Methods of Archeological Research : New Avenues and Scope

Submitted By: Amita Gupta Pre-Ph.D. Dept. Of Archeology H.N.B.G.U. Chauras Campus, Srinagar, Garhwal Uttarakhand

Archaeology Defined
Archaeology is the study of human culture through material remains from humans in the past. In the Old World, the methods used in recovering them and the theoretical and philosophical underpinnings in achieving the subject's goals.

SCOPE OF ARCHAEOLOGY

The main aim of archaeology is to aid in the reconstruction of human past, especially when written records are absent. Even when written records are available, they rarely deal with the activities of common man and his daily life. When the written records are totally absent, archaeology is the only source by which we can know the past human activity. Though mans cultural past began more than 2 million years ago, when he started using stone

artifacts for the first time, written records are available only for the past
5,000 years or so. To probe the human past beyond this 5,000 years, archaeology is the only source. It has been aptly said `where ever man has been on this planet for the last two million years, archaeology can be of use. Thus archaeologist can best be described as `detective of the past cultures.

Finding a site
How do archaeologists find sites to explore?
1. They think about what

people need to stay alive. Some of those things include access to clean drinking water, a protected place to live, and easy access to trade routes. With this in mind, archaeologists look for remains of civilizations along the banks of rivers and streams.

2. They check out reports of artifacts that have been discovered. Artifacts have been discovered by farmers and construction companies while working at their jobs.
3. They check the land from the air, looking for large depressions that could be the ruins of an ancient living area.

4. They use scientific instruments like radar and sonar to look for ruins.

Permission to Dig
An archaeologist must receive

permission to explore a site. The owner of the land must grant sometimes permission. Sometimes the government of a country must issue permits.
Once permission is received,

archaeologists work in teams with other archaeologists. A team begins to explore the area. They look for evidence that people once lived in the area. Evidence includes fossils and artifacts.

 Since archaeology is

a destructive science and non-repeatable, we must accept the limitations inherent to our current scientific methods and our own record keeping.

Before You Dig Conduct a Survey of the Site

Put Together the Team

New avenues of discovery and investigation

Sites or landscapes?

Sampling in landscape survey

Field walking Recording and topographic/earthwork

surveying Underwater survey Remote sensing Airborne prospection Aerial photography Geographical Information systems (GIS) Geophysical and geochemical surveying

Grids & Labeling

Before they begin digging, archaeologists design

a grid on the ground using rope and string.

Each square in the grid must be carefully searched. A

record must be kept of anything found, including what was found next to it.

Preparing the Site

Once the excavation

plan has been prepared by the Director and senior staff, the first step is to clear the site of the vegetation that has grown since the last season. This procedure facilitates photography, makes surface features stand out, and gets the team used to working together sometimes in a difficult climate.

Excavation Methods
Ten or fifteen meter

squares are laid out with string and sand bags and initial levels are taken so that the supervisors will know starting and ending points for each days work and they can determine the exact depth at which significant finds are made.

Excavation begins by breaking the soil with shovels and picks, but this may quickly turn to finer work using brushes, ice picks, and trowels when an artifact is discovered or a floor is found signaling the emergence of a change in stratigraphy.
To be continued.

When an important feature or artifact is discovered, a level is taken to determine exact location within the square.

To be continued.

 Excavated soil is

screened to uncover bones, carbonized organic matter, small pieces of pottery, or other objects that might otherwise be missed.
Organic remains are

later tested using C14 dating methods.

To be continued

Unusual finds are also photographed in situ to establish a clear provenance and provide as much data as possible for later interpretation.

To be continued.

 All tagged buckets and

boxes are taken to the collection supervisor for washing or cleaning with an eye out for inscriptions or for diagnostic examples that will help establish a ceramic chronology of the site, indicate possible trading activity, and in the case of coins a clear date for a particular stratum or building.

Recording Data All pottery and other

artifacts are placed in tagged buckets or boxes for later examination. The tags indicate which square and at what level they were found. The recording process in the field will be systematized in later field reports by the square and area supervisors.

Analyzing Data
At the end of the

excavation season, the entire staff completes and submits their field notebooks and the senior staff spends the next several months analyzing this data while the artifacts are sent to laboratories for scientific tests and classification.

Interpreting Artifacts

Back in the Lab

Once objects are labeled and removed from a site, they are taken to a lab, relabeled, and placed into a database. Archaeologists use this information to put together pieces of the past.

It takes a great deal of education, training, patience, and attention to detail to work as an archaeologist.

Dating the past

Relative dating Stratigraphy Typological sequences Pollen dating Faunal dating Varves & tree rings Geological timescales Climatostratigraphy Palynostratigraphy Dating the past has been a central issue in .archaeology throughout its development and remains fundamentally important.

Absolute techniques
Radioactive decay Radiocarbon dating Potassiumargon

(40K/40Ar)and argon argon dating (40Ar/39Ar Uranium series dating Fission-track dating Luminescence dating Tephrochronology

Report writing and Publication

A final report of the excavation of the site over a

series of seasons should appear in a timely manner for the benefit of the scholarly community.
Senior staff should publish articles and present

papers on the findings.

Publication and Presentation of the seasons

findings should follow as quickly as possible.

Conclusion
Field archaeology is, not surprisingly, what archaeologists do in the field. However, it also has a considerable pre-field element and an even more considerable post-field element. Sometimes the term field archaeology is used only to refer to techniques, other than excavation, used by archaeologists in the field. Ultimately the precision of dating attainable for each periods helps determine the kinds of questions we ask about the past- for the Paleolithic, questions are about longterm change; for later periods, the question are more usually concerned with the shorter-term variations in worldwide human development.