Archaeology
Archaeology is a scientific discipline whose objective is to study and reconstruct the history of mankind since prehistoric times until the present day through all the material remains that have survived, and that is sometimes necessary to uncover (objects, tools , bones , pottery , weapons , coins , jewelry , clothing , footprints, traces, paintings , buildings, infrastructure, etc..).
The archaeologist, in an approach diachronic , thus acquires much of its documentation through field work (surveys, surveys, excavations , research collections, analysis of the frame) as opposed to the historian , whose main sources are texts. Written documents are however often used effectively in archeology where available and maintained.
The word "archeology" comes from ancient Greek Origins and definition In the " Old World "Archaeology has tended to focus on the study of physical remains, the methods used to uncover and the theoretical and philosophical underpinning these objectives. The discipline has its source in the world of Antiques and the study of Latin and ancient Greek , who enroll in the course of field study of history. Cyriac of Ancona and Ciriaco de 'Pizzicolli ( Ancona , to 1391 - Cremona , circa 1455 ) is a humanist Italy , a traveler and a epigraphist reached whereby copies of many Greek and Latin inscriptions lost since his time. It has been called the father of archeology: the first was "learned" in ancient Greek sites redcouvir brands such as Delphi or Nicopolis in Epirus. Cyriac of Ancona fancied himself a mission: to save the antiquities, sentenced to disappear. United States and a growing number of other regions of the world, archeology is generally devoted to the study of human societies and is considered one of the four branches of anthropology. The other branches of anthropology complement the results of archeology in a way holistic. These branches are: Other disciplines also supplement archeology such as paleontology , the paleozoology , the paleo-ethnobotany , the paleobotany , the geography , the geology , the art history and philology. Archaeology has been described as an art that enlists the sciences to illuminate the humanities. The American archaeologist Walter Taylor said that "Archaeology is neither history nor anthropology. As an autonomous discipline, it is a method and a set of specialized techniques for collecting, or "produce" cultural information " . Archaeology seeks to understand human culture through its material remains regardless of the period. In England, archaeologists have unearthed the well sites long forgotten medieval villages abandoned after the crises of the fourteenth century as well as the gardens of the seventeenth century ousted by a mode change. At the heart of New York , archaeologists have unearthed the remains of a cemetery containing the remains of 400 African and dating of seventeenth and eighteenth century. Archaeology is considered traditional cultural studies prehistoric , cultures that existed before the advent of writing. Historical archeology is the study of cultures that have developed forms of writing. When the study involves crops relatively recent, observed and studied by Western researchers, archeology is so intimately linked to the ethnography. This is the case in much of North America, Oceania, Siberia and all areas where archeology is indistinguishable from the study of living traditions of the cultures in question. The Kennewick Man gives the example of a subject of archaeological study in interaction with modern culture and current concerns. In the study group who had mastered the writing or who had mastered the neighbors, archeology and history combine to enable a wider appreciation of global cultural context, and the study of Hadrian's Wall gives us a example. The method of Archaeology is part of a scientific approach, as well as other sciences palaetiological. To understand the facts and understand them, it must go through the stage of induction , then deduction and finally back to induction. By uncovering new evidence of the past, the archaeologist must perform the induction. Indeed, we must move from facts to ideas, comments to proposals that can justify indices to inferences that explain them. In formulating a hypothesis or assuming a fact, so does the archaeologist applying a scientific methodology usual. It must simply verify that the new problem within its jurisdiction, that is to say first of all he has - which is not always the case - the necessary documents, and also it has a sufficient interest , that is to say, it is neither too trivial nor too limited; the sake of efficiency, which has nothing, either, especially in archeology, there is nevertheless of great importance, since the archaeological record are responsible for several limitations. The problem chosen and the hypothesis, it remains to verify it. This approach, already advocated by Francis Bacon (Novum Organum Scientiarum, 1620) and displayed with great clarity by Claude Bernard (Introduction to the Study of Experimental Medicine, Part 1865), is first to return with ideas made by a movement or a deductive hypothetico-deductive phase. Since we can not operate direct demonstration, which is the privilege of mathematics , we try to check the assumption a posteriori by its logical effectiveness or value heuristic. Then again conceived by a new induction and, if the hypothesis is verified, it becomes what most call a law of science, but that history and archeology can not call in the sense most general term, a historical fact. However, the search involves checking first that the hypothesis is formulated as accurately as possible. As defined by the researcher at this stage does not yet have all the necessary data, it is driven to advance a little beyond what he has observed. This anticipation of the experience is generally to describe the consequences of the hypothesis and to predict how their translation in the archaeological remains: since only this translation is likely to be