Archaeology Actually

In my last post I mentioned the importance of context to archaeological research. That is, knowing PRECISELY where an object was found and its relationship to other objects in the archaeological record.  The goal of archaeology is to understand past human behaviour and how that behaviour changes over time. The primary (and in some cases, the only!) source of evidence available to help achieve this goal is the archaeological record, or the material record of that behaviour. So, how do archaeologists get from ruins, pieces of dirty stone and pottery and patterns of dark patches in the soil to an understanding of human behaviour in the past and how this changes over time? This is where context is important!   To recap from the last post - Excavation, the principal method of data acquisition in archaeology, involves the systematic uncovering of archaeological remains through the removal of the deposits of soil and other material covering them and accompanying them. Two ...

The traditional image of archaeology is that of excavation, or digging! An archaeological excavation in progress. Excavation of a commoner’s house at the Aztec city of Calixtlahuaca, Mexico. Source Image here . Indeed, excavation is a key component of archaeological research. It is the principal method of data acquisition in archaeology, involving the systematic uncovering of archaeological remains through the removal of the deposits of soil and the other materials covering them and accompanying them (Renfrew & Bahn 2008: 580). A problem with archaeological excavation, however, is that it comes at a significant cost! To give one example, in my last post I talked about the ancient Roman towns of Pompeii and Herculaneum, buried by the eruption of Mt Vesuvius in AD 79. An exceptional level of preservation has allowed us some remarkable insights into life in the Roman Empire in the first century AD. However, these insights, as well as the economic benefits derived from touri...