Archeology is the study of cultures that lived in the past. Archeologists try to learn what these lost cultures were like. To do this, they study the things these people made, used, and left behind. These remaining objects are called artifacts.
An artifact can be something people made, like a book, a computer, a building, or a tool. It can also be a natural object that people used, such as a stone or a piece of wood. It can even be trash that people threw away. An artifact is anything people used for a purpose.
Archeologists use artifacts to build a model of what a culture from long ago was like. They look for patterns that show how people used items and tools. For example, pottery can reveal how people cooked and what they ate, as well as how their designs and use of materials changed over time.
Many of us have seen archeologists in movies such as Raiders of the Lost Ark . We tend to think of them as scientists who dig in the dirt for clues to the past. While many archeologists do dig in the dirt, there are many other kinds as well.
Classical archeologists study ancient Greek and Roman civilizations. They focus on the years between 500 BC and 300 BC. They study places like the Parthenon in Athens and the Colosseum in Rome.
Historical archeologists seek to understand how the cultural processes and human experiences shape the world we live in today. Many of them study the Great Pyramids. They also read the writings and records that past cultures left behind.
Bio-archeologists study bones, or skeletal remains, found at dig sites. They look at both the physical and chemical parts of these bones. Bones can tell them a great deal about past people and societies. You can see many of their finds, such as dinosaur bones, in natural history museums around the world.
Ethno-archeologists study artifacts such as weapons and tools, as well as human and animal fossils. Some also study living groups of hunter-gatherers today, in places like Australia, Central Africa, and even the Arctic. By studying living hunter-gatherers, these archeologists can make deductions about the characteristics and behaviors of ancestral hunter-gatherer societies.
Nautical archeologists study underwater! They are divers who explore ancient shipwrecks. George Bass was one of the first nautical archeologists. He started the Institute of Nautical Archeology in America in 1973. One of his greatest finds was an Egyptian ship that sank almost 3,000 years ago.
Other nautical archeologists have found everything from Viking warships to Spanish treasure ships. They also study parts of the ancient city of Alexandria, Egypt, which earthquakes and rising seas sank underwater more than 2,000 years ago.
All kinds of archeology have one thing in common. They show us how people of long ago lived, dressed, ate, and behaved.
