Archaeology did not exist as a separate branch of study until the second half of the 19th century.
Archaeology is also a product of the times in the sense that current issues and concerns influence the development of the discipline.
Before 1900
Several stages mark archaeology's birth and childhood.
Prior to 1800, a limited number of inquiries into the human past occurred.
This has been called the romantic phase of archaeology.
An emergent phase of archaeology began after 1800.
Museums of antiquity were created, chairs in archaeology were appointed, and more systematic fieldwork began.
By the beginning of the 19th century, the museums of Europe were filling with artifacts from colonies and ports of call around the world.
Some important developments relating to archaeology occurred in Denmark.
Christian Jörgensen Thomsen was appointed first director of the new National Museum in 1819.
He established the chronological foundation for Old World archaeology with his three-age system of stone, bronze, and iron.
Thomsen's successor, J. J. A. Worsaae conducted extensive fieldwork in the 1840's, documenting Thomsen's theories.
Fieldwork was taking place in many parts of the world.
Jacques Boucher de Perthes uncovered the bones of extinct animals in association with hand axes in France.
He argued that humanity was older than the orthodox 6000-year date.
Kalina and Krolmus published Pagan Sacrificial Places, Graves and Antiquities in Bohemia based on fieldwork and the study of museum collections.
Squire and Davis recorded and reported on the ancient monuments of the Mississippi Valley.
The second half of the 19th century marked a formative stage in the professionalization of archaeology.
Darwin published On the Origin of the Species in 1859.
This led eventually to acceptance of the antiquity of earth, humans, and the theory of evolution.
The work was an intellectual turning point in our understanding of the past.
This period also saw the emergence of antiquarian studies distinguished from history and natural science.
The first dissertation in the United States in any field was written in 1861.
The first Ph.D. in archaeology in the United States was granted at Harvard University in 1894.
Several basic tenets of scientific archaeology emerged during this period.
These included principles of stratigraphic excavation, the significance of common artifacts, the documentation of fieldwork with notes, maps, drawings, and photography, and the publication of results.
Across the globe, individuals were investigating local prehistory.
Guiseppe Fiorelli directed excavations at Pompeii in the 1860s, excavating entire room blocks and recording stratigraphic layers.
Two noted British prehistorians developed methods of excavation and analysis.
Augustus Henry Lane-Fox Pitt-Rivers, "the father of scientific excavation", stressed the significance of simple artifacts for understanding the past.
William Matthew Flinders Petrie demonstrated the importance of stratigraphic excavation and comparative artifact analysis.
Heinrich Schliemann popularized his finds at Troy and Mycenae with dramatic newspaper accounts that captivated the public.
Example: Jefferson at Rivanna River
Spanish conquistadores saw large earthen mounds constructed and used by the Native American populations.
Two hundred years later a new explanation for the mounds involved a people known as the Moundbuilders.
Europeans refused to believe that these groups could have been responsible for the numerous large mounds and spectacular artifacts.
Thomas Jefferson was many things, including an archaeologist.
In 1784, Jefferson carefully excavated a large burial mound near the Rivanna River on his own property.
His excavations are remarkable for the methods he used and the careful observations he made.
Jefferson found a great deal of information from his excavations.
He estimated that perhaps 1000 individuals had been buried in the mound.
His reasoned that construction of the mound was done in several discrete episodes of enlargement and interment.
He correctly concluded that the mound was constructed by the ancestors of the Native Americans who were living in Virginia during his childhood.
Jefferson's archaeology was remarkable in several aspects.
He was one of the very first individuals in the Americas to conduct any kind of excavation.
He carefully excavated and recorded stratigraphic observations.
Jefferson's research was problem-oriented.
1900 - 1950
The years from 1900 to the Second World War were a classic stage of exploration and the investigation of culture history.
Culture history focused on the questions of when and where major changes and innovations happened and on the source of those changes.
Several factors contributed to the development of archaeology during this time.
During the early 20th century, new sites were made public as archaeologists searched for origins of civilization.
Howard Carter at Tutankhamen's tomb, Leonard Woolley at the Royal Cemetery of Ur, and Hiram Bingham's discovery of Machu Picchu are some of the hallmarks of the period.
