Archaeology Actually

To round off my last post I gave a link to a pretty cool bit of research that was using X-Ray technology to read writing on carbonised scrolls from the Roman town of Herculaneum. Herculaneum, and the better known town of Pompeii, are extraordinary examples of archaeological site preservation - on August 24, AD 79 the eruption of nearby Mt Vesuvius, near the Bay of Naples in Italy, resulted in the burial of these towns, which lay largely preserved by a layer of ash and volcanic pumice for several centuries. The specific date, by the way, is thanks to a written down eyewitness account of the eruption by Pliny the Younger. Pompeii, one of the most frequently visited archaeological sites in the world, is the most extensive excavation of an urban site that has ever been undertaken (Alcock & Cherry 2009). Pompeii, with Mt Vesuvius in the background.  Image sourced here . There have been some absolutely remarkable archaeological finds at these sites - as well as the carbon...

The Amphipolis Tomb In my last post I reported that the results of the analysis of the bones from the tomb at Amphipolis, Greece had been announced. This, predictably, has led to a tidal wave of speculation about the identities of the five individuals. Speculation on this topic will continue for some time, and perhaps there will never be definitive answers. Alas, that is the nature of the beast. I think the following quote sums things up quite nicely actually: "Archaeology is like a jigsaw puzzle, except that you can't cheat and look at the box, and not all the pieces are there." More here . Applying Archaeology to Today's World: Part 2 A couple of posts back I started looking at how the findings of archaeological research might be applied to understanding contemporary issues and problems. Here is another relevant example: a review of an interesting looking book written by Eric H. Cline , a Professor of Classics and Archaeology at The George Washington Un...

The results of the analysis of the bones from the tomb at Amphipolis, Greece, widely regarded as one of the top archaeological discoveries of 2014 , have been announced overnight (NZ time): The bones appear to belong to 5 different people : The persons, whose bones were found inside the Amphipolis Tomb, after the research that was presented today: - One woman, over 60 years old - One man around 35 years old - One man around 45 years old  - One infant (sex not determinable) - One adult (man or woman), cremated For coverage on the BBC News website go here .

Archaeology is the study of the human past. While a better understanding of our past is a pretty interesting and worthwhile objective in its own right, that, sadly, is not necessarily enough on its own to justify funding amongst increasingly heated competition for the research dollar! Are there benefits of archaeology beyond satisfying that universal human trait: curiosity? Curiosity about the origins of our species and the origins of the diversity of human societies. One of the more obvious benefits is generating tourism. Certainly, there are a number of archaeological sites around the world that are huge tourist drawcards, creating significant spinoffs for the local economies:     Clockwise from top left: The Colosseum (Rome); The Great Pyramid and Sphinx at Giza (Egypt); Angkor Wat (Cambodia); and Machu Picchu (Peru) are all significant tourist drawcards for their respective countries. Follow links for image sources.  A less appreciated benefit of archaeol...

An interesting article was brought to my attention today by the Australian Archaeological Association's twitter account (@AustArchaeology). A couple of posts ago I talked about the potential value of oral histories to archaeologists. In the south Pacific there are no written records of history predating European exploration of the region within the last 400 years. However, throughout this region there are oral traditions that predate European contact and that certainly have the potential to inform archaeological investigations.  The piece I was reading today is an intriguing example from Australia, a land with a human presence dating back around 50,000 years. Australian Aboriginal man with Uluru/Ayers Rock in the background. Image sourced from  here . Stories told by groups of indigenous Australians right around the coast of the continent since the earliest colonial times have recalled rises in sea-level and coastal inundation. The following (in italics) is a direct quo...

Just a short epilogue of sorts to yesterday's post : Here are a couple of pretty neat examples of historical archaeology, which involves the complementary study of the historical and archaeological records in order to understand the human past. The first example is a study of World War II battlefields in Northwestern Europe . Some people may be surprised to discover archaeologists investigating an event 'as recent' as World War II, but in fact there really isn't any 'minimum date' in archaeology. World War II was a hugely significant event in human history, and it created a substantial material record (i.e. structures, changes to landscapes), which has the potential to inform our understanding of events beyond what was written at the time. The second example is from my hometown of Christchurch, New Zealand. Almost four years ago the city was struck by a devastating earthquake. Archaeological investigations of historic areas of the city, founded in 1850, have ...

Within archaeology, prehistory has a fairly straightforward meaning: prior to recorded (i.e. written down) history. In theory, the use of this term within the field to describe a time period in the past is free of value judgments. The key distinction between prehistoric and historical archaeology is one of differences in the resources that are available to archaeologists when trying to piece together peoples' behaviour in the past. In both cases, we are interested in the material remains of that behaviour. That is, in a nutshell, the definition of archaeology: the investigation of the human past by the study of the material remains left behind. British archaeologist Stuart Piggott once called archaeology 'the science of rubbish' because it predominantly involves the study of things that people have thrown away. Historical Archaeology In historical archaeology the study of material remains is complemented by the study of historical records - whether they be written histo...

With 2014 having drawn to a close, I thought I'd post some links to various takes on the Top Archaeological discoveries of the year. 2014 was indeed an exciting year in archaeology worldwide! The first is the annual list of the Top 10 Discoveries by the editors of Archaeology Magazine , a publication of the Archaeological Institute of America. The second is a Top 10 List from the HeritageDaily website , compiled by an analysis of trending stories with the most site visits, in conjunction with the overall magnitude of the discovery. There's also a Top 5 list from the DigVentures website , as well as a look back on The Year 2014 in Archaeology on the BBC website . Great to see some Polynesian archaeology getting a mention in the latter. These lists comprise the year's most compelling discoveries, the ones that grabbed the news headlines. To paraphrase the editors of Archaeology Magazine, the Amphipolis tomb , which has been apparently dated to the time of the famed kin...