Find more facts and information on our topic page about
archaeology
archaeology
archaeology The study of the past of humankind, especially in the prehistoric period, and usually by excavation. Archaeological research includes four stages. The most obvious is recovery of material by excavation, chance find, surface survey, and observation from the air. Digging remains crucial because it alone can recover the precise context of finds, without which they lose much of their significance. It can take a wide variety of forms depending on the nature of the site – an isolated grave, a long-occupied cave, a wreck on the sea-bed, a standing building, a modern construction site, and many more. Then, finds have to be turned into evidence by analysis. Their form, composition, date, and associations all have information to impart. Typology (study of changes in forms) can link finds from different sites. A whole battery of scientific and mathematical aids can be brought to bear at this stage. Thirdly, the results have to be built into a coherent story to give an account of what happened when. Finally, and often the most difficult task, reasons must be sought for the processes of cultural change.
Cite this article
Pick a style below, and copy the text for your bibliography.
|
Archaeology in the ex-USSR: post-perestroyka problems.
Magazine article from: Antiquity; 3/1/1993; ; 700+ words
; ...orientation. From the very beginning the archaeology in the USSR was largely viewed as a...for Soviet theoretical and practical archaeology. Marr's concept was refuted after...Marxism'. The structure of Soviet archaeology was repeatedly modified in the course...
|
|
Archaeology and Biblical Interpretation / The Archaeology of Israel: Construction the Past, Interpreting the Present
Magazine article from: The Catholic Biblical Quarterly; 1/1/1999; ; 700+ words
; JOHN R. BARTLETT (ed.), Archaeology and Biblical Interpretation...and DAVID SMALL (eds.), The Archaeology of Israel: Constructing the Past...judicious and respectful combining of archaeology and textual analysis. The first...
|
|
|
Archaeology on the World Wide Web: a user's field-guide.(Special Section: Electronic Archaeology)
Magazine article from: Antiquity; 12/1/1997; ; 700+ words
; ...visiting an unfamiliar place to look at the archaeology. You want to know if there is anything...the categories of information about archaeology on the WWW, illustrated by good examples...are currently three registered VLs for archaeology, one for archaeology generally, another...
|
|
|
Brazilian archaeology from a Brazilian perspective.(Special Section: Issues in Brazilian Archaeology)
Magazine article from: Antiquity; 9/1/1998; ; 700+ words
; Archaeology in Brazil shares many empirical similarities...been thought of as shaping Brazilian archaeology and its failure to integrate into a...American or international context. Foreign archaeology journals traditionally published little...
|
|
|
Archaeology: the loss of isolation. (Special Section: David Clarke's 'Archaeology: The Loss of Innocence' (1973) 25 Years After)
Magazine article from: Antiquity; 9/1/1998; ; 700+ words
; ...separate David Clarke's paper 'Archaeology: the loss of innocence' and...publication of Symbolic and structural archaeology (Hodder 1982), which may be...beginning of a 'post-processual' archaeology. Many of the ideas put forward...
|
|
Archaeology of Asia.(Book review)
Magazine article from: Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute; 12/1/2006; ; 700+ words
; STARK, MIRIAM T. (ed.). Archaeology of Asia. xvi, 364 pp., maps, tables, figs...not clear to this reviewer if such terms as 'Asian archaeology' and 'global archaeology' are meaningful in any sense except that these enable...
|
|
Practicing Archaeology: A Training Manual for Cultural Resources Archaeology
Magazine article from: Southeastern Archaeology; 7/1/2006; ; 700+ words
; Practicing Archaeology: A Training Manual for Cultural Resources Archaeology. THOMAS W. NEUMAN and ROBERT M. SANFORD. AltaMira...school dedicated to the subject of practicing archaeology; this volume has served as the textbook. According...
|
|
|
Archaeology as cultural history: words and things in Iron Age Greece.(The archaeology of ancient Greece, The temple complex) (book review)
Magazine article from: Antiquity; 3/1/2002; ; 700+ words
; IAN MORRIS. Archaeology as cultural history: words and things...34.95. JAMES WHITLEY. The archaeology of ancient Greece. xxvi+484 pages...20 [pounds sterling]. What Greek archaeology is and what it should be are key questions...
|
|
Archaeology at the crossroads. (efforts to make archaeology more 'people-friendly')
Magazine article from: History Today; 1/1/1998; ; 700+ words
; Archaeology has changed, is changing, but needs...the Association of Local Government Archaeology Officers, came almost exactly seven...new planning policy guidance note on archaeology. That guidance note, `PPG16', has...
|
|
|
Archaeology in Greek higher education.
Magazine article from: Antiquity; 3/1/2000; ; 700+ words
; ...universities, training, curriculum, classical archaeology The Greek past The teaching of archaeology in higher education in Greece cannot be...isolation from the broader realms of antiquity, archaeology and the past in modern Greek society and...
|
|
Archaeology
Encyclopedia entry from: UXL Encyclopedia of Science
Archaeology Archaeology is the scientific recovery and study of artifacts (objects made...disposable plastic bottles found at modern dump sites. Thus, studies in archaeology can extend from the beginning of human prehistory to the most recent...
|
|
Slave Lives, Archaeology of
Encyclopedia entry from: International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences
Slave Lives, Archaeology of The archaeology of slavery is a branch of historical archaeology focused on the analysis and interpretation of slavery through the use of material remains. The archaeology of slavery was originally referred to as plantation...
|
|
|
Nautical Archaeology
Encyclopedia entry from: UXL Encyclopedia of Science
Nautical archaeology Nautical archaeology (pronounced NAW-tih-kul ar-kee-OL-low-jee) is...or things deliberately thrown into the ocean, nautical archaeology is but another way of exploring and learning more about the...
|
|
archaeology
Book article from: The Oxford Companion to British History
archaeology as a discipline attempts to reconstruct...written sources. However, increasingly archaeology has been able to fill in gaps, for...for’). In the 19th cent. archaeology rapidly established itself as the only...
|
|
biblical archaeology
Book article from: The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition
biblical archaeology term applied to the archaeology of the biblical lands, especially those of the ancient...re-create the cultural setting of its time. Biblical archaeology developed in earnest in the early part of the 19th cent...
|
