Archaeology
In this episode of the I Can't Sleep Podcast, fall asleep learning about Archaeology. Movies may have made this subject more exciting to me than this wikipedia article conveys. It's dry, almost interesting at times, and, well, seems to do the job of putting you to sleep. Happy sleeping!
Transcript
Welcome to the I Can't Sleep podcast,
Where I read random articles from across the web to bore you to sleep with my soothing voice.
I'm your host,
Benjamin Boster.
Archaeology is the study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture.
The archaeological record consists of artifacts,
Architecture,
Biofacts,
Or ecofacts,
Sites,
And cultural landscapes.
Archaeology can be considered both a social science and a branch of the humanities.
It is usually considered an independent academic discipline,
But may also be classified as part of anthropology,
History,
Or geography.
Archaeologists study human prehistory and history from the development of the first stone tools at Lonkwe in East Africa 3.
3 million years ago up until recent decades.
Archaeology is distinct from paleontology,
Which is the study of fossil remains.
Archaeology is particularly important for learning about prehistoric societies for which,
By definition,
There are no written records.
Prehistory includes over 99% of the human past,
From the Paleolithic until the advent of literacy in societies around the world.
Archaeology has various goals,
Which range from understanding culture history to reconstructing past life ways to documenting and explaining changes in human societies through time.
Derived from the Greek,
The term archaeology literally means the study of ancient history.
The discipline involves surveying,
Excavation,
And eventually analysis of data collected to learn more about the past.
In broad scope,
Archaeology relies on cross-disciplinary research.
Archaeology developed out of antiquarianism in Europe during the 19th century and has since become a discipline practiced around the world.
Archaeology has been used by nation-states to create particular visions of the past.
Since its early development,
Various specific sub-disciplines of archaeology have developed,
Including maritime archaeology.
Feminist archaeology and archaeoastronomy and numerous different scientific techniques have been developed to aid archaeological investigation.
Nonetheless,
Today archaeologists face many problems,
Such as dealing with pseudo-archaeology,
Diluting of artifacts,
A lack of public interest,
And opposition to the excavation of human remains.
In ancient Mesopotamia,
A foundation deposit of the Akkadian empire ruler Naram-Sin was discovered and analyzed by King Nabonidus circa 550 BCE,
Who was thus known as the first Not only did he lead the first excavations which were to find the foundation deposits of the temples of Sama's the sun god,
The warrior goddess Anyanidu,
And the sanctuary that Naram-Sin built to the moon god,
Located in Haran,
But he also had them restored to their former glory.
He was also the first to date an archaeological artifact in his attempt to date Naram-Sin's temple during his search for it.
Even though his estimate was inaccurate by about 1,
500 years,
It was still a very good one considering the lack of accurate dating technology at the time.
The science of archaeology grew out of the older multidisciplinary study known as antiquarianism.
Antiquarians studied history with particular attention to ancient artifacts and manuscripts as well as historical sites.
Antiquarianism focused on the empirical evidence that existed for the understanding of the past,
Encapsulated in the motto of the 18th century antiquary,
Sir Richard Colthorne,
We speak from facts,
Not theory.
Tentative steps towards the systematization of archaeology as a science took place during the Enlightenment period in Europe in the 17th and 18th centuries.
In imperial China during the Song Dynasty,
Figures such as Ouyang Ziyu and Xiao Mingcheng established the tradition of Chinese epigraphy by investigating,
Preserving,
And analyzing ancient Chinese bronze inscriptions from the Shang and Zhu periods.
In his book published in 1088,
Shen Qio criticized contemporary Chinese scholars for attributing ancient bronze vessels as creations of famous sages rather than artisan commoners,
And for attempting to revive them for ritual use without discerning their original functionality and purpose of manufacture.
Such antiquarian pursuits waned after the Song period,
Were revived in the 17th century during the Qing Dynasty,
But were always considered a branch of Chinese historiography rather than a separate discipline of archaeology.
In Renaissance Europe,
Philosophical interest in the remains of Greco-Roman civilization and the rediscovery of classical culture began in the late Middle Ages with humanism.
Siriacus of Ancona was a restlessly itinerant Italian humanist and antiquarian who came from a prominent family of merchants in Ancona,
A maritime republic on the Adriatic.
He was called by his contemporaries Pater Antiquitates and today Father of Classical Archaeology.
Siriacus of Ancona was the most enterprising and prolific recorder of Greek and Roman antiquities,
Particularly inscriptions in the 15th century and the general accuracy of his records entitles him to be called the founding father of modern classical archaeology.
