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ArchaeologyFrom Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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Archaeology, or archeology,[1] is the study of human activity in the past, primarily through therecovery and analysis of the material culture and environmental data that they have left behind,which includes artifacts, architecture, biofacts (also known as eco-facts) and cultural landscapes(the archaeological record). Because archaeology employs a wide range of different procedures,

it can be considered to be both a science and a humanity,[2] and in the United States it is thought

of as a branch of anthropology,[3] although in Europe it is viewed as a separate discipline.

Archaeology studies human prehistory and history from the development of the first stone tools in

eastern Africa 4 million years ago up until recent decades.[4] (Archaeology does not include thediscipline of paleontology.) It is of most importance for learning about prehistoric societies, whenthere are no written records for historians to study, making up over 99% of total human history,

from the Paleolithic until the advent of literacy in any given society.[2] Archaeology has variousgoals, which range from studying human evolution to cultural evolution and understanding culture

history.[5]

The discipline involves surveying, excavation and eventually analysis of data collected to learnmore about the past. In broad scope, archaeology relies on cross-disciplinary research. It draws

upon anthropology, history, art history, classics, ethnology, geography,[6] geology,[7][8][9]

linguistics, semiology, physics, information sciences, chemistry, statistics, paleoecology,paleontology, paleozoology, paleoethnobotany, and paleobotany.

Archaeology developed out of antiquarianism in Europe during the 19th century, and has sincebecome a discipline practiced across the world. Since its early development, various specificsub-disciplines of archaeology have developed, including maritime archaeology, feministarchaeology and archaeoastronomy, and numerous different scientific techniques have beendeveloped to aid archaeological investigation. Nonetheless, today, archaeologists face manyproblems, such as dealing with pseudoarchaeology, the looting of artifacts, a lack of publicinterest, and opposition to the excavation of human remains.

Contents

1 History1.1 Antiquarians1.2 First excavations1.3 Development of archaeological method

2 Purpose2.1 Theory

3 Methods3.1 Remote sensing3.2 Field survey3.3 Excavation3.4 Analysis3.5 Virtual archaeology

4 Academic sub-disciplines

4.1 Historical archaeology