4: Archaeology

Archaeology is the third of the four pieces of anthropology's holistic puzzle that we will look at in this course. Put simply, archaeology is the study of the human past through the analyses of material remains—the “stuff” people leave behind. Archaeologists study human history, which is what makes them different from paleontologists (who study prehistoric animals, including dinosaurs), contrary to the popular belief that excavations search only for fossils. Archaeology differs from history in that history focuses on written records while archaeology relies more on the material objects left behind. This allows archaeologists to address a much longer time frame than historians; our human species has been around for at least 200,000 years, and the oldest writing (cuneiform, shown in the tablet below) only dates back to about 5,500 years ago.

In addition, a focus on material objects means that archaeologists are not constrained by the point of view of the writer of a text. In most societies, it’s the people in charge who are writing the histories and not everyone’s story is told. This means that only one perspective is represented. Archaeologists try to fill in the missing perspectives and tell a story by looking at the objects and material people left behind. With the passage of time, most of what we find buried in the ground is what was discarded or thrown away. Specifically, archaeologists investigate three kinds of materials:

• Artefacts (also spelled artifacts) are portable items that were made and used by humans. This may include ceramic pots, stone and bone tools, metal objects, etc. In 100 years, the computer used to type this text will also be considered an “artifact.”
• Ecofacts are natural objects that have been used or moved by humans. This might include the bones of animals that were eaten or the remains of trees that were planted in a garden. The banana peel you might throw in the trash could be an ecofact, as could the bulb of the tulips in people’s yards. Both are natural but would not have gotten where they are without human activity.
• Features are larger, non-portable human creations. A house or other structure could be a feature, but so could a fire pit. We can learn about past human activity by looking at the creation and placement of that fire pit, but we can’t take this feature back to the lab for further analysis without destroying it.

Archaeologists spend their time immersed in survey (looking for sites), excavation (digging at sites), and analysis (investigating the artifacts, ecofacts, and features they recover). Archaeologists who work in colleges and universities generally seek grants to fund research projects that are intended to answer specific research questions about the past.

It is more common, however, for archaeologists to work in cultural resource management (CRM). Most professional archaeologists in the U.S. are employed in CRM. Archaeologists working in CRM are hired to survey construction sites before work begins as this work is mandated by state and federal law. This ensures that no important cultural materials will be destroyed without being recorded.

Museums are another venue for archaeologists. Increasingly museum archaeologists and cultural anthropologists work together with state and tribal governments. Archaeologists and other anthropologists at one time collected artifacts to fill museums with specimens to display. Those days are not too far in the past. Anthropologists and other scientists are working with museum curators today to undo the damage of decades of collections—modern material culture, ancient artifacts, and even human remains—often taken without consent from the peoples that they belonged to. Today, archaeologists and museums in many countries work with Indigenous groups both domestically and internationally to return cultural and human remains that were taken from them.

In addition, archaeologists work in museums to maintain archaeological and anthropological collections. This includes curating them to keep them in a safe condition, studying them to gain knowledge about the peoples that created them, and creating exhibits to display them for the general public. Museums are also important places for education in many ways, from displays of fragile artifacts and reconstructions of ancient settings to highly interactive exhibits.

Archaeologists also sometimes create living-history presentations to educate the public and reconstruct ancient structures and tools that the public can handle. In addition, archaeologists can also work with museums to give the public a taste of what archaeologists actually do! This includes excavation, identification, and curation. Reconstruction in archaeology is the re-creation or building of an ancient artifact or feature to improve our understanding of past societies. Reconstructions can be partial, meaning that they add to an existing structure, or can be made whole cloth. Whether partial or whole, they are based on the partial remains, written records, oral histories, or images of the object that is built.

One of the benefits of archaeology is the way we are able to use the scientific method to test hypotheses about the past. This allows us to explore questions that would be impossible through historical research alone. Without archaeology, there would be no other way to learn about humanity in the time before written records.