He traveled throughout Greece and all around the Eastern Mediterranean to record his findings on ancient buildings,
Statues,
And inscriptions,
Including archaeological remains still unknown to his time,
The Parthenon,
Delphi,
The Egyptian pyramids,
The hieroglyphics.
He noted down his archaeological discoveries in his diary Commentaria.
Flavio Bayondo,
An Italian Renaissance humanist historian,
Created a systematic guide to the ruins and topography of ancient Rome in the early 15th century for which he has been called an early founder of archaeology.
Antiquarians of the 16th century,
Including John Leland and William Camden,
Conducted surveys of the English countryside,
Drawing,
Describing,
And interpreting the monuments that they encountered.
The OED first cites archaeologists from 1824.
This soon took over as the usual term for one major branch of antiquarian activity.
Archaeology,
From 1607 onwards,
Initially meant what we would call ancient history generally with the narrower modern sense first seen in 1837.
12th century Indian scholar Kalhana's writings involved recording of local traditions,
Examining manuscripts,
Inscriptions,
Coins,
And architectures,
Which is described as one of the earliest traces of archaeology.
One of his notable work is called Raja Tarangini,
Which was completed in 1150 and is described as one of the first history books of India.
One of the first sites to undergo archaeological excavation was Stonehenge and other megalithic monuments in England.
John Aubrey was a pioneer archaeologist who recorded numerous megalithic and other field monuments in southern England.
He was also ahead of his time in the analysis of his findings.
He attempted to chart the chronological stylistic evolution of handwriting,
Medieval architecture,
Costume,
And shield shapes.
Excavations were also carried out by the Spanish military engineer Roque Joaquin de Alcubierre in the ancient towns of Pompeii and Herculaneum,
Both of which had been covered by ash during the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in A.
D.
79.
These excavations began in 1748 in Pompeii,
While in Herculaneum they began in 1738.
The discovery of entire towns,
Complete with utensils and even human shapes,
As well as the unearthing of frescoes,
Had a big impact throughout Europe.
However,
Prior to the development of modern techniques,
Excavations tended to be haphazard.
The importance of concepts such as stratification and context were overlooked.
In the mid-18th century,
The German Johann Joachim Winckelmann lived in Rome and devoted himself to the study of Roman antiquities and gradually acquired an unrivaled knowledge of ancient art.
Then he visited the archaeological excavations being conducted at Pompeii and Herculaneum.
He was one of the founders of scientific archaeology and first applied the categories of style on a large,
Systematic basis to the history of art.
He was one of the first to separate Greek art into periods and time classifications.
Winckelmann has been called both the prophet and founding hero of modern archaeology and the father of the discipline of art history.
The father of archaeological excavation was William Cunnington.
He undertook excavations in Wiltshire from around 1798,
Funded by Sir Richard Coldhorne.
Cunnington made meticulous recordings of Neolithic and Bronze Age barrows,
And the terms he used to categorize and describe them are still used by archaeologists today.
One of the major achievements of 19th century archaeology was the development of stratigraphy.
The idea of overlapping strata tracing back to successive periods was borrowed from the new geological and paleontological work of scholars like William Smith,
James Hutton,
And Charles Lyell.
The application of stratigraphy to archaeology first took place with the excavations of prehistorical and Bronze Age sites.
In the third and fourth decades of the 19th century,
Archaeologists like Jacques Boucher de Peurs and Christian Jurgensen-Thomson began to put the artifacts they had found in chronological order.
A major figure in the development of archaeology into a rigorous science was the army officer and ethnologist Augustus Pitt Rivers,
Who began excavations on his land in England in the 1880s.
His approach was highly methodical by the standards of the time,
And he is widely regarded as the first scientific archaeologist.
He arranged his artifacts by type or typologically,
And within types by date or chronologically.
His style of arrangement,
Designed to highlight the evolutionary trends in human artifacts,
Was of enormous significance for the accurate dating of the objects.
His most important methodological innovation was his insistence that all artifacts,
Not just beautiful or unique ones,
Be collected and catalogued.
William Flinders Petrie is another man who may legitimately be called the father of archaeology.
His painstaking recording and study of artifacts,
Both in Egypt and later in Palestine,
Laid down many of the ideas behind modern archaeological recording.
He remarked that I believe the true line of research lies in the noting and comparison of the smallest details.
Petrie developed the system of dating layers based on pottery and ceramic findings,
Which revolutionized the chronological basis of Egyptology.
Petrie was the first to scientifically investigate the Great Pyramid in Egypt during the 1880s.
