Archaeology

Archaeology, or archeology (from Greek ἀρχαιολογία, archaiologia – ἀρχαῖος, arkhaīos, "ancient"; and -λογία, -logiā, "-logy"), is the study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture and environmental data which they have left behind, which includes artefacts, architecture, biofacts and cultural landscapes (the archaeological record). The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, and cultural landscapes. Archaeologists study human prehistory and history. In the United States it is thought of as a branch of anthropology, altho Archaeology, or archeology (from Greek ἀρχαιολογία, archaiologia – ἀρχαῖος, arkhaīos, "ancient"; and -λογία, -logiā, "-logy"), is the study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture and environmental data which they have left behind, which includes artefacts, architecture, biofacts and cultural landscapes (the archaeological record). The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, and cultural landscapes. Archaeologists study human prehistory and history. In the United States it is thought of as a branch of anthropology, although in Europe it is viewed as a separate discipline.

Archaeology studies human history from the development of the first stone tools in eastern Africa 3.4 million years ago up until recent decades. It is of most importance for learning about prehistoric societies, when there are no written records for historians to study, and which makes up over 99% of total human history, from the Palaeolithic until the advent of literacy in any given society. Archaeology has various different goals, which range from studying human evolution to cultural evolution and understanding culture 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. It draws upon anthropology, history, art history, classics, ethnology, geography, geology, linguistics, physics, information sciences, chemistry, statistics, palaeoecology, palaeontology, palaeozoology, palaeoethnobotany, and palaeobotany.

Archaeology developed out of antiquarianism in Europe during the 19th century, and has since become a discipline practised across the world. 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, ranging from dealing with pseudoarchaeology to the looting of artefacts and opposition to the excavation of human remains. ...more

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Neptune's Fortune: The Billion-Dollar Shipwreck and the Ghosts of the Spanish Empire

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Tomb of the Sun King (Raiders of the Arcana #2)

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Archaeology Books

Archaeology: Theories, Methods and Practice

The Horse, the Wheel, and Language: How Bronze-Age Riders from the Eurasian Steppes Shaped the Modern World

1177 B.C.: The Year Civilization Collapsed

Crocodile on the Sandbank (Amelia Peabody, #1)

Gods, Graves & Scholars: The Story of Archaeology

1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus

The Bible Unearthed: Archaeology's New Vision of Ancient Israel and the Origin of Its Sacred Texts

The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity

Lives in Ruins: Archaeologists and the Seductive Lure of Human Rubble

Four Lost Cities: A Secret History of the Urban Age

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Lists

Crocodile on the Sandbank by Elizabeth Peters

When Secrets Bloom by Patricia Furstenberg

History, Adventure, Romance

136 books — 139 voters

Lost Gods Of Albion The Chalk Hill-Figures Of Britain by Paul Newman

The Long Man of Wilmington, East Sussex by John H. Farrant

The White Horses of the West of England by Rev. W. C. Plenderleath

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31 books — 1 voter

The Probability of Murder by Ada Madison

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13 books — 3 voters

Exploration Fawcett by Percy Harrison Fawcett

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14 books — 2 voters

Baal, St. George, and Khidr by Robert D. Miller II

The Werewolf in the Ancient World by Daniel Ogden

Secret Doctrine of Anahuac by Samael Aun Weor

•Bottomless Antiquarium

103 books — 2 voters

Romancing in the Ruins

10 books — 1 voter

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Quotes Tagged “Archaeology”

“ It may be said of some very old places, as of some very old books, that they are destined to be forever new. The nearer we approach them, the more remote they seem: the more we study them, the more we have yet to learn. Time augments rather than diminishes their everlasting novelty; and to our descendants of a thousand years hence it may safely be predicted that they will be even more fascinating than to ourselves. This is true of many ancient lands, but of no place is it so true as of Egypt. ”
― Kathleen Sheppard, Women in the Valley of the Kings: The Untold Story of Women Egyptologists in the Gilded Age

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“ [...] the success of Egyptian surgery in setting broken bones is very fully demonstrated in the large number of well-joined fractures found in the ancient skeletons. ”
― James Henry Breasted, The Edwin Smith Surgical Papyrus, 2 Vols

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