Archaeology
hideArchaeology, archeology, or archæology (from Greek ἀρχαιολογία, archaiologia – ἀρχαῖος, archaīos, "primal, ancient, old"; and -λογία, -logia) is the science that studies human cultures through the recovery, documentation, analysis, and interpretation of material remains and environmental data, including architecture, artifacts, features, biofacts, and landscapes. Because archaeology's aim is to understand humankind, it is a humanistic endeavor. Due to its analysis of human cultures, it is a subset of anthropology, which contains: physical anthropology, cultural anthropology, archaeology, and linguistic anthropology. There is debate as to what archaeology's goals are. Some goals include the documentation and explanation of the origins and development of human cultures, understanding culture history, chronicling cultural evolution, and studying human behavior and ecology, for both prehistoric and historic societies[citation needed].
Archaeologists are also concerned with the study of methods used in the discipline, and the theoretical and philosophical underpinnings underlying the questions archaeologists ask of the past. The tasks of surveying areas in order to find new sites, excavating sites in order to recover cultural remains, classification, analysis, and preservation are all important phases of the archaeological process. Given the broad scope of the discipline, there is cross-disciplinary research in archaeology. It draws upon anthropology, history, art history, classics, ethnology, geography, geology, linguistics, physics, information sciences, chemistry, statistics, paleoecology, paleontology, paleozoology, paleoethnobotany, and paleobotany.
For more information about Archaeology, read the full article at
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News tagged with archaeologists
Evidence unearthed of possible mass cannibalism in Neolithic Europe
Other Sciences / Archaeology & Fossils
Dec 07, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- Archaeologists studying a 7,000-year-old site in what is now south-west Germany have found evidence suggesting that more than 500 people may have been the victims of cannibalism.
Houses of the rising sun: Research sheds new light on Ancient Greeks
Other Sciences / Archaeology & Fossils
Nov 25, 2009 |
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New research at the University of Leicester has identified scores of Sicilian temples built to face the rising Sun, shedding light on the practices of the Ancient Greeks.
A 200,000-year-old cut of meat
Other Sciences / Archaeology & Fossils
Oct 14, 2009 |
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Contestants on TV shows like Top Chef and Hell's Kitchen know that their meat-cutting skills will be scrutinized by a panel of unforgiving judges. Now, new archaeological evidence is getting the same scrutiny ...
'Blue Stonehenge' discovered
Other Sciences / Archaeology & Fossils
Oct 06, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- Archaeologists have released an artist’s impression of what a second stone circle found a mile from Stonehenge might have looked like.
New clues in Easter Island hat mystery
Other Sciences / Archaeology & Fossils
Sep 07, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- A team of archaeologists has come one step closer to unravelling the mystery of how the famous statues dotting the landscape of a tiny Pacific island acquired their distinctive red hats.
Ancient well, and body, found in Cyprus
Other Sciences / Archaeology & Fossils
Jun 24, 2009 |
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(AP) -- Archaeologists have discovered a water well in Cyprus that was built as long as 10,500 years ago, and the skeleton of a young woman at the bottom of it, an official said Wednesday.
Ivory sculpture in Germany could be world's oldest
Other Sciences / Archaeology & Fossils
May 13, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- The 2008 excavations at Hohle Fels Cave in the Swabian Jura of southwestern Germany recovered a female figurine carved from mammoth ivory from the basal Aurignacian deposit. This figurine, ...
Researchers find the earliest evidence of domesticated maize
Other Sciences / Archaeology & Fossils
Mar 23, 2009 |
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Maize was domesticated from its wild ancestor more than 8700 years according to biological evidence uncovered by researchers in the Mexico's Central Balsas River Valley. This is the earliest dated evidence ...
Archaeologists find earliest known domestic horses
Other Sciences / Archaeology & Fossils
Mar 05, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- An international team of archaeologists has uncovered the earliest known evidence of horses being domesticated by humans. The discovery suggests that horses were both ridden and milked. The ...
World's oldest submerged town dates back 5,000 years (w/ Video)
Other Sciences / Archaeology & Fossils
Oct 16, 2009 |
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Archaeologists surveying the world's oldest submerged town have found ceramics dating back to the Final Neolithic. Their discovery suggests that Pavlopetri, off the southern Laconia coast of Greece, was occupied some 5,000 ...
Caistor skeleton mystifies archaeologists
Other Sciences / Archaeology & Fossils
Sep 15, 2009 |
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A skeleton, found at one of the most important, but least understood, Roman sites in Britain is puzzling experts from The University of Nottingham.
Prehistoric site found near UK's Stonehenge
Other Sciences / Archaeology & Fossils
Oct 03, 2009 |
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(AP) -- Archaeologists have discovered a smaller prehistoric site near Britain's famous circle of standing stones at Stonehenge.
Archaeologists find early depiction of a menorah
Other Sciences / Archaeology & Fossils
Sep 11, 2009 |
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(AP) -- Israeli archaeologists have uncovered one of the earliest depictions of a menorah, the seven-branched candelabra that has come to symbolize Judaism, the Israel Antiquities Authority said Friday. The ...
Israeli archaeologists find ancient fortification
Other Sciences / Archaeology & Fossils
Sep 02, 2009 |
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(AP) -- Archaeologists digging in Jerusalem have uncovered a 3,700-year-old wall that is the oldest example of massive fortifications ever found in the city, the Israel Antiquities Authority said Wednesday.
Nero's rotating banquet hall unveiled in Rome
Other Sciences / Archaeology & Fossils
Sep 29, 2009 |
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(AP) -- Archaeologists on Tuesday unveiled what they think are the remains of Roman emperor Nero's extravagant banquet hall, a circular space that rotated day and night to imitate the Earth's movement and ...