He was also responsible for mentoring and training a whole generation of Egyptologists,
Including Howard Carter,
Who went on to achieve fame with the discovery of the tomb of 14th century BCE,
Pharaoh Tutankhamen.
The first stratigraphic excavation to reach wide popularity with public was that of Hisarlik,
On the site of ancient Troy,
Carried out by Heinrich Schliemann,
Frank Calvert,
And Wilhelm Dorpfeld in the 1870s.
These scholars individuated nine different cities that had overlapped with one another from prehistory to the Hellenistic period.
Meanwhile,
The work of Sir Arthur Evans at Knossos in Crete revealed the ancient existence of an equally advanced Minoan civilization.
The next major figure in the development of archaeology was Sir Mortimer Wheeler,
Whose highly disciplined approach to excavation and systematic coverage in the 1920s and 1930s brought the science on swiftly.
Wheeler developed the grid system of excavation,
Which was further improved by his student Kathleen Kenyon.
Archaeology became a professional activity in the first half of the 20th century,
And it became possible to study archaeology as a subject in universities and even schools.
By the end of the 20th century,
Nearly all professional archaeologists,
At least in developed countries,
Were graduates.
Further adaptation and innovation in archaeology continued in this period,
When maritime archaeology and urban archaeology became more prevalent,
And rescue archaeology was developed as a result of increasing commercial development.
The purpose of archaeology is to learn more about past societies and the development of the human race.
Over 99% of the development of humanity has occurred within prehistoric cultures who did not make use of writing,
Thereby no written records exist for study purposes.
Without such written sources,
The only way to understand prehistoric societies is through archaeology.
Because archaeology is the study of past human activity,
It stretches back to about 2.
5 million years ago when the first stone tools are found,
The Oldowan industry.
Many important developments in human history occurred during prehistory,
Such as the evolution of humanity during the Paleolithic period,
When the hominins developed from the Australopithecines in Africa and eventually into modern Homo sapiens.
Archaeology also sheds light on many of humanity's technological advances,
For instance the ability to use fire,
The development of stone tools,
The discovery of metallurgy,
The beginnings of religion and the creation of agriculture.
Without archaeology,
Little or nothing would be known about the use of material culture by humanity that predates writing.
However,
It is not only prehistoric,
Preliterate cultures that can be studied using archaeology,
But historic,
Literate cultures as well,
Through the sub-discipline of historical archaeology.
For many literate cultures,
Such as Ancient Greece and Mesopotamia,
Their surviving records are often incomplete and biased to some extent.
In many societies,
Literacy was restricted to the elite classes,
Such as the clergy or the bureaucracy of court or temple.
The literacy of aristocrats has sometimes been restricted to deeds and contracts.
The interests and worldview of elites are often quite different from the lives and interests of the populace.
Writings that were produced by people more representative of the general population were unlikely to find their way into libraries and be preserved there for posterity.
Thus,
Written records tend to reflect the biases,
Assumptions,
Cultural values and possibly deceptions of a limited range of individuals,
Usually a small fraction of the larger population.
Hence,
Written records cannot be trusted as a sole source.
The material record may be closer to a fair representation of society,
Though it is subject to its own biases,
Such as sampling bias and differential preservation.
Often,
Archaeology provides the only means to learn of the existence and behaviors of people of the past.
Across the millennium many thousands of cultures and societies and billions of people have come and gone,
Of which there is little or no written record or existing records or misrepresentative or incomplete.
Writing as it is known today did not exist in human civilization until the 4th millennium BCE in a relatively small number of technologically advanced civilizations.
In contrast,
Homo sapiens has existed for at least 200,
000 years,
And other species of Homo for millions of years.
These civilizations are,
Not coincidentally,
The best known,
They are open to the inquiry of historians for centuries,
While the study of prehistoric cultures has arisen only recently.
Within a literate civilization many events and important human practices may not be officially recorded.
Any knowledge of the early years of human civilization,
The development of agriculture,
The historical practices of folk religion,
The rise of the first cities,
Must come from archaeology.
In addition to their scientific importance,
Archaeological remains sometimes have political or cultural significance to descendants of the people who produced them,
Monetary value to collectors,
Or strong aesthetic appeal.
Many people identify archaeology with the recovery of such aesthetic,
Religious,
Political,
Or economic treasures rather than with the reconstruction of past societies.
This view is often espoused in works of popular fiction,
Such as Raiders of the Lost Ark,
The Mummy,
And King Solomon's Mines.