V. Gordon Childe defined the concept of an "archaeological culture" and synthesized much of European prehistory.
Large-scale public works projects in Europe and North America produced mountains of artifacts and information.
Archaeology became a staple in academic settings.
Autonomous departments of archaeology were created in many parts of the world. In the United States archaeology was combined with cultural and physical anthropology (and sometimes linguistics) into a single departmental unit.
By the end of this period, archaeology had become a quest for culture history.
In this same interval, archaeology became a household word.
Example: Woolley and the Royal Cemetery at Ur
The site of Ur is located in southern Mesopotamia, the land between the Euphrates and Tigris Rivers, close to the Persian Gulf.
Ur was one of the earliest urban city-states, inhabited by perhaps 200,000 people during its peak around 2500 B.C., a period known as the Early Dynastic.
The mounded remains in the center of the site cover an oval area approximately 1200 m by 800 m.
The ruins stand up to 20 m (65') above the featureless, flat, surrounding plain.
The ziggurat, or temple pyramid, on the northwest end of the site would have been higher, perhaps 80-100 m.
Mesopotamia is the cradle of the first states and cities.
Rainfall is limited and the area is essentially a desert between the two rivers.
This region was largely unoccupied until the discovery of irrigation.
Virtually all of these raw materials (stone, wood, and metals) had to be imported.
The soil itself was used for construction, bricks of mud sun-dried to harden.
Woolley's workers first exposed an enormous pyramid or ziggurat at the site along with the remains of smaller temples and residences.
The royal tombs contained the remains of nearly 2,000 people.
The body of the ruler was placed in the center of the chamber with great quantities of grave furnishings, equipment, and sacrifices.
Servants and attendants were found both in the chamber with the deceased king or queen.
The contents of these graves document the great concentration of wealth and power in the hands of the early kings and queens of Mesopotamia.
By the Early Dynastic period, bureaucratic organization, social stratification, trade, crafts, and writing were all highly developed.
The rich grave goods provide graphic evidence of superb craftsmanship, opulent wealth, and pronounced social stratification.
Perhaps the best-known grave is that of Queen Puabi.
She was adorned with a dress in which gems, flower crown, and animal figures are woven.
The tomb had jewels and golden cups.
Queen Puabi was lying on her back on a bed, accompanied by female attendants.
There were 59 bodies, mostly female, on the ground near the tomb chambers.
Woolley believed that all the people and animals buried with the queen entered the vault alive.
Woolley attempted to work out the relative chronology of the tombs, sorting them from earlier to later.
The cemetery area was small and crowded with tombs and burials from different periods.
To solve the problem Woolley developed a series of changes in pottery, stone and metal artifacts that could be used to establish the chronological order of the tombs, dating by association.
Protecting the Past: The Ancient City of Ur
Two events brought the end of ancient Ur.
The river changed its course and moved away.
The cultivated lands developed a crust of salt, rendering them unusable.
After Woolley's excavations and the restoration of the ziggurat and some of the building walls at Ur, the site became a minor tourist attraction as the biblical home of Abraham and one of the world's first cities.
Today, the ancient city of Ur is a wasteland of blowing sand.
The site has suffered as part of the U.S. invasions of Iraq.
Part of the site was bombed in 1991 invasion.
American forces stationed in the area in 2001 vandalized the site.
Many of the treasures of the site and the tombs, stored or on display in the National Museum in Baghdad, were stolen by looters at the start of the war in 2003.
In normal times in Iraq, everything below the plowzone belongs to the state.
All major sites are owned by the state and protected by Antiquities Department guards.
1950 - 2000
Many developments in the field of archaeology occurred during the second half of the 20th century.
There was a stage of growth and confidence, followed by doubt and reassessment.
A "postclassic" period of development involving a quest for both data and theory occurred.
There was an explosion of new scientific methods.
Brian Fagan attributed these changes to (1) computers and new scientific methods, (2) theoretical advances, and (3) the increasing number of archaeologists.
Several developments occurred during the immediate postwar year.
Questions turned to the antecedents of civilization as interest grew in human ancestors, in hunters and gatherers and early farmers.
Archaeologists began to think about the goals and meaning of archaeology.
Emphasis switched from culture history to culture process, with a multidisciplinary approach introduced in many projects.
The next generation of giants in the discipline made their names during the decades that followed World War II.
