Antiquarians or wealthy collectors of artifacts
Early Archaeology
It was a combination of several other sciences concerned with the evolution of man.
1817
Danish archaeologist Christian Jurgensen Thomsen opened the National Museum of Antiquities in Copenhagen to the public.
1859 Origin of Species.
Darwin publishes his book.
1920’s
Archaeology became a fully fledged scientific discipline.
Christian Jurgensen Thomsen
The first archeologists were Antiquarians or wealthy people who collected artifacts The earliest form of archeology was a combination of several other sciences wanting to know about where man came from. In 1817 Danish archeologist Christian Jurgenson Thomsen opened the National Museum Of Antiquities in Copenhagen to the public.
In 1859 Charles Darwin publishes his book, Origin of Species. By the 1920’s Archeology became a fully fledged science in its own right.
Charles
Darwin

8. Early American Archaeology
Earliest American settlers
They debate the origin of American Indians.
1880’s
Archaeologists and anthropologists study Pueblo Indians as direct descendants of the first people in America.
1890’s
Cyrus Thomas of the Bureau of American Ethnology proves the “Moundbuilders” were indeed Native Americans.
Since the time of Columbus, Americans have debated the origin of American Indians. Some archeologists believed the Pueblo Indians of the Southwest could possibly be the direct descendents of early Indians. So archeologists and other anthropologists studied living Pueblos to understand how prehistoric natives may have organized socially, how they made pottery, and many other things. In the 1890’s the myth of the moundbuilders was proven. Many people in the past said that Native Americans were not smart enough to build these mounds found all over the Southeastern United States. The mounds are actually very elaborate burials.
Indian burial mound in Georgia.

9. Modern Scientific Archaeology
The invention of modern scientific excavation techniques
Using a multidisciplinary approach to study people.
Increasing impact of science on archaeology
Refinement of archaeological theory.
DNA
Botany
Archeology as we know it today is a culmination or final outcome of years of practice. The invention and use of modern tools contributed. Another key factor is the multidisciplinary approach and impact of other sciences. Archeologists use many other specialist in their work. The photos illustrate just some of the other sciences archeology borrows from. Many of the theories archeologists first reported have long been proven false. Many early archeologist took an very egocentric view of how the world and humans developed. Meaning, they only saw the world from their culture, feeling that others were not smart enough to have done some things, like the Moundbuilders of the U.S.
Dendrochronology

10. Academic Goals of Archeology
Culture History
Sequence of events
How artifacts change over time
Explain why events happened.
Lifeways Reconstruction
Technology, subsistence, exchange, settlement, social organization, ideology, etc.
Culture Process
Theoretical models on lifeways.
The academic goals of archeology are the reasons archeologists do what they do. This is the information that they are trying to learn. One of them is cultural history, or how, why, and when things changed over time. The second is lifeways reconstruction or what people did in the past. This could be anything from the tools they made and how they used them, how and where they decided to live, how they organized themselves socially, and what their beliefs were. The third is culture process. Over time archeologists have developed theories on how people lives by the evidence left behind. They then created models or plans, these models are applied to new discoveries.
Photo from my work at Mammoth Cave National Park.

11. Applied Goals of Archaeology
Conveying the past as it’s known through archaeology.
The proper way to do archaeology.
Archaeology is a profession.
Public Education
Museum exhibits
Television shows
Documentary films
Public lectures, digs, or workshops.
Archeologists are trying to show that we can learn about our past through archeology and that there is a proper way to do it. They also want to stress that archeology is a profession, it takes years of training and that no one should dig up or take artifacts without proper training. The other thing archeologists are trying to do is educate the public, to help teach people why our culture is important and interesting and worth saving to teach everyone. This can be done in many ways, some of which are listed.

12. Archaeology Specialties
Prehistoric Archaeology
Before writing.
Historical Archaeology
Document/writing assisted
Classical Archaeology
Greek and Roman
Biblical Archaeology
Underwater Archaeology
Shipwrecks or anything else under water.
Industrial Archaeology
Industrial Revolution and other modern structures
Egyptologists, Mayanists, Assyriologists
Study of specific civilizations or time periods.
Cultural Resource Management
Management and assesment of significant cultural resources.
Many archeologists go on in their training to specialize in specific times, places, or environments. The ones listed above are the few of many special interests.
PowerPoint created by Amy J McCray, 2005, updated 2007.

13. References
Applegate, Darlene. “Anth 130” In-class notes. Western Kentucky University, Spring 2004.
Fagan, Brian M. Archaeology: A Brief Introduction. New Jersey: Lindbriar Corp., 2003.
Society for American Archaeology. 19 September <