Of Archaeology

What is Archaeology?

When you think of the word 'Archaeology', you must at some point, associate it with 'History'. Well, Archaeology is not the same; as History studies the time frame of past events. 

According to Jennifer Freer Harris and Charlotte A. Smith in their book Early Georgia states that Archaeology is the study of the materials remains by the human past.  Archaeology is also the scientific study of the physical evidence of past human societies recovered through excavations of historical sites. It is a study of facts based on evidence.

This field of study allows us to learn about the humans of the past and their lives from before modernity. It is the single most powerful tool to know and understand humanity right on from the earliest of mankind to modern times. It is the discovery of past knowledge.

According to Gabriel Moshenska in his book Key Concepts of Public Archaeology, he said that there are three reasons why people study Archaeology and those reasons are to learn about the past, to manage the historical heritages and to connect with the people of the past.

Archaeology has many subbranches like;

• bioarchaeology that studies human remains, 
• zooarchaeology that studies animal remains of the old days, 
• paleoethnobotany that studies botanical plants and trees, and
• lithics that include studying ancient stone tools and others.

From these definitions, it can be concluded that Archaeology is about studying human civilizations through the discovery of concrete proof from artifacts and excavations.

Sources:

1) Harris, J. F., & Smith, C. A. (2001). What is Archaeology?. Early Georgia: A New Look for, 15.

2) Key Concepts in Public Archaeology by Gabriel Moshenska