When unrealistic subjects are treated more seriously,
Accusations of pseudoscience are invariably leveled at their proponents.
However,
These endeavors,
Real and fictional,
Are not representative of modern archaeology.
There is no one approach to archaeological theory that has been adhered to by all archaeologists.
When archaeology developed in the late 19th century,
The first approach to archaeological theory to be practiced was that of cultural history archaeology,
Which held the goal of explaining why cultures changed and adapted rather than just highlighting the fact that they did,
Therefore emphasizing historical particularism.
In the 1980s,
A new postmodern movement arose led by the British archaeologists Michael Shanks,
Christopher Tilley,
Daniel Miller,
And Ian Hodder,
Which has become known as post-procedural archaeology.
It questioned proceduralism's appeals to scientific positivism and impartiality and emphasized the importance of a more self-critical theoretical reflexivity.
However,
This approach has been criticized by proceduralists as lacking scientific rigor and the validity of both proceduralism and post-proceduralism is still under debate.
Meanwhile,
Another theory,
Known as historical proceduralism,
Has emerged seeking to incorporate a focus on process and post-procedural archaeology's emphasis of reflexivity and history.
Archaeological theory now borrows from a wide range of influences,
Including neo-evolutionary thought,
Phenomenology,
Postmodernism,
Agency theory,
Cognitive science,
Structural functionalism,
Gender-based and feminist archaeology,
And systems theory.
An archaeological investigation usually involves several distinct phases,
Each of which employs its own variety of methods.
Before any practical work can begin,
However,
A clear objective as to what the archaeologists are looking to achieve must be agreed upon.
This done,
A site is surveyed to find out as much as possible about it and the surrounding area.
Second,
An excavation may take place to uncover any archaeological features buried under the ground.
And third,
The information collected during the excavation is studied and evaluated in an attempt to achieve the original research objectives of the archaeologists.
It is then considered good practice for the information to be published so that it is available to other archaeologists and historians,
Although this is sometimes neglected.
If we're actually starting to dig in a location,
Remote sensing can be used to look where sites are located within a large area or provide more information about sites or regions.
There are two types of remote sensing instruments,
Passive and active.
Passive instruments detect natural energy that is reflected or emitted from the observed scene.
Active instruments sense only radiation emitted by the object being viewed or reflected by the object from a source other than the instrument.
Active instruments emit energy and record what is reflected.
Satellite imagery is an example of passive remote sensing.
Here are two active remote sensing instruments.
Lighter uses a laser to transmit a light pulse and a receiver with sensitive detectors to measure the backscattered or reflected light.
Distance to the object is determined by recording the time between the transmitted and backscattered pulses and using the speed of light to calculate the distance traveled.
LIDARs can determine atmospheric profiles of aerosols,
Clouds,
And other constituents of the atmosphere.
A laser altimeter uses a LIDAR to measure the height of the instrument platform above the surface.
By independently knowing the height of the platform with respect to the mean Earth's surface,
The topography of the underlying surface can be determined.
The protection of archaeological finds for the public from catastrophes,
Wars,
And armed conflicts is increasingly being implemented internationally.
This happens on the one hand through international agreements and on the other hand through organizations that monitor or enforce protection.
United Nations,
UNESCO,
And Blue Shield International deal with the protection of cultural heritage and thus also archaeological sites.
This also applies to the integration of United Nations peacekeeping.
Blue Shield International has undertaken various fact-finding missions in recent years to protect archaeological sites during the wars in Libya,
Syria,
Egypt,
And Lebanon.
The importance of archaeological finds for identity,
Tourism,
And sustainable economic growth is repeatedly emphasized internationally.
The president of Blue Shield International,
Karl von Habsburg,
Said during a cultural property protection mission in Lebanon in April 2019 with the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon,
Cultural assets are part of the identity of the people who live in a certain place.
If you destroy their culture,
You also destroy their identity.
Many people are uprooted,
Often have no prospects anymore and subsequently flee from their homeland.
Early archaeology was largely an attempt to uncover spectacular artifacts and features or to explore vast and mysterious abandoned cities and was mostly done by upper-class scholarly men.
This general tendency laid the foundation for the modern popular view of archaeology and archaeologists.
Many of the public view archaeology as something only available to a narrow demographic.
The job of archaeologist is depicted as a romantic adventurist occupation and as a hobby more than a job in the scientific community.
Cinema audiences form a notion of who archaeologists are,
Why they do what they do,
And how relationships to the past are constituted,
And is often under the impression that all archaeology takes place in a distant and foreign land only to collect monetarily or spiritually priceless artifacts.
