Elizabeth McDonaugh, age 16, of Concord, N.H., for her question:
WHEN DID THE STUDY OF ARCHAEOLOGY BEGIN?
Archaeology is the study or science of old or ancient ways of human life. The history of archaeology may be divided into a number of periods. During the first, prior to 1800, scholars only speculated in various ways about artifacts that had been discovered.
Then about 1800, three unrelated events marked the beginning of a new period. One was Thomas Jefferson's report, published in 1799 by the American Philosophical Society, on his excavations of mounds in Virginia and the well reasoned conclusions he drew from his work.
About the same time, in England, John Frere began to recognize Paleolithic hand axes and he attempted to interpret them in light of ancient behavior.
The third event, and the most important, occurred in Denmark, where scientists recognized excavated artifacts as human products. These Danish studies led to the naming of the three successive ages: Stone, Bronze and Iron.
A new period began about 1859 when Charles Darwin and Alfred Wallace published their theories of organic evolution. Then there were also studies by the Americans in mainland Greece, the French at Delos and Delphi and the English in Crete and Egypt. Solid archaeological techniques and methods were developed as a result of this research in Europe.
Research moved ahead. Studies were conducted in the caves of France and Paleolithic artifacts turned up in China, Burma, India, Java, the Middle East and Africa.
Archaeology has always been involved in the writing of history and in the New World. It has often been considered an aspect of anthropology the study of human beings and their cultures. Modern archaeology, however, is similar to many other fields.
To establish a chronology, for example, archaeologists often use techiques developed by researchers in other disciplines: carbon 14 dating, developed by atomic physicists, and techniques for evaluating fauna, developed by paleontologists.
In their attempts to reconstruct ancient ways of life, archaeologists also use techniques developed by scholars in the fields of sociology, demography, geography, economics and political science.
The archaeologists first task is to collect data and this begins with archaeological reconnaissance. The goal is to find sites that will yield a stratified choronology of artifacts complexes and enough contextual information to construct cultural systems at each time level.
The better the survey is, the easier are the excavation and field research.
This preliminary work leads directly to intensive data collection, accomplished primarily by digging. The purpose of excavation is twofold: to establish chronology and to make contextual observations.
Laboratory analysis and description usually follow the data collection.