1.1 Defining Archaeology and Its Scope

Defining Archaeology and Its Scope

Archaeology studies the human past through physical evidence rather than written records. This makes it the primary way we learn about the vast majority of human history, since writing was only invented around 5,000 years ago. The field covers everything from stone tools millions of years old to artifacts from the recent past.

Focus of Archaeology

Archaeology is the study of human history and prehistory through the excavation, analysis, and interpretation of material remains. The goal is to reconstruct past societies, behaviors, and cultural changes by examining the physical evidence people left behind.

That physical evidence falls into three main categories:

• Artifacts: portable objects made or modified by humans (tools, pottery, jewelry, clothing)
• Features: non-portable evidence of human activity that can't be removed from a site without destroying them (hearths, buildings, burials, trash pits)
• Ecofacts: natural materials that provide information about how people interacted with their environment (animal bones, plant remains, soil samples)

Types of Archaeological Evidence

Beyond the three categories above, archaeologists rely on several other forms of evidence to build a picture of the past:

• Spatial relationships between artifacts, features, and ecofacts reveal patterns of behavior and how a site was organized. Where something is found matters just as much as what is found.
• Stratigraphy is the principle that archaeological deposits build up in layers over time, with older material generally sitting below newer material. This helps establish chronology and understand how a site formed.
• Dating techniques determine the age of materials. Common methods include radiocarbon dating (measures decay of carbon-14 in organic materials), dendrochronology (counts tree rings), and seriation (arranges artifacts in a sequence based on stylistic changes).
• Historical documents and oral histories, when available, provide additional context for interpreting what the physical evidence means.

Archaeology vs. Related Disciplines

Archaeology is formally a subfield of anthropology, which is the broader study of human societies and cultures. Anthropology has four main branches: cultural anthropology, linguistic anthropology, physical (biological) anthropology, and archaeology.

The discipline most often compared to archaeology is history. The key distinction is straightforward:

In practice, these two fields complement each other. Archaeology is especially valuable for periods or societies with limited or no written records, and it reveals aspects of daily life that written sources often ignore. When both types of evidence exist, combining them gives a much fuller picture of the past.

Subfields in Archaeology

Archaeology branches into several specialized areas, each with its own methods and focus:

• Prehistoric archaeology studies human societies before the invention of writing. Since there are no texts to work with, it relies entirely on material remains analysis.
• Historical archaeology investigates societies that did produce written records, combining excavation with document analysis. Colonial-era sites in the Americas are a common focus.
• Underwater archaeology deals with submerged sites and shipwrecks. It requires specialized diving, excavation, and preservation techniques because waterlogged materials behave very differently from those on land.
• Environmental archaeology examines the relationships between past human societies and their natural environments, including how people adapted to climate changes or modified landscapes.
• Ethnoarchaeology observes living communities to develop better interpretations of the archaeological record. For example, studying how a modern group makes pottery can help explain pottery fragments found at an ancient site.
• Experimental archaeology tests hypotheses about past behaviors through hands-on experiments, such as recreating ancient stone tools to understand how they were made and used.