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| title | chunk | source | category | tags | date_saved | instance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Archaeology | 4/11 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archaeology | reference | science, encyclopedia | 2026-05-05T15:06:27.665454+00:00 | kb-cron |
The purpose of archaeology is to learn more about past societies and the development of the human race. Over 99% of human development has occurred within prehistoric cultures, which did not use writing; no written records exist for study. Without such written sources, the only way to understand prehistoric societies is through archaeology. Because archaeology is the study of past human activity, it stretches back to about 2.5 million years ago when the first stone tools were found – The Oldowan Industry. Many important developments in human history occurred during prehistory, such as the evolution of humanity during the Paleolithic period, when the hominins developed from the australopithecines in Africa and eventually into modern Homo sapiens. Archaeology also sheds light on many of humanity's technological advances, for instance, the ability to use fire, the development of stone tools, the discovery of metallurgy, the beginnings of religion, and the creation of agriculture. Without archaeology, little or nothing would be known about humanity's use of material culture that predates writing. However, it is not only prehistoric, pre-literate cultures that can be studied using archaeology; historic, literate cultures can also be studied through the sub-discipline of historical archaeology. For many literate cultures, such as Ancient Greece and Mesopotamia, their surviving records are often incomplete and biased to some extent. In many societies, literacy was restricted to the elite classes, such as the clergy or the bureaucracy of the court or the temple. The literacy of aristocrats has sometimes been restricted to deeds and contracts. The interests and worldview of elites are often quite different from those of the populace. Writings that were produced by people more representative of the general population were unlikely to find their way into libraries and be preserved there for posterity. Thus, written records tend to reflect the biases, assumptions, cultural values, and possibly deceptions of a limited range of individuals, usually a small fraction of the larger population. Hence, written records cannot be trusted as a sole source. The material record may be closer to a fair representation of society, though it is subject to its own biases, such as sampling bias and differential preservation. Often, archaeology provides the only means of learning about the existence and behavior of people in the past. Over the millennia, many thousands of cultures and societies, and billions of people, have come and gone, with little or no written record, or with existing records that are misrepresentative or incomplete. Writing, as it is known today, did not exist in human civilization until the 4th millennium BC, and even then, only in a relatively small number of technologically advanced civilizations. In contrast, Homo sapiens has existed for at least 200,000 years, and other Homo species for millions of years (see Human evolution). These civilizations are, not coincidentally, the best known; they have been open to historical inquiry for centuries, whereas the study of prehistoric cultures has only recently emerged. Within a literate civilization, many events and important human practices may not be officially recorded. Any knowledge of the early years of human civilization – the development of agriculture, cult practices of folk religion, the rise of the first cities – must come from archaeology. In addition to their scientific importance, archaeological remains sometimes have political or cultural significance for the descendants of the people who produced them, monetary value for collectors, or strong aesthetic appeal. Many people identify archaeology with the recovery of such aesthetic, religious, political, or economic treasures rather than with the reconstruction of past societies. This view is often espoused in works of popular fiction, such as Raiders of the Lost Ark, The Mummy, and King Solomon's Mines. When unrealistic subjects are treated more seriously, accusations of pseudoscience are invariably levelled at their proponents (see Pseudoarchaeology). However, these endeavours, real and fictional, are not representative of modern archaeology.
=== Theory ===
There is no single approach to archaeological theory adopted by all archaeologists. When archaeology developed in the late 19th century, the first approach to archaeological theory to be practised was that of cultural-historical archaeology, which held the goal of explaining why cultures changed and adapted rather than just highlighting the fact that they did, therefore emphasizing historical particularism. In the early 20th century, many archaeologists who studied past societies with direct continuing links to existing ones (such as those of Native Americans, Siberians, Mesoamericans etc.) followed the direct historical approach, compared the continuity between the past and contemporary ethnic and cultural groups. In the 1960s, an archaeological movement largely led by American archaeologists like Lewis Binford and Kent Flannery arose that rebelled against the established cultural-history archaeology. They proposed a "New Archaeology", which would be more "scientific" and "anthropological", with hypothesis testing and the scientific method very important parts of what became known as processual archaeology. In the 1980s, a new postmodern movement arose led by the British archaeologists Michael Shanks, Christopher Tilley, Daniel Miller, and Ian Hodder, which has become known as post-processual archaeology. It questioned processualism's appeals to scientific positivism and impartiality; it emphasized the importance of a more self-critical theoretical reflexivity. However, processualists have criticized this approach as lacking scientific rigour. The validity of both processualism and post-processualism is still under debate. Meanwhile, another theory, known as historical processualism, has emerged seeking to incorporate a focus on process and post-processual archaeology's emphasis on reflexivity and history. Archaeological theory now borrows from a wide range of influences, including systems theory, neo-evolutionary thought,[35] phenomenology, postmodernism, agency theory, cognitive science, structural functionalism, Marxism, gender-based and feminist archaeology, queer theory, postcolonial thoughts, materiality, and posthumanism.
== Methods ==