- History of archaeology
The history of
archaeology has been one of increasing professionalisation, and the use of an increasing range of techniques, to obtain as much data on the site being examined as possible.Origins (antiquities collection era)
:"See also: Song Dynasty (Archaeology), List of Chinese inventions (A), Sociology in medieval Islam (Archeology)"
The exact origins of archaeology as a discipline are uncertain. Excavations of ancient monuments and the collection of antiquities have been taking place for thousands of years.
Archeology in the Middle East began with the study of
Egyptology in medieval Islamic Egypt, whereMuslim historians attempted to learn aboutancient Egypt ian culture. The first known attempts at decipheringEgyptian hieroglyphs were made byDhul-Nun al-Misri andIbn Wahshiyya in the 9th century, who were able to at least partly understand what was written in the ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs, by relating them to the contemporaryCoptic language used byCopt ic priests in their time. Abdul Latif al-Baghdadi, a teacher atCairo 'sAl-Azhar University in the 13th century, wrote detailed descriptions on ancient Egyptian monuments.Dr. Okasha El Daly (2005), "Egyptology: The Missing Millennium: Ancient Egypt in Medieval Arabic Writings", UCL Press, ISBN 1844720632. (cf. [http://www.muslimheritage.com/topics/default.cfm?ArticleID=481 Arabic Study of Ancient Egypt] , Foundation for Science Technology and Civilisation.)] Similarly, the 15th-century Egyptian historianAl-Maqrizi wrote detailed accounts of Egyptian antiquities.During the
Song Dynasty (960–1279) ofChina , educated gentry were interested inantiquarian pursuits of art collecting while Neo-Confucian scholar-officials were concerned with archeological pursuits in order to revive the use of ancient relics in state rituals. This was criticized by thepolymath officialShen Kuo (1031–1095), who endorsed the idea that materials, technologies, and objects of antiquity should be studied for their functionality and for the discovery of ancient manufacturing techniques. In his "Dream Pool Essays " of 1088, Shen Kuo took an interdisciplinary approach to archeology, fusing that subject with his work in optics, metallurgy, music, and geometry. Yet there were others who took the discipline as seriously as Shen did; the official, historian, poet, and essayistOuyang Xiu (1007–1072) compiled an analytical catalogue of ancient rubbings on stone and bronze which pioneered ideas in earlyepigraphy and archeology.Flavio Biondo an Italian Renaissance humanist historian created a systematic and documented guide to the ruins and topography of ancient Rome in the early15th century for which he has been called an early founder of archaeology. The itinerant scholarCiriaco de' Pizzicolli (1391–1453) also traveled throughoutGreece to record his findings on ancient buildings and objects.It was only in the
18th century , however, that the systematic study of the past through its physical remains began to be carried out in a manner recognisable to modern students of archaeology. This work was built on the more theoretical work of the man who is called "the prophet and founding hero of modern archaeology,"Johann Joachim Winckelmann [>>Daniel J. Boorstin , "The Discoverers", p. 584, Random House (New York, 1983] . Winckelmann was a founder of scientific archaeology by first applying empirical categories of style on a large, systematic basis to the classical (Greek and Roman)history of art and architecture. His original approach was based on detailed empirical examinations of artifacts from which reasoned conclusions could be drawn and theories developed about ancient societies. This is the archealogical method in practice.Prior to the development of modern techniques, however, excavation tended to be haphazard; the importance of concepts such as
stratification and context was completely overlooked. In1803 , there was widespread criticism ofThomas Bruce, 7th Earl of Elgin for removing the "Elgin Marbles " from their rightful place on theParthenon inAthens ; but the marble sculptures themselves were valued by his critics only for their aesthetic qualities, not for the information they might supply about Greek civilization.Britain was one of the first countries to develop a systematic approach to archaeology and to recognise it as a discipline in its own right (though the debate over whether it is an "art" or a "science" continues). The first individuals to take a serious interest in the subject were clergymen. Many vicars recorded local landmarks within their parishes, and these might include details of the landscape, as well as ancient monuments such as
standing stone s -- even where they did not recognise the significance of what they were seeing. It is thanks to them that we know about many archaeological features that have since disappeared or been moved. In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuriesantiquarian s such asJohn Leland ,John Aubrey andWilliam Stukeley conducted surveys of the country, drawing, describing and interpreting the monuments they encountered.In America,
Thomas Jefferson , possibly inspired by his experiences in Europe, supervised the systematic excavation of an Native Americanburial mound on his land inVirginia in1784 . Although Jefferson's investigative methods were ahead of his time (and have earned him the nickname from some of the "father of archaeology"), they were primitive by today's standards. He did not simply dig down into the mound in the hope of "finding something"; he cut a wedge out of it in order to examine the stratigraphy. The results did not inspire his contemporaries to do likewise, and they generally continued to hack away indiscriminately attell sites in theMiddle East , barrows in Europe andmound s in North America, destroying valuable archaeological material in the process.A little later, Napoleon's army carried out excavations during its Egyptian campaign. The emperor had taken with him a force of 500 civilian scientists, specialists in fields such as biology, chemistry and languages, in order to carry out a full study of the ancient civilisation. The work of
Jean-François Champollion in deciphering theRosetta stone to discover the hidden meaning of hieroglyphics proved the key to the study ofEgyptology .Development of archaeological method
One of the earliest modern archaeologists was
