Prologue

Archaeology is exciting adventure and discovery. It’s also sometimes horribly misunderstood and wrongly stereotyped. Many well-educated people still think that archaeology is bones, dinosaurs, or fossils, but it’s none of these. Archaeological remains are things humans left — artifacts or garbage stains in the soil or ruins of huts or palaces. Others think archaeology must mean only Egyptian temples or Roman ruins, but  archaeology is everywhere that humans have been, including your own back yard and even the moon.

Today archaeology is a big part of popular culture, in movies, computer games and the news. Authors write about everything from archaeology’s role in science fiction to its practical use in the modern world. More professional archaeologists, more History Channel specials on the ancient past, and more opportunities to see and participate in archaeology now exist than ever before. This blog aims to explore the science, describe the thrills, and show you what archaeology is all about, whether you want to get involved via the
armchair or in digging.

I’ve tried to pack a lot into this blog to give you at least a little taste of many things in the smorgasbord of archaeological topics, including ways that archaeology affects your own life that you may not have thought of before. Here’s what you’ll see in these pages:

• What archaeology really is (and misunderstandings about what it isn’t).
• The many different kinds of archaeology out there, each of which investigates different things.
• How archaeologists think and how they use scientific method to reconstruct the past from the material record.
• How to do archaeological fieldwork — survey and excavation.
• The huge amount of work you need to do after fieldwork for processing and analysis of the stuff you dig up.
•  The story of the whole human career — from the first humans through modern times — known only or mostly from archaeology.
• Guides to help you understand, visit, and do archaeology.

I aim in this blog to demystify archaeology, to tell you what it is, how it’s done, where you can do it, and what you can learn from it about humanity. You should be able to open to any chapter and see the topic of choice, and you can also find everything on the topic by looking in the index.