What is archaeology?

Archaeology belongs to the field of humanities and is an important part of historical science. Its task is to study the history of ancient human society according to the physical objects left by ancient humans through various activities. Physical materials include all kinds of relics and relics, most of which are buried underground. Only through scientific investigation and excavation can they be systematically and completely revealed and collected. Therefore, the basis of archaeological research lies in field investigation and excavation.

Archaeology has a long history, but it only developed into a science in modern times. Modern archaeology originated in Europe and later spread to all countries in the world. Epigraphy since the Northern Song Dynasty is the predecessor of China archaeology, but it was not until the 1920s that modern archaeology based on field investigation and excavation appeared in China. As a modern science, archaeology has a complete and rigorous methodology. It includes prehistoric archaeology, historical archaeology and field archaeology, and is closely related to many disciplines in natural science, technical science and other disciplines in humanities and social sciences.

Archaeology is a humanistic science that studies ancient society by excavating and investigating ancient human relics and documents. Traditionally, archaeology is a branch of cultural anthropology, but now it is becoming more and more independent and an independent discipline.

Archaeologists are different from historians who only study historical records. They also studied prehistoric culture without historical records by studying the remains of ancient humans. Archaeologists are devoted to exploring the origin of human culture.

Name traceability

The archaeology of Chinese comes from Europe, and the archaeology of European languages comes from Greek α ρ ρ α? ολ? γ? The word is composed of α ρ ρ α? ο? (meaning ancient things or ancient times) and λ? γο? (meaning science) refers to the study of ancient history in ancient Greece. In the 4th century AD, Plato used this Greek word to refer to the study of ancient history. This word was rarely used for a period of time, but it was re-used in the17th century, indicating the study of antiquities and monuments. 17 and18th century mainly refer to the works of art in antiquities, and it was not until19th century that it generally referred to all antiquities and monuments.

China used the word "ancient learning" to refer to the study of ancient learning in the 2nd century (Eastern Han Dynasty). By the middle of the Northern Song Dynasty (1 1 century), a knowledge about bronze Yi vessels and stone carvings was born-epigraphy, the predecessor of archaeology. At this time, the words "Kao" and "Gu" began to be used together. Archaeological map, written in A.D. 1092, has taken the lead in using the word "archaeology", but at this time it refers to the textual research of ancient characters and chapters.

research objects

The object of archaeological research is physical objects. Mainly material remains, or relics and relics. These relics should be left over from ancient human activities. Archaeological research focuses on the study of the past, including all kinds of materials left over from the past culture. So its research object belongs to ancient times before a certain time. For example, the lower limit of archaeology in Britain is Norman invasion (1066), France is the fall of Caroline Dynasty (987), American countries are Columbus' discovery of the new continent (1492), and China's generally falls in Ming Dynasty (1644). In recent years, medieval archaeology in Britain pushed the lower limit of time to 1640. On the other hand, American industrial archaeology studies the remains of early modern industry. With the progress of the times, these lower limits will naturally move backwards.

Archaeology is a subject that studies the history of ancient human society according to the physical data left by ancient human activities.