The term archaeology is made up from the Greek archaios, which means "ancient," and logos, which means "discourse." This study emerged as a formal discipline in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
Archaeology seeks to understand how past human culture functioned and how humans behaved (as distinct from paleontology, which is the study of fossils of long-extinct animals, such as dinosaurs). Archaeologists do this by examining what they call archaeological record-the material remains of previous human settlements, including fossils (preserved bones), the ruins of buildings, food remains, and human artifacts, such as tools, pottery, and jewelry.
Archaeological digs in Africa uncovered the origins of humanity and the fossil remains of humans up to 4.5 million years ago, archaeology also examines more recent history. One recent research project involves analyzing the garbage of modern humans in cities across the United States.
There are many different branches of archaeology. Prehistoric archaeology examines ancient cultures that had not developed writing, whether it was 5,000 years ago in parts of southwestern Asia or as recently as the nineteenth century A.D. in central Africa. Historical archaeology examines past cultures that did use writing. Geoarchaeology examines the ancient landscape and environment. Ethnoarchaeology is the study of living people in order to deduce how past cultures might have functioned; for example, present-day and ancient hunter-gatherers share common features. Underwater archaeology uses special methods and sophisticated diving techniques to study shipwrecks and other archaeological sites that lie beneath water. Experimental archaeology uses models and reconstruction of sites and artifacts and even the growing of ancient varieties of crops and animals to learn about the past. Archaeological studies have three aims:
chronology (the age of the excavated material), reconstruction (creating models), and explanation (scientific hypotheses).
Increasingly, archaeologists are using less intrusive methods, such as radar and imaging techniques known as remote sensing (from airplanes or spacecraft), which reduce the need for excavation. It's not all about digging up bones anymore.