verified. But the importance of reasoning is even more critical to next step. It is indeed whether, in the observable data, there are many translations of the consequences that we have planned. This calls for return to the search or at least to the archaeological record and the relationships between them. But you must come back with a method : to organize a set of operations that allow the desired control and give clear results. It can not be resorting to pre revenue. It is even very precisely the opposite: we must imagine, in each case, the procedure that will be both better suited to the purpose and pragmatically based on the importance of the problem. In other words, the specific techniques that will be implemented in this approach will have no interest in themselves but must be tried, as everywhere, on their effectiveness. Those who will get answers clear and relevant for a proportionate amount of effort in the interest of the company, will by definition be the best. At the end of the process, two possibilities arise: Archaeology is often the only way to know the lifestyle and behavior of groups of the past. Thousands of cultures and societies, millions of people have succeeded over millennia, for which there is no written record - no history - or almost. In some cases, the texts may be incomplete or may distort reality. The writing as we know it today has emerged there are only 5000 years ago and it was only used by some technologically advanced civilizations . This is of course no coincidence that these civilizations are relatively well known: they were the subject of research by the historians for centuries, while crops prehistoric are studied since the nineteenth century. But even in the case of a civilization using writing, many important human practices are not recorded. Everything concerning the building blocks of civilization - the development of agriculture, cultural practices, the first cities - will be known only through archeology. Even when written records exist, they are systematically more or less incomplete or biased. In many societies were literate members of an elite society, as the clergy. Written documents of the aristocracy are often limited to bureaucratic texts concerning the court or temple, even to deeds or contracts. The interests and worldview of the elite are often relatively remote from the lives and concerns of the rest of the population. The literature produced by people more representative of the general population were unlikely to result in libraries and be preserved for posterity. Written evidence thus tend to reflect the bias, ideas, values and possibly deceptions of a few individuals, usually corresponding to a tiny fraction of the population. It is impossible to rely on written as the sole source of information. The material remains are closer to a reliable representation of the company, even if they pose other problems such as the representativeness of sampling bias or differential preservation. Beyond their scientific importance, archaeological remains may have a political significance for the descendants of groups that produced a material value to collectors or simply strong aesthetic charge. To the general public, which often ignores the legal matter (right archeology, heritage code), archeology is often associated with a search for such treasures aesthetic, religious, political or economic rather than a reconstruction of the lifestyles of past societies. This view is reinforced frequently in works of fiction such as Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark , The Mummy and King Solomon's Mines , fortunately far removed from the actual concerns of modern archeology. The history of archeology is marked by a growing professionalism and by the use of a range of techniques more broadly to get as much data as possible study sites. Excavations of ancient monuments and antiquities collection has existed for millennia, but they were mainly aimed the unearthing of remains with a market value or aesthetics. Not until the nineteenth century has begun the systematic study of the past through material remains. The founding of the Archaeological Institute of correspondence (Istituto di corrispondenza archeologica) in Rome in 1829, by Eduard Gerhard and others, is an important step. The archaeological methods were developed by both interested amateurs and professionals, including Augustus Pitt Rivers and William Flinders Petrie. This process continued in the twentieth century by such people as Mortimer Wheeler , whose highly disciplined approach to excavation greatly helped to improve the quality of archaeological documentation. In prehistoric archeology, specific methods of recording or excavation have been developed including Georges Laplace , or Andre Leroi-Gourhan . The development of urban archeology and the archeology has played an important role, like that of Archaeometry , which has greatly increased the amount of data it is possible to obtain. List of archaeological sites by country The skeleton of Lucy , a fossil of Australopithecus afarensis. Venus of Willendorf The walls of Troy. Lions Gate Mycenae. The golden mask discovered in the tomb of Tutankhamun. The deposit of bronze vessels Evans ( Jura ). The crater discovered in the tomb of Vix. The army of terra cotta from the mausoleum of Emperor Qin near Xi'an in China. The statue of Ptolemy II, erected at the door of the Lighthouse of Alexandria. Aerial photograph of protohistoric of Grzac. The Nazca Lines in Peru. The city Inca of Machu Picchu in Peru. These important terms relating to archeology are often misused. Archaeology as an approach to scientific
Importance and validity of application
Present the Great and Powerful Adab to the High Priestess, on the occasion of his election to the temple. Methods of study
Specific Approaches
Archaeological theories
History
Diversity of archaeological finds
Terminology Recalls
See also
External Links
Bibliography
References
(1 votes, average: 4.00 out of 5, rated)
Loading ...