Culture process was emphasized in the 1960s and 1970s.
The "new archaeology" emphasized deductive reasoning, quantitative methods, and a search for general laws and process.
The focus on process led to the term processual archaeology for this perspective.
During the 1980s, a "post-processual" group of archaeologists questioned many of the basic premises of the discipline.
Emphasis was placed on interpretation and the importance of symbol, ideology, and cognition in the operation of society.
Explanation became text, biased by the internal goals and agenda of each individual author.
Archaeology was to be pluralistic, with many points of view, all equally valid.
During the same period, several evolutionary and environmental approaches regained a foothold in North America under a variety of titles.
New ideas melded with old and emerged with more sense of how the social and ideological, along with technology and the environment, were significant factors in shaping the past.
The archaeology of heritage grew enormously in importance around the globe.
A series of legislative acts made the protection of the past a legal requirement.
Several institutions were founded to meet this goal during this period.
The legislated requirements for impact assessments prior to construction and the mitigation of the destruction of cultural resources led to a new industry of archaeology in the private and government sector.
Historical preservation became a business and archaeology became a job.
Many factors contributed to an increasing emphasis on the preservation of archaeological sites and resources.
These included the green movement, a concern for the rights of native peoples, tourism, and the rebirth of interest in archaeology for nationalistic and political motives.
A majority of professional archaeologists operate in government agencies and private businesses.
They are involved with heritage rescue, preservation and management.
The amount of funding expended in heritage preservation is estimated to be 20-50 times that available for academic research.
This trend has resulted in more diversified interests and goals in archaeology and has generated an enormous body of new information about the past.
Example: The FAI-270 Project
The Archaeological Resources Protection Act of 1979 provided for the protection of archaeological resources located on public lands and Indian lands.
Prior to the start of any federally funded construction, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency requires an impact study to determine whether important archaeological or historical sites are in danger of destruction.
This kind of archaeology, known as cultural resource management (CRM), has become very important in the last 25 years.
More than half of the archaeologists in the U.S. today are in CRM-related fields.
CRM projects usually involve three stages.
An initial archive and field survey is made to see if artifacts are present.
A second stage of more detailed testing and evaluation may be undertaken.
A third stage may involve a full program of excavation and recovery or mitigation.
Projects vary greatly in size and scope.
Cahokia is one of only 20 World Heritage sites in the United States.
The site has the largest man-made earthen mound in North America.
At its peak between A.D. 1050 and 1250, Cahokia was the most extensive site north of Mexico and may have had a population as high as 30,000 people.
The site includes more than 100 earthen mounds, residential areas, plazas, and many other features in an area of 6 square miles.
The enormous Monk's Mound has a base of approximately 18 acres, and rises in 4 terraces to a height of 100 feet.
The FAI-270 project in eastern Illinois was one of the largest CRM projects in US history.
A highway was planned to run along one side of the Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site.
A large number of archaeological sites from many periods lay in the right of way for the six-lane interstate.
Investigations were planned to learn more about the natural environment of the American Bottom.
The design of the project included three major questions that would direct research.
A total of 102 archaeological sites had been identified.
The FAI-270 project involved more than 1000 archaeologists, fieldwork lasted from 1978 until 1985, and the reports still continue to appear.
The funding for the archaeological portion of the project was more than $4,000,000.
Archaeological Thinking: House Size and Population
The rise of corn agriculture and a remarkable expansion in population and cultural complexity mark the Mississippian period in the American Bottom.
House size and the number of structures increased while site size decreased.
Differences in status and power were emerging at that time.
Native American occupation of the American Bottom declined after AD 1300.
Today: The Current State of Archaeology
The field of archaeology is growing rapidly and changing substantially.
New questions, new technologies, new directions, and new needs are rapidly emerging.
Specialization is rampant.
Archaeology lies just at the beginning of a substantial laboratory phase.
The scientific orientation of archaeology will continue to expand along with more subjective perspectives.
There are problems and pitfalls along the path.
Efforts must be made to retain an emphasis on synthesis and integration so that questions and answers are matched.
The financing of archaeological research is a continuing problem.
The illicit trade in antiquities and the rapid growth in world population and development are quickly removing large numbers of artifacts and sites from the public domain and archaeological access.
