Wikipedy.com                                                                                           Online encyclopedia

   Home     Add article      About

Please, support our  project in social networks:

Archeology: definition and discoveries

The archeology reconstruct the lives and activities of past peoples - how they made a living, what tools they used, what skills they had acquired, even what diseases afflicted them. The clues for building up these pictures are the traces such peoples have left behind - bones, tools, ornaments, pottery and buildings.

Archeology: definition, discoveries, pictures
This Roman bronze cavalry helmet, found in Lancashire, England, dates from the late 1st century A.D.	Golden necklet from Caernarvonshire, Wales (c. 1700-1500 B.C.).

The fractured bones of fallen warriors may reveal just what types of weapons were used in past warfare. Diseases may also leave their mark on the skeleton. The teeth of past peoples may reveal something of their diet. People who eat mainly meat rarely have rotten teeth. As the quantity of grain in the diet rises there is a tendency for tooth-decay. Bones of animals may often be found associated with human communities, and their identification usually goes a long way to establishing the staple human diet. The remains may be of animals known to move from pasture to pasture - reindeer and bison, for instance. Almost certainly the human community also led a wandering existence.

Archeology education
Modern archeology is an activity requiring team-work and patience. Much of the work is carried out by students during the archeology education or by voluntary helpers

The archeologist works mainly by excavating a deserted site, from which he collects all the evidence of human occupation. Excavation today is a highly professional and scientific business, though the voluntary help of amateurs is often welcome. Often it is not possible to dig up the whole site, so the excavator plans trenches across it, perhaps at the corners, or straight through the middle. Each trench is marked out and its position on the map recorded. The trench is then sunk until virgin soil, earth untouched by man, is reached. First, the top layer of soil is carefully removed. Then each level or layer of earth underneath is carefully scraped away with builders' trowels. Different layers are revealed by changes in the color of the soil. The position of everything found is carefully recorded, and important finds are photographed in position.

From these records the archeologist draws plans of what was found in each level. Objects from the lower levels will be older than objects from the higher ones. The archeologist knows that one kind of broken pottery is older than another kind. But how much older? Occasionally a coin with a date is found with a particular type of pottery in one place. This gives a date for that kind of pottery wherever it is found. But much archeology depends on arranging artifacts (pottery, flints, brooches, jewelry) into types, and trying to decide which type developed out of which other type, and when.

Recently a whole series of scientific techniques have aided the archeologist to date his finds. One of the most accurate is the carbon-14 method. Carbon-14 is a radioactive form of carbon found in plants and animals. When living things die the radioactive carbon that has been taken in decays, breaking down to form nitrogen. The rate of this breakdown is constant. After 5,568 years half of the radioactive carbon has decayed. After another 5,568 years half as much again has disappeared. By measuring the quantity of radioactive carbon left in old wood, bones, peat, antlers and grain their age can be estimated.

A method of telling the relative age of human and animal remains involves testing the amount of fluorine they contain. Bones and teeth buried in the ground gradually absorb traces of fluorine. If bones found together contain the same amount of fluorine they are of the same age. This method proved the Piltdown skull to be a fake. Some of the bones were much younger than others. Not all archeology is done by excavating. By looking at a photograph taken from an aircraft we may discover the shape of a vanished building. Over the foundations crops will grow differently from crops on undisturbed ground. This difference will show clearly from the air. Archeology has revealed the secrets of ancient societies. It is also telling us new things about more recent times. Industrial archeology is the study of old factories, mines and machinery.

Wikipedy.com ^@ - Online Encyclopedia