About Archaeology

                   ABOUT ARCHAEOLOGY

Archaeology, also spelled archeology, the scientific study of the material remains of past human life and activities. These include human artifacts from the very earliest stone tools to the man made objects that are buried or thrown away in the present day: everything made by human beings- from simple tools to complex machines, from the earliest houses and temples and tombs to palaces, cathedrals, and pyramids. Archaeological investigations are a principal source of knowledge of prehistoric, ancient, and extinct culture. The word comes from the Greek archaia (ancient things) and logos (theory or science).

To be an Archaeologist is first a descriptive work, one has to describe, classify and analyze the artifacts he has recovered from the archaeological site. For that purpose a specific and adequate taxonomy is required to record the findings of any site. Without recording anything from the site the whole excavation process is useless as archaeological excavation is a destructive activity so one have to record every major and minor detail of the site excavated for the future reference. Therefore, the main aim of archaeologist is to place the material remains in historical contexts to supplement what may be known from written sources, and thus to increase understanding of the past. Basically, archeology is the study of the past remains which have been left by the people intentionally or accidently. 

The Scope of archeology is very broad although archaeology is itself the branch of a broader discipline Anthropology but still the scope of archaeology is very broad for and excavation to be successful archaeologist have to follow all the procedure of the excavation for that purpose archeologist need other field experts like the Numismatist to identify the coin type and the period with which the coin belongs, Epigraphist to interpret the meaning the of inscriptions recovered during excavation, Zooarchaeologist to identify the remains of the remains of animal, Palaeobotanist who interpret the floral remains, Geoarcheologist to interpret the geological patterns happened since the beginning of the Earth atmospheric processes, Ethnoarchaeology latest branch of archeology which studies the cultural pattern of the society of the ancient people, their settlement pattern, living style, technology, ceramics, food processing etc.