kb/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archaeology-1.md

title	chunk	source	category	tags	date_saved	instance
Archaeology	2/11	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archaeology	reference	science, encyclopedia	2026-05-05T15:06:27.665454+00:00	kb-cron

The science of archaeology (from Greek ἀρχαιολογία archaiologia, from ἀρχαῖος, arkhaios 'ancient' and -λογία, -logia 'study') grew out of the older multi-disciplinary study known as antiquarianism. Antiquarians studied history with particular attention to ancient artifacts, manuscripts, and historical sites. Antiquarianism focused on the empirical evidence available for understanding the past, encapsulated in the motto of the 18th century antiquary Richard Colt Hoare: "We speak from facts, not theory". Tentative steps towards the systematization of archaeology as a science took place during the Enlightenment period in Europe in the 17th and 18th centuries. In Imperial China during the Song dynasty (960–1279), figures such as Ouyang Xiu and Zhao Mingcheng established the tradition of Chinese epigraphy by investigating, preserving, and analyzing ancient Chinese bronze inscriptions from the Shang and Zhou periods. In his book published in 1088, Shen Kuo criticized contemporary Chinese scholars for attributing ancient bronze vessels as creations of famous sages rather than artisan commoners, and for attempting to revive them for ritual use without discerning their original functionality and purpose of manufacture. Such antiquarian pursuits waned after the Song period, were revived in the 17th century during the Qing dynasty, but were always considered a branch of Chinese historiography rather than a separate discipline of archaeology. In Renaissance Europe, philosophical interest in the remains of Greco-Roman civilization and the rediscovery of classical culture began in the late Middle Ages, with humanism. Cyriacus of Ancona was a restlessly itinerant Italian humanist and antiquarian who came from a prominent family of merchants in Ancona, a maritime republic on the Adriatic. He was called by his contemporaries pater antiquitatis ('father of antiquity') and today "father of classical archaeology": "Cyriac of Ancona was the most enterprising and prolific recorder of Greek and Roman antiquities, particularly inscriptions, in the fifteenth century, and the general accuracy of his records entitles him to be called the founding father of modern classical archeology." He travelled throughout Greece and all around the Eastern Mediterranean, to record his findings on ancient buildings, statues and inscriptions, including archaeological remains still unknown to his time: the Parthenon, Delphi, the Egyptian pyramids, the hieroglyphics. He noted down his archaeological discoveries in his diary, Commentaria (in six volumes). Flavio Biondo, an Italian Renaissance humanist historian, created a systematic guide to the ruins and topography of ancient Rome in the early 15th century, for which he has been called an early founder of archaeology. Antiquarians of the 16th century, including John Leland and William Camden, conducted surveys of the English countryside, drawing, describing and interpreting the monuments that they encountered. The Oxford English Dictionary first cites "archaeologist" in 1824; this soon became the usual term for one major branch of antiquarian activity. "Archaeology", from 1607 onward, initially meant what we would call "ancient history" generally, with the narrower modern sense first seen in 1837. However, it was Jacob Spon who, in 1685, offered one of the earliest definitions of "archaeologia" to describe the study of antiquities in which he was engaged, in the preface of a collection of transcriptions of Roman inscriptions which he had gleaned over the years of his travels, entitled Miscellanea eruditae antiquitatis. In archeological terminology, such descriptive aspects of early antiquarianism (and later archaeology in general) are also known as archaeography, that encompasses various descriptions of archaeological sites and objects, initially by travelers, traders, diplomats and other non-professionals, who were often in position to view sites and antiquities in a better state of preservation then encountered later by scholars, thus making such early archaeographical accounts (writings, drawings, etc.) very valuable for modern archaeological studies, that are continuing to use and apply various descriptive (archaeographical) practices and tools, integrated into modern archaeological methodology. Twelfth-century Indian scholar Kalhana's writings involved recording local traditions and examining manuscripts, inscriptions, coins, and architecture, which are described as among the earliest traces of archaeology. One of his notable works is called Rajatarangini, which was completed c. 1150 and is considered one of the first historical works of India.

=== First excavations ===

Among the first sites to undergo archaeological excavation were Stonehenge and other megalithic monuments in England. John Aubrey (1626–1697) was a pioneer archaeologist who recorded numerous megalithic and other field monuments in southern England. He was also ahead of his time in analysing his findings. He attempted to chart the chronological stylistic evolution of handwriting, medieval architecture, costume, and shield-shapes. Excavations were also carried out by the Spanish military engineer Roque Joaquín de Alcubierre in the ancient towns of Pompeii and Herculaneum, both of which had been covered by ash during the Eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD 79. These excavations began in 1748 in Pompeii and in 1738 in Herculaneum. The discovery of entire towns, complete with utensils and even human shapes, as well as the unearthing of frescos, had a big impact throughout Europe. However, before the development of modern techniques, excavations tended to be haphazard; the importance of concepts such as stratification and context was overlooked. In the mid-18th century, the German Johann Joachim Winckelmann lived in Rome and devoted himself to the study of Roman antiquities, gradually acquiring an unrivalled knowledge of ancient art. Then, he visited the archaeological excavations being conducted at Pompeii and Herculaneum. He was one of the founders of scientific archaeology and first applied the categories of style on a large, systematic basis to the history of art. He was one of the first to separate Greek art into periods and time classifications. Winckelmann has been called both "The prophet and founding hero of modern archaeology" and the father of the discipline of art history.

=== Development of archaeological method ===