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Archaeological theory functions as the application of philosophy of science to archaeology, and is occasionally referred to as philosophy of archaeology. There is no one singular theory of archaeology, but many, with different archaeologists believing that information should be interpreted in different ways.
Archaeology is distinct from palaeontology, which is the study of fossil remains. Archaeology is particularly important for learning about prehistoric societies, for which, by definition, there are no written records. Prehistory includes over 99% of the human past, from the Paleolithic until the advent of literacy in societies around the world. [1]
A multitude of different theoretical approaches have developed over the last 50 years and exist in parallel across the discipline. These range broadly from an empirical archaeology viewed as a science, to a relativistic post-modern concept of archaeology as an ideology that cannot verify its own concepts.
Martinón-Torres and Killick distinguish ‘scientific archaeology’ (as an epistemology) from ‘archaeological science’ (the application of specific techniques to archaeological materials). [1] Martinón-Torres and Killick claim that ‘archaeological science’ has promoted the development of high-level theory in archaeology.
Classical archaeology is the study of the past using both material evidence (i.e. artifacts and their contexts) and documentary evidence (including maps, literature of the time, other primary sources, etc.). Classical archaeology specifically pertains to the Mediterranean area and the archaeology of Greece and its surrounding areas.
Archaeology is the study of human activity in the past, primarily through the recovery and analysis of the material culture and environmental data that they have left behind, which includes artifacts, architecture, biofacts (also known as eco-facts) and cultural landscapes (the archaeological record).
This view of culture would be "entirely satisfactory if the aim of archaeology was solely the definition and description of these entities." [12] However, as the 1960s rolled around and archaeology sought to be more scientific, archaeologists wanted to do more than just describe artifacts, and the archaeological culture found. [2]
Prehistoric archaeology refers to the time in history before human life was recorded or documented, while historic archaeology refers to the time period where there was a documented human past. [5] In relation to site stratigraphy, features generally have a vertical characteristic, such as pits, walls, or ditches.