ABCs of Archaeology

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ABCs of Archaeology
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What is it?

• Archaeology is the scientific study of peoples of
  the past... their culture and their relationship
  with their environment. The purpose of
  archaeology is to understand how humans in the
  past interacted with their environment, and to
  preserve this history for present and future
  learning.

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What it isnt

• When people think of archaeologists going on a
  dig, they usually envision them digging up
  dinosaur bones. This is a common error that
  people have about archaeology. Archaeologists
  study past human life, not dinosaur life!

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What do they do?

• Like detectives - both investigate clues to look
  for answers to problems
• Work at a dig site to gather data, and then spend
  the majority of their time in a lab analyzing
  this data.
• Eventually write reports on their findings for
  other people to read about and learn from
• requires a lot of patience and perseverance

http//www.poplarforest.org/archfldschool.htm
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What do they do at a site?

• Once an archaeologist finds a site and gets
  permission to excavate it, his or her work really
  begins!

http//www.poplarforest.org/ForKids/what_do_archae
ologists_do_field.htm
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Archaeologists excavate for three kinds of
information.
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Ecofacts

• A naturally produced object found on an
  archaeological site, that gives us information
  about past environments..
• Examples seeds, animal bones and soil.

www.cr.nps.gov/aad/AFORI/ howfig_intr.htm
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Features

• They look for evidence of things people made or
  did that can't be moved.
• Examples

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Artifacts

• They look for evidence of the tools or other
  items that people made and that can be moved or
  carried.
• Examples