The modern depiction of archaeology has incorrectly formed the public's perception of what archaeology is.
Much thorough and productive research has indeed been conducted in dramatic locales such as Copan and the Valley of the Kings,
But the bulk of activities and finds of modern archaeology are not so sensational.
Archaeological adventure stories tend to ignore the painstaking work involved in carrying out modern surveys,
Excavations,
And data processing.
Some archaeologists refer to such off-the-mark portrayals as pseudo-archaeology.
Archaeologists are also very much reliant on public support,
The question of for whom they are working is often discussed.
Motivated by a desire to halt looting,
Curb pseudo-archaeology,
And to help preserve archaeological sites through education and fostering public appreciation for the importance of archaeological heritage,
Archaeologists are mounting public outreach campaigns.
They seek to stop looting by combating people who illegally take artifacts from protected sites and by alerting people who live near archaeological sites of the threat of looting.
Common methods of public outreach include press releases,
The encouragement of school field trips to sites under excavation by professional archaeologists,
And making reports and publications accessible outside of academia.
Public appreciation of the significance of archaeology and archaeological sites often leads to improved protection from encroaching development or other threats.
One audience for archaeologists' work is the public.
Archaeologists increasingly realize that their work can benefit non-academic and non-archaeological audiences and that they have a responsibility to educate and inform the public about archaeology.
Local heritage awareness is aimed at increasing civic and individual pride through projects such as community excavation projects and better public presentations of archaeological sites and knowledge.
The U.
S.
Department of Agriculture Forest Service operates a volunteer archaeology and historic preservation program called the Passport in Time.
Volunteers work with professional USFS archaeologists and historians on national forests throughout the U.
S.
Volunteers are involved in all aspects of professional archaeology under expert supervision.
Television programs,
Web videos,
And social media can also bring an understanding of underwater archaeology to a broad audience.
The Mardi Gras Shipwreck Project integrated a one-hour HD documentary,
Short videos for public viewing,
And video updates during the expedition as part of the educational outreach.
Webcasting is also another tool for educational outreach.
For one week in 2000 and 2001,
Live underwater video of the Queen Anne's Revenge Shipwreck Project was webcast to the Internet as part of the QAR Dive Live educational program that reached thousands of children around the world.
Southerly see Gilman Bryan,
J.
Diving on the Queen Anne's Revenge.
The American Academy of Underwater Sciences.
Archived from the original on the 19th of February 2009.
Produced and co-produced by Nautilus Productions and Marine Graphics,
This project enabled students to talk to scientists and learn about methods and technologies used by the underwater archaeology team.
In the UK,
Popular archaeology programs such as Time Team and Meet the Ancestors have resulted in a huge upsurge in public interest.
Where possible,
Archaeologists now make more provisions for public involvement and outreach in larger projects than they once did.
And many local archaeological organizations operate within the community archaeology framework to expand public involvement in smaller scale,
More local projects.
Archaeological excavation,
However,
Is best undertaken by well-trained staff that can work quickly and accurately.
Often this requires observing the necessary health and safety and indemnity insurance issues involved in working on a modern building site with tight deadlines.
American charities and local government bodies sometimes offer places on research projects either as part of academic work or as a defined community project.
There is also a flourishing industry selling places on commercial training excavations and archaeological holiday tours.
Archaeologists prize local knowledge and often liaise with local historical and archaeological societies,
Which is one reason why community archaeology projects are starting to become more common.
Often archaeologists are assisted by the public in the locating of archaeological sites,
Which professional archaeologists have neither the funding nor the time to do.
Archaeological Legacy Institute is a registered 501c non-profit,
Media and education corporation registered in Oregon in 1999.
Holly founded a website,
The Archaeology Channel,
To support the organization's mission to nurturing and bringing attention to the human cultural heritage by using media in the most efficient and effective ways possible.
There is a considerable international body of research focused on archaeology and public value and tangible benefits of archaeology include helping to counteract racism,
Documenting accomplishments of ignored communities,
Providing time depths as a response to short-termism of the modern age,
And contributing to human ecology,
Independent evidence base.
Historic context development and tourism,
The delivery of public benefits through archaeology can be summarized as follows through making a contribution to a shared history.
Artistic and cultural treasures,
Local values,
Placemaking and social cohesion,
Educational benefits,
Contribution to science and innovation,
Health and well-being,
And added economic value to developers.
Pseudo-archaeology is an umbrella term for all activities that falsely claim to be archaeological but in fact violate commonly accepted in scientific archaeological practices.
