Archaeology is the study of human history through excavating artifacts and buildings. It relies on interpretation and cross-comparisons, and is imperfect due to limited recoveries and conflicting interpretations. Archaeology has revealed facts about our ancestors, including Homo habilis and Homo erectus, and significant archaeological finds include ancient tombs, Viking settlements, and Spanish galleons. The discipline has been popularized in movies and games, inspiring younger archaeologists.
Archeology is the discipline of excavating old artifacts and buildings to learn more about human history. It is often considered a type of science, although it relies more on interpretation and cross-comparisons than on hypothesis-building and experimentation. Archeology is an imperfect discipline, as excavations recover only a small percentage of the original artifacts, and different researchers may have conflicting interpretations of the uncovered evidence. Despite this, we have been able to learn a tremendous amount of human history and prehistory through archaeology.
Modern humans have been around for at least 200,000 years, but archeology has unearthed facts about our ancestors even older, such as members of the species Homo habilis and Homo erectus. These species colonized portions of Eurasia over two million years ago, leaving behind simple stone tools along the way. Much more recently, just 50,000 years ago, modern humans spread across Eurasia, leaving behind far more complicated tools. Thanks to archeology (as well as fossil excavations), we know very well when these events occurred and in which regions.
Modern archeology only dates back to the early 19th century. Some of the most interesting archaeological finds since then have been: the discovery of ancient Egyptian, Mayan and Chinese royal tombs, complete with tons of artifacts, meant to accompany kings to the afterlife; remains of settlements indicating that Vikings arrived in the Americas as early as the year 19, almost 1000 years before Columbus; remains of prehistoric settlements under the North Sea (adjacent to the UK), from times when world sea levels were lowest; Spanish galleons sunk in the Atlantic Ocean carrying ten billion dollars worth of gold, silver and emeralds and more.
The discipline of archeology has been dramatized in movies like Indiana Jones and games like Tomb Raider. Younger archaeologists often cite these as inspiration for entering the field.
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