Chapter 2, "Doing Archaeology," provides a lengthy description of the recovery and study of a royal grave at Sipán, Peru, one of the richest tombs ever found in the Americas. This is not a typical archaeological excavation by any means, but it makes for a good starting point in an investigation of archaeology because it provides a look at a spectacular grave and the remarkable archaeological effort that rescued the contents of the grave and information about the tomb for the people of Peru. This chapter inaugurates the organization and themes of the book: doing archaeological research (discovery, analysis, and interpretation), thinking about archaeology, protecting the past, and science in archaeology.
