Digging up History

The Archaeology Behind Ancient History

• Is this Archaeology?

• Not Exactly.

They Needed to Dust

• Over time, layers of dirt, trash, and waste stack up to create new layers of earth.

• Different civilizations will leave their marks behind on each layer known as a stratum.

• Every item found within each stratum is categorized as its own artifact, or object made by humans.

Stratum: a single layer of

soil

Strata: the plural of stratum

The law of superposition

A stratum should predate the strata above it.

Accidental Discoveries

• Some of the greatest archaeological discoveries were accidents.

• Pompeii

• Herculaneum

• Rosetta Stone

Pompeii and Herculaneum

• The first major archaeological find was in Italy at the location of one of the most devastating natural disasters: Pompeii.

• Farmers were attempting to plow their fields and dig wells when they came across the tops of buildings from the past in 1748 CE.

• Even though the artifacts were buried under more than ten feet of ash from 79 CE through 1748 CE, they were very well preserved.

Death Poses

Rosetta Stone

• The Rosetta Stone was created around 198 CE, but not found until 1799 CE by some French soldiers attempting to rebuild a fort in Egypt.

• The Rosetta Stone unlocked the secret of Egyptian hieroglyphics through a translation to ancient Greek.

First precise excavations

were at Olympia in Greece in the

1870s.

Carter and an assistant with King

Tut, 1922

“What do you see?” Lord Carnarvon

“Wonderful things” Howard Carter

Catal Huyuk

• One of the first villages to succeed on earth during the Neolithic Age was Catal Huyuk.

• Located in modern day Turkey, this was the sight of an extremely exciting dig that shed new light on the Neolithic Revolution.

Murals

Animal Bones

Figurines

Bone Jewelry

Human Remains

Other Major Discoveries

• Leakey Family: Louis, Mary, and Richard

Olduvai Gorge: Origins of Humans

• Willard Frank Libby: Carbon 14

• Howard Carter: King Tut