Level 2 - Theme - What is Archaeology?

The aim of archaeology is to find out about the lives of people in the past, by searching for, and examining, the evidence they left behind. We can discover many aspects of people's lives in the past from their homes and environment to their diet and domestic life. Evidence is never complete, as objects and sites are lost or deteriorate over time. So archaeologists collect as much as possible, and then develop hypotheses and theories, which they can test against the evidence.

Archaeologists can 'read' the landscape, rather like a historian reads a document. Sometimes this can be done by surveying a site, but often excavation is necessary to uncover the actual structures and objects. Often sites are discovered when they are threatened by modern developments, so the evidence must be gathered before it is destroyed.

1	Excavation & Dating
2	What archaeology cannot tell us

Where there are no written records for a site, or if it is a prehistoric site, archaeology is the only method we can use to find out about its history and its inhabitants.