ARCHAEOLOGY: Historical and Prehistorical archaeological background

What is archaeology?

The study archaeology is the study of human activity via the recovery and examination of material culture is known as archaeology. Artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, and cultural landscapes make up the archaeological record. Archaeology is a social science and a humanities branch at the same time. Archaeology is a sub-field of anthropology in North America, although it is viewed as a discipline in its own right or a sub-field of other disciplines in Europe.

Archaeology as a descipline can be described as the study of human past. Also, Archaeology is the study of material remains from the ancient and recent human past. In addition,the scientific study of the material remnants of past human life and activities is known as archaeology. These include everything made by humans, from simple tools to complex machines, from the earliest houses, temples and tombs to palaces, cathedrals, and pyramids, from the very earliest stone tools to the man-made objects that are buried or thrown away in the present day: everything made by humans, from simple tools to complex machines, from the earliest houses and temples and tombs to palaces, cathedrals, and pyramids. Archaeological research is a key source of information on prehistoric, ancient, and extinct cultures. Archaeology is a broad branch of research. Most archaeologists specialize in a particular area of the world or a particular field of study. An archaeologist can build competence on a specific topic by specializing. Human bones (bioarchaeology), animals (zooarchaeology), ancient plants (paleoethnobotany), stone tools (lithics), and other topics are studied by archaeologists. Some archaeologists focus on technology that help locate, map, and evaluate ancient sites. Underwater archaeologists look for evidence of human activity beneath the water's surface or around coastlines. Cultural Resource Management, or "CRM," is the job that archaeologists conduct to ensure that federal and state laws are followed. 

Archaeological theory is a relatively new notion. Until the 1960s, archaeology was seen to be primarily a utilitarian endeavor. Of course, the digger needed to be skilled in the required trades and have a problem-solving mindset. In his book Archaeology from the Earth (Wheeler 1954), Sir Mortimer Wheeler contrasted between the strategy and tactics of an effective archaeological field operation, using a military metaphor. It's no surprise that he admired the field tactics of General Pitt-Rivers, a far earlier military field worker. During the twentieth century, archaeological science progressed at a slow pace.

However, it was not until the 1960s that archaeologists became deeply concerned with the underlying logic of their discipline, with its epistemology (i.e. theory of knowledge), and with its rather peculiar status—according to some as a would-be science, yet unmistakably directed towards the history and prehistory of humankind, and thus to be classified among the humanities. These issues have been discussed by earlier intellectuals such as Collingwood (1946) and the early archaeologists (Daniel 1950, 1962). But it wasn't until the 1960s that archaeological theory became a serious issue, and archaeology, to use David Clarke's famous term (Clarke 1973), suffered through "the loss of inns." 

Branches of Archaeology

Archaeology as a descipline have somany different subbranches which includes the following history, sociology, anthropology, astronomy, geography, geology, chemistry, biology, botany, zoology, agriculture, and many more.

All these professionals descipline are related with archaeology in one way or another for instance like chemistry and biology, archaeologists are always looking for dating techniques at any point of time. Likewise geography and history, sociology, anthropology and astronomy.