Archeology

(science and technology) The scientific study of the material remains of the cultures of historical or prehistorical peoples.

The scientific study of past material culture. The initial objective of archeology is to construct cultural chronologies, attempting to order past material culture into meaningful temporal segments. The intermediate objective is to breathe life into these chronologies by reconstructing past lifeways. The ultimate objective of contemporary archeology is to determine the cultural processes that underlie human behavior, both past and present.

The material culture of the past is of infinite variety. The scientific study of this evidence is such a broad task that there is no such thing as any single archeological method, although over the past century archeologists have evolved what can be termed an overall archeological approach. By constant confirmation, the archeologist often attempts to establish synchronism with what has already been established historically.

Archeologists use a number of types in order to categorize similar artifacts. Most common is the temporal type, a principle similar to the index fossil concept used by the geologist. A temporal type can be any kind of archeological artifact or feature, but ideally it is some object of common use in which the form is subject to change, due to either the whim of fashion or technological improvement. One example is the simple flint arrowhead with side barbs and central tang. It is typical of the British Bronze Age and was not in fashion earlier or later. Ceramic types have been established by archeologists working around the world, and a thoroughly tested ceramic chronology is invaluable as a temporal ordering device, no matter where the archeologist is working. The nature of the artifact employed as a temporal type is irrelevant, and its use may not even be known. Archeologists also establish other kinds of types. Functional types attempt to group artifacts on the basis of known or presumed functions. Technological types, divisions which reflect the mode of manufacture, are particularly helpful when studying stone tool manufacture.

The concept of culture is used in two different ways by contemporary archeologists. When dealing with cultural chronologies, the archeologist most commonly uses a modal or shared view of culture. It is this normative collection of shared ideas which causes artifacts to change in systematic ways through time, and temporal types can be established on the basis of this shared culture. When attempting to reconstruct lifeways, however, the archeologist can no longer rely on the shared aspects of culture. When transcending temporal associations, contemporary archeologists tend to view culture systematically, as people's extrasomatic (that is, learned) method of dealing with the social and cultural environment.

The principles of stratigraphy are applied to archeology in terms of the law of superposition, which states that, all else being equal, older deposits will tend to be buried beneath younger ones. Mere stratigraphic equivalence, however, does not necessarily indicate contemporaneity, as there can be misleading mixtures of successive occupational debris on one surface. Archeologists must therefore study the processes of cultural deposition in order to recognize the difference between intact and disturbed strata.

Contemporary excavation must be conducted with a plan, a firm research design that attempts to provide answers to definite questions. Archeology is one of the few sciences which destroys its own data in the process of generating them. Archeologists must therefore be extremely careful to make the appropriate observations at the time of excavation.

The task of deciphering meaning from past material culture is so complex that the archeologist is often required to borrow from allied disciplines in the physical and natural sciences, including geology, climatology, paleobotany, paleontology, mineralogy, physics, chemistry, and anthropology. The archeologist must have some understanding of all these sciences to extract from sites and materials every possible piece of information which may lead to a better understanding of prehistory. The archeologist must be able to record and publish every minor fact for the benefit of colleagues and successors, because the writing of prehistory requires the synthesis of all archeological discovery and interpretation. See also Archeological chemistry; Physical anthropology.