History of archaeology
Gilt-metal and jade-inlaid pot.
Qianlong reign in the
Qing dynasty of
China (c. 1700)
Main article:
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.
Excavations of ancient monuments and the collection of antiquities have been taking place for thousands of years, but these were mostly for the extraction of valuable or aesthetically pleasing artefacts.
It was only in the 19th century that the systematic study of the past through its physical remains began to be carried out. A notable early development was the founding in Rome in 1829, by
Eduard Gerhard and others, of the Institute for Archaeological Correspondence (Instituto di corrispondenza archeologica or Institut für archäologisches Korrespondenz). Archaeological methods were developed by both interested amateurs and professionals, including
Augustus Pitt Rivers and
William Flinders Petrie.
This process was continued in the 20th century by such people as
Mortimer Wheeler, whose highly disciplined approach to excavation greatly improved the quality of evidence that could be obtained.
During the 20th century, the development of
urban archaeology and then
rescue archaeology have been important factors, as has the development of
archaeological science, which has greatly increased the amount of data that it is possible to obtain.
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Archaeological theory
Main article:
Archaeological theory There is no single theory of archaeology, and even definitions are disputed. Until the mid-20th century and the introduction of technology, there was a general consensus that archaeology was closely related to both
history and
anthropology. The first major phase in the history of archaeological theory is commonly referred to as
cultural, or culture, history, which was developed during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
In the 1960s, a number of young, primarily American archaeologists, such as
Lewis Binford, rebelled against the paradigms of cultural history. They proposed a "New Archaeology", which would be more "scientific" and "anthropological", with
hypothesis testing and the
scientific method very important parts of what became known as
processual archaeology.
In the 1980s, a new movement arose led by the British archaeologists
Michael Shanks,
Christopher Tilley,
Daniel Miller, and
Ian Hodder. It questioned processualism's appeals to science and impartiality and emphasised the importance of relativism, becoming known as
post-processual archaeology. However, this approach has been criticised by processualists as lacking scientific rigour. The validity of both processualism and post-procuessualism is still under debate.
Archaeological theory now borrows from a wide range of influences, including
neo-Darwinian evolutionary thought,
phenomenology,
postmodernism,
agency theory,
cognitive science,
Functionalism,
gender-based and
Feminist archaeology, and
Systems theory.
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Public archaeology
Early archaeology was largely an attempt to uncover spectacular artifacts and features, or to explore vast and mysterious abandoned cities. Such pursuits continue to fascinate the public, portrayed in books (such as
King Solomon's Mines) and films (such as
The Mummy and
Raiders of the Lost Ark).
Much thorough and productive research has indeed been conducted in dramatic locales such as
Copán and the
Valley of the Kings, but the stuff of modern archaeology is not so reliably sensational. In addition, archaeological adventure stories tend to ignore the painstaking work involved in modern
survey,
excavation, and
Resumos Relacionados
- Teorema De Bell
- Archaeology; Origin And Definitions
- Archaeological Excavation
- Biografia - Max Planck
- Physiology