It includes much fictional archaeological work as well as some actual activity.
Many non-fiction authors have ignored the scientific methods of procedural archaeology or the specific critiques of it contained in post-proceduralism.
An example of this type is the writing of Erich von Däniken.
His 1968 book,
Chariots of the Gods,
Together with many subsequent lesser-known works,
Expounds a theory of ancient contacts between human civilization on earth and more technologically advanced extraterrestrial civilizations.
This theory,
Known as paleocontact theory or ancient astronaut theory,
Is not exclusively Däniken's,
Nor did the idea originate with him.
Archaeologics of this nature are usually marked by the renunciation of well-established theories on the basis of limited evidence and the interpretation of evidence with a preconceived theory in mind.
Looting of archaeological sites is an ancient problem.
For instance,
Many of the tombs of the Egyptian pharaohs were looted during antiquity.
Archaeology stimulates interest in ancient objects and people in search of artifacts or treasure cause damage to archaeological sites.
The commercial and academic demand for artifacts unfortunately contributes directly to the illicit antiquities trade.
Smuggling of antiquities abroad to private collectors has caused great cultural and economic damage in many countries whose governments lack the resources and the will to deter it.
Looters damage and destroy archaeological sites,
Denying future generations information about their ethnic and cultural heritage.
Indigenous peoples especially lose access to and control over their cultural resources,
Ultimately denying them the opportunity to know their past.
In 1937,
W.
F.
Hodge,
The director of the Southwest Museum,
Released a statement that the museum would no longer purchase or accept collections from looted contexts.
The first conviction of the transport of artifacts illegally removed from private property under the Archaeological Resources Protection Act was in 1992 in the state of Indiana.
Archaeologists trying to protect artifacts may be placed in danger by looters or locals trying to protect the artifacts from archaeologists who are viewed as looters by the locals.
Some historical archaeology sites are subjected to looting by metal detector hobbyists who search for artifacts using increasingly advanced technology.
Efforts are underway among all major archaeological organizations to increase education and legitimate cooperation between amateurs and professionals in the metal-detecting community.
While most looting is deliberate,
Accidental looting can occur when amateurs,
Who are unaware of the importance of archaeological rigor,
Collect artifacts from sites and place them into private collections.
One of the first sites to undergo archaeological excavation was Stonehenge and other megalithic monuments in England.
John Aubrey was a pioneer archaeologist who recorded numerous megalithic and other field monuments in southern England.
He was also ahead of his time in the analysis of his findings.
He attempted to chart the chronological stylistic evolution of handwriting,
Medieval architecture,
Costume,
And shield shapes.
Excavations were also carried out by the Spanish military engineer Roque Joaquin del Cubier and the ancient towns of Pompeii and Herculaneum,
Both of which had been covered by ash during the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in A.
D.
79.
These excavations began in 1748 in Pompeii,
While in Herculaneum they began in 1738.
The discovery of entire towns,
Complete with utensils and even human shapes,
As well as the unearthing of frescoes,
Had a big impact throughout Europe.
However,
Prior to the development of modern techniques,
Excavations tended to be haphazard.
The importance of concepts such as stratification and context were overlooked.
In the mid-18th century,
The German Johann Joachim Winckelmann lived in Rome and devoted himself to the study of Roman antiquities and gradually acquired an unrivaled knowledge of ancient art.
Then he visited the archaeological excavations being conducted at Pompeii and Herculaneum.
He was one of the founders of scientific archaeology and first applied the categories of style on a large,
Systematic basis to the history of art.
He was one of the first to separate Greek art into periods and time classifications.
Winckelmann has been called both the prophet and founding hero of modern archaeology and the father of the discipline of art history.
The father of archaeological excavation was William Cunnington.
He undertook excavations in Wiltshire from around 1798,
Funded by Sir Richard Coldhorne.
Cunnington made meticulous recordings of Neolithic and Bronze Age barrows,
And the terms he used to categorize and describe them are still used by archaeologists today.
One of the major achievements of 19th century archaeology was the development of stratigraphy.
The idea of overlapping strata tracing back to successive periods was borrowed from the new geological and paleontological work of scholars like William Smith,
James Hutton,
And Charles Lyell.
The application of stratigraphy to archaeology first took place with the excavations of prehistorical and Bronze Age sites.
In the third and fourth decades of the 19th century,
Archaeologists like Jacques Boucher de Peurs and Christian Jurgensen-Thomson began to put the artifacts they had found in chronological order.
