THE TOP SECRET TRICK PAGE
The archaeological evidence available
to us depends on a number of things.
We look at what people who lived in the
past and those
who live in the present, have done to
the evidence
(clues like artifacts, ecofacts and features).
We call these cultural formation processes.
For instance, if someone
in the past threw something in the garbage
that would be a cultural
formation process. Or, if a farmer who
today tilled his field and
mixed up the soil where a house once stood,
this would also be a
cultural formation process.
Archaeologists also look at what natural
conditions such as soil and climate
have preserved or destroyed the evidence.
We call these natural formation processes.
The main 'trick' for archaeologists is
to find, recognize,
recover and conserve evidence. We
can do little about cultural and natural
formation process, because they are at
the mercy of previous
human behavior and nature. But our 'tricks'
are constantly
improving, as we learn more about how
to understand the processes of decay
and destruction so we can design research
strategies and technical aids
to make the most of what archaeological
evidence actually survives.
Phew!!! Did you get all
of that?? Basically, archaeologists use
tricks like research strategies
and technical aids to help them out.
An archaeologists' bag of
