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Definition: archaeology from Philip's Encyclopedia

Scientific study of former human life and activities through material remains such as artefacts and buildings. An archaeologist excavates and retrieves remains from the ground or seabed; recording and interpreting the circumstances in which objects were found, such as their level in the soil and association with other objects. This information can then be used to build a picture of the culture that produced the objects.


archaeology

From The Columbia Encyclopedia
(ärkēŏl'Әjē) [Gr.,=study of beginnings], a branch of anthropology that seeks to document and explain continuity and change and similarities and differences among human cultures. Archaeologists work with the material remains of cultures, past and present, providing the only source of information available for past nonliterate societies and supplementing written sources for historical and contemporary groups. The discipline had its origins in early efforts to collect artistic materials of extinct groups, an endeavor that can be traced back to the 15th cent. in Italy when growing interest in ancient Greece inspired the excavation of Greek sculpture. In the 18th cent. the progress of Greek and Roman archaeology was advanced by Johann Winckelmann and Ennio Visconti and by excavations at Herculaneum and Pompeii ; in the 19th cent., by the acquisition of the Elgin Marbles . The study of ancient cultures in the Aegean region was stimulated by the excavations of Heinrich Schliemann at Troy, and…
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Full text Article archaeology

From Encyclopedia of Social and Cultural Anthropology
Archaeology may be broadly defined as the investigation of human cultures and societies of the past through recovery and interpretation of both remnants of ancient material culture and, most critically, the physical contexts in which they have been preserved. The range of time subject to…
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Full text Article ARCHAEOLOGY

From Gaither's Dictionary of Scientific Quotations
American archaeologist and educator There can be no doubt that archaeology has confirmed the substantial historicity of Old Testament tradition. Divergences from basic historical fact may nearly all be explained as due to the nature of oral tradition, to the vicissitudes of written transmission, and…
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Full text Article archaeology

From The Columbia Encyclopedia
(ärkēŏl'Әjē) [Gr.,=study of beginnings], a branch of anthropology that seeks to document and explain continuity and change and similarities and differences among human cultures. Archaeologists work with the material remains of cultures, past and present, providing the only source of information…
| 1,148 words
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Full text Article Archaeology

From The Oxford Encyclopedia of the History of American Science, Medicine, and Technology
The development of archaeological fields as disciplines had different trajectories influenced by the variable intellectual contexts of their origin. Thus, for example, what is often called “classical archaeology” has been heavily influenced by the development of antiquarianism in Europe and by…
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Full text Article ARCHAEOLOGY

From The Bloomsbury Encyclopedia of the American Enlightenment
A modern consensus defines archaeology as the systematic and descriptive study of antiquities. By this definition, archaeology in the American Enlightenment is recognizable as a nascent science, rooted in observation, data recording, problem definition, comparative methods, synthesis, and the…
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Full text Article archaeology

From Collins Dictionary of Sociology
the scientific or systematic analysis of the material remains, especially the artifacts, but also the physical remains of human and animal bodies, crops, etc, left by past SOCIETIES and CULTURES , where the aim is to produce an account or reconstruction of these societies or cultures. Especially…
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Full text Article Archaeology

From The Sage Dictionary of Cultural Studies
In the context of cultural studies the idea of archaeology is associated with the methodology involved in the early works of Foucault . By archaeology he means the exploration of the specific and determinate historical conditions that form the grounds on which discourses are created and regulated to…
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Full text Article archaeology

From The Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia with Atlas and Weather Guide
Study of prehistory and history, based on the examination of physical remains. Principal activities include preliminary field (or site) surveys, excavation (where necessary), and the classification, dating , and interpretation of finds. History A museum found at the ancient Sumerian city of Ur…
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Full text Article POSTPROCESSUAL ARCHAEOLOGY

From Encyclopedia of Archaeology
Processual archaeology (also called New Archaeology) is a form of archeological practice that was developed in North America during the 1960s and 1970s, primarily under the leadership of Lewis R. Binford. Advocates emphasized archaeology as a generalizing social science, rather than as a…
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Full text Article archaeology.

From The Oxford Companion to British History
as a discipline attempts to reconstruct the origin, prehistory, and history of the human race using material remains such as artefacts, settlements, earthworks, burials, and skeletal remains. It also uses evidence for human impact on the natural environment such as pollen, soil erosion, and animal…
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