A major figure in the development of archaeology into a rigorous science was the army officer and ethnologist Augustus Pitt Rivers,
Who began excavations on his land in England in the 1880s.
His approach was highly methodical by the standards of the time,
And he is widely regarded as the first scientific archaeologist.
He arranged his artifacts by type or typologically,
And within types by date or chronologically.
This style of arrangement,
Designed to highlight the evolutionary trends in human artifacts,
Was of enormous significance for the accurate dating of the objects.
His most important methodological innovation was his insistence that all artifacts,
Not just beautiful or unique ones,
Be collected and catalogued.
William Flinders Petrie is another man who may legitimately be called the father of archaeology.
His painstaking recording and study of artifacts,
Both in Egypt and later in Palestine,
Laid down many of the ideas behind modern archaeological recording.
He remarked that I believe the true line of research lies in the noting and comparison of the smallest details.
Petrie developed the system of dating layers based on pottery and ceramic findings,
Which revolutionized the chronological basis of Egyptology.
Petrie was the first to scientifically investigate the Great Pyramid in Egypt during the 1880s.
He was also responsible for mentoring and training a whole generation of Egyptologists,
Including Howard Carter,
Who went on to achieve fame with the discovery of the tomb of 14th century BCE,
Pharaoh Tutankhamen.
The first stratigraphic excavation to reach wide popularity with public was that of Hisarlik,
On the site of ancient Troy,
Carried out by Heinrich Schliemann,
Frank Calvert,
And Wilhelm Dorpfeld in the 1870s.
These scholars individuated nine different cities that had overlapped with one another from prehistory to the Hellenistic period.
Meanwhile,
The work of Sir Arthur Evans at Knossos in Crete revealed the ancient existence of an equally advanced Minoan civilization.
The next major figure in the development of archaeology was Sir Mortimer Wheeler,
Whose highly disciplined approach to excavation and systematic coverage in the 1920s and 1930s brought the science unswiftly.
Wheeler developed the grid system of excavation,
Which was further improved by his student Kathleen Kenyon.
Archaeology became a professional activity in the first half of the 20th century,
And it became possible to study archaeology as a subject in universities and even schools.
By the end of the 20th century,
Nearly all professional archaeologists,
At least in developed countries,
Were graduates.
Further adaptation and innovation in archaeology continued in this period,
When maritime archaeology and urban archaeology became more prevalent,
And rescue archaeology was developed as a result of increasing commercial development.
The purpose of archaeology is to learn more about past societies and the development of the human race.
Over 99% of the development of humanity has occurred within prehistoric cultures who did not make use of writing,
Thereby no written records exist for study purposes.
Without such written sources,
The only way to understand prehistoric societies is through archaeology.
Because archaeology is the study of past human activity,
It stretches back to about 2.
5 million years ago when the first stone tools are found,
The Oldowan industry.
Many important developments in human history occurred during prehistory,
Such as the evolution of humanity during the Paleolithic period,
When the hominins developed from the Australopithecines in Africa and eventually into modern Homo sapiens.
Archaeology also sheds light on many of humanity's technological advances,
For instance the ability to use fire,
The development of stone tools,
The discovery of metallurgy,
The beginnings of religion and the creation of agriculture.
Without archaeology,
Little or nothing would be known about the use of material culture by humanity that predates writing.
However,
It is not only prehistoric,
Preliterate cultures that can be studied using archaeology,
But historic,
Literate cultures as well,
Through the sub-discipline of historical archaeology.
For many literate cultures,
Such as Ancient Greece and Mesopotamia,
Their surviving records are often incomplete and biased to some extent.
In many societies,
Literacy was restricted to the elite classes,
Such as the clergy or the bureaucracy of court or temple.
The literacy of aristocrats has sometimes been restricted to deeds and contracts.
The interests and worldview of elites are often quite different from the lives and interests of the populace.
Writings that were produced by people more representative of the general population were unlikely to find their way into libraries and be preserved there for posterity.
Thus,
Written records tend to reflect the biases,
Assumptions,
Cultural values,
And possibly deceptions of a limited range of individuals,
Usually a small fraction of the larger population.
Hence,
Written records cannot be trusted as a sole source.
The material record may be closer to a fair representation of society,
Though it is subject to its own biases,
Such as sampling bias and differential preservation.
In addition,
Archaeology provides the only means to learn of the existence and behaviors of people of the past.
Across the millennia many thousands of cultures and societies and billions of people have come and gone,
Of which there is little or no written record or existing records are misrepresentative or incomplete.
