Archaeology

The word 'archaeology' - or 'archeology' if you prefer - has a dictionary meaning, but even here agreement is not universal. The Concise Oxford Dictionary, for example, states that archaeology is the "study of human anti­quities, especially of the prehistoric period and usually by excavation": a good traditional view of the subject! Webster's International Dictionary, however, sees archaeology as the scientific study of the extinct peoples or the past phases of the culture of the historic peoples via skeletal objects and remains of human workmanship found in the earth. To non-archaeologists, archaeology involves three crucial elements: 'the past", 'material remains' and excavation'. To many archaeologists, however, the meaning of the word and the discipline is more flexible and has shifting meaning. When exactly is 'the past'? It is not now, but it certainly was when you read the last sentence.

Most archaeologists agree that archaeology must have a material element for example. "Archaeology: a sub-discipline of anthropology involving the study of the human past through its material remains" (Renfrew and Bahn 1991) or "Archae­ology: use of human remains to solve the problems of another discipline, such as anthropology or art history" (Rouse 1992). It is the study of human material remains that makes archaeology different from anthropology which, among other things, can study intact human material culture, not just its remains. Archaeology is different from history in that it requires the remains to be studied, not just written descriptions of these remains. Not all remains have, however, been lost or buried and require excavation to reveal them. The Great Wall of China or the Parthenon in Athens are remains, but neither has ever been Most' or required much in the way of excavation to reveal them. Clearly, the study of material remains can be used in other disciplines: anthropology, art history or history - but archaeological methodology, theory and aims make it essentially different from these other discip­lines. The fact that economists use the techniques of mathematicians in no ways makes mathematics a sub-discipline of economics.

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