Archaeology Actually

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...

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...