Richard Colt Hoare (1758 -1838 ). He was an extremely wealthy man, having inherited theStourhead estate from his grandfather in1785 . He turned his attention to recording the past of the surrounding countryside which he published in a book entitled Ancient Historie ofWiltshire in1812 , a copy of which is kept at Stourhead. Colt Hoare made meticulous recordings of mainlyneolithic barrows, such asSilbury Hill [http://www.themodernantiquarian.com/post/35062] , and the terms he used to categorise and describe them are still used by archaeologists today. He was possibly the first to use a trowel for careful excavation [http://www.britarch.ac.uk/BA/ba45/ba45lets.html] .A major figure in the development of archaeological method was the Victorian
Augustus Pitt Rivers . Archaeology was still an amateur pastime, but Britain's colonial period had provided the opportunity to study antiquities in many other countries. Pitt Rivers himself, having caught the bug during his military career, brought many artifacts back from overseas and, having inherited a large estate with numerous prehistoric features, collected more artifacts off his own land. From his personal collection (the nucleus of themuseum named after him, inOxford ), he developed atypology , something few had thought of doing but which would be of enormous significance for dating purposes.William Flinders Petrie is another man who may legitimately be called the Father of Archaeology. His work in Egypt developed the concept ofseriation , which permitted accurate dating long before scientific methods were available to corroborate his chronologies. He was also a meticulous excavator and scrupulous record keeper and laid down many of the ideas behind modern archaeological recording.The next major figure in the development of archaeology in the UK was
Mortimer Wheeler , whose highly disciplined approach to excavation and systematic coverage of much of the country in the1920s and1930s brought the science on swiftly. It was not until the introduction of modern technology from the1950s onwards that a similar leap forward would be made in field archaeology. Wheeler's method of excavation, laying out the site on a grid pattern, though gradually abandoned in favour of the open-area method, still forms the basis of excavation technique.Meanwhile, the work of Sir
Arthur Evans atKnossos inCrete had shed light on the Minoan civilisation. Many of the finds from this site were catalogued and brought to theAshmolean Museum inOxford , where they could be studied by classicists, while an attempt was made to reconstruct much of the original site. Although this was done in a manner that would be considered inappropriate today, it helped raise the profile of archaeology considerably.The bomb damage and subsequent rebuilding caused by the
Second World War gave archaeologists the opportunity to meaningfully examine inhabited cities for the first time. Bomb damaged sites provided windows onto the development of European cities whose pasts had been buried beneath working buildings.Urban archaeology necessitated a new approach as centuries of human occupation had created deep layers of stratigraphy that could often only be seen through the keyholes of individual building plots. In Britain post-war archaeologists such asW. F. Grimes andMartin Biddle took the initiative in studying this previously unexamined area and developed the archaeological methods now employed in much CRM andrescue archaeology .Archaeology was increasingly becoming a professional activity. Although the bulk of an excavation's workforce would still consist of volunteers, it would normally be led by a professional. It was now possible to study archaeology as a subject in universities and even schools, and by the end of the
20th century nearly all professional archaeologists, at least in developed countries, were graduates.Introduction of technology
Undoubtedly the major technological development in 20th century archaeology was the introduction of
radiocarbon dating , based on a theory first developed by American scientistWillard Libby in1949 . Despite its many limitations (compared to later methods it is inaccurate; it can only be used on organic matter; it is reliant on a dataset to corroborate it; and it only works with remains from the last 10,000 years), the technique brought about a revolution in archaeological understanding. For the first time, it was possible to put reasonably accurate dates on discoveries such as bones. This in some cases led to a complete reassessment of the significance of past finds. Classic cases included theRed Lady of Paviland . It was not until1989 that the Catholic church allowed the technique to be used on theTurin Shroud , indicating that the linen fibres were of mediaeval origin.Other developments, often spin-offs from wartime technology, led to other scientific advances. For field archaeologists, the most significant of these was the use of the geophysical survey, enabling an advance picture to be built up of what lies beneath the soil, before excavation even commences. The entire Roman town of Viroconium, modern day
Wroxeter , has been surveyed by these methods, though only a small portion has actually been excavated.ee also
*
List of years in archaeology
* [http://www.channel4.com/history/microsites/G/great_excavations/ The history of Archaeology, as in a documentary series]References
Further reading
*Christenson, Andrew L., "Tracing Archaeology's Past: The Historiography of Archaeology", Southern Illinois Univ Press 1989
*Kehoe, Alice Beck , "The Land of Prehistory: A Critical History of American Archaeology", Routledge 1998
*Marchand, Suzanne L., "Down from Olympus : archaeology and philhellenism in Germany, 1750 - 1970", Princeton, NJ : Princeton Univ. Press, 1996, Paperback Edition 2003
*Pai, Hyung Il, "Constructing "Korean" Origins: A Critical Review of Archaeology, Historiography, and Racial Myth in Korean State-Formation Theories ", Harvard University Press 2000
*Smith, Laurajane, "Archaeological Theory and the Politics of Culture Heritage", Routledge 2004
* Trigger, Bruce, "A History of Archaeological Thought". Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 1990External links
* [http://archaeology.about.com/od/historyofarchaeology/index.htm History of Archaeology] series at About.com
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