Writing as it is known today did not exist in human civilization until the 4th millennium BCE in a relatively small number of technologically advanced civilizations.
In contrast,
Homo sapiens has existed for at least 200,
000 years,
And other species of Homo for millions of years.
These civilizations are,
Not coincidentally,
The best known,
They are open to the inquiry of historians for centuries,
While the study of prehistoric cultures has arisen only recently.
Within a literate civilization many events and important human practices may not be officially recorded.
Any knowledge of the early years of human civilization,
The development of agriculture,
Cult practices of folk religion,
The rise of the first cities,
Must come from archaeology.
In addition to their scientific importance,
Archaeological remains sometimes have political or cultural significance to descendants of the people who produced them,
Monetary value to collectors,
Or strong aesthetic appeal.
Many people identify archaeology with the recovery of such aesthetic,
Religious,
Political,
Or economic treasures rather than with the reconstruction of past societies.
This view is often espoused in works of popular fiction,
Such as Raiders of the Lost Ark,
The Mummy,
And King Solomon's Mines.
When unrealistic subjects are treated more seriously,
Accusations of pseudoscience are invariably leveled at their proponents.
However,
These endeavors,
Real and fictional,
Are not representative of modern archaeology.
There is no one approach to archaeological theory that has been adhered to by all archaeologists.
When archaeology developed in the late 19th century,
The first approach to archaeological theory to be practiced was that of cultural history archaeology,
Which held the goal of explaining why cultures changed and adapted rather than just highlighting the fact that they did,
Therefore emphasizing historical particularism.
In the 1980s,
A new postmodern movement arose led by the British archaeologists Michael Shanks,
Christopher Tilley,
Daniel Miller,
And Ian Hodder,
Which has become known as post-procedural archaeology.
It questioned proceduralism's appeals to scientific positivism and impartiality and emphasized the importance of a more self-critical theoretical reflexivity.
However,
This approach has been criticized by proceduralists as lacking scientific rigor and the validity of both proceduralism and post-proceduralism is still under debate.
Meanwhile,
Another theory,
Known as historical proceduralism,
Has emerged seeking to incorporate a focus on process and post-procedural archaeology's emphasis of reflexivity and history.
Archaeological theory now borrows from a wide range of influences,
Including neo-evolutionary thought,
Phenomenology,
Postmodernism,
Agency theory,
Cognitive science,
Structural functionalism,
Gender-based and feminist archaeology,
And systems theory.
An archaeological investigation usually involves several distinct phases,
Each of which employs its own variety of methods.
Before any practical work can begin,
However,
A clear objective as to what the archaeologists are looking to achieve must be agreed upon.
This done,
A site is surveyed to find out as much as possible about it and the surrounding area.
Second,
An excavation may take place to uncover any archaeological features buried under the ground.
And,
Third,
The information collected during the excavation is studied and evaluated in an attempt to achieve the original research objectives of the archaeologists.
It is then considered good practice for the information to be published so that it is available to other archaeologists and historians,
Although this is sometimes neglected.
If we're actually starting to dig in a location,
Remote sensing can be used to look where sites are located within a large area or provide more information about sites or regions.
There are two types of remote sensing instruments,
Passive and active.
Passive instruments detect natural energy that is reflected or emitted from the observed scene.
Active instruments sense only radiation emitted by the object being viewed or reflected by the object from a source other than the instrument.
Active instruments emit energy and record what is reflected.
Satellite imagery is an example of passive remote sensing.
Here are two active remote sensing instruments.
LIDAR uses a laser to transmit a light pulse in a receiver with sensitive detectors to measure the backscattered or reflected light.
Distance to the object is determined by recording the time between the transmitted and backscattered pulses and using the speed of light to calculate the distance traveled.
LIDARs can determine atmospheric profiles of aerosols,
Clouds,
And other constituents of the atmosphere.
A laser altimeter uses a LIDAR to measure the height of the instrument platform above the surface.
By independently knowing the height of the platform with respect to the mean Earth surface,
The topography of the underlying surface can be determined.
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Recent Reviews
Mae
October 18, 2025
Another Grade A lesson Professor Boster. See you back for class tomorrow night.
chdukes
June 22, 2025
Great stuff, interesting but also put me to sleep lol
Dave
April 10, 2025
You have a consistent tone and cadence in your voice that adds to the relaxing purpose of the recording. Adding that to the content of what you are reading gives the perfect result that I would describe as BORING. 😊 This is a great way to fall asleep. Thank you.
Eli
November 6, 2023
Keep up the good work! This one was so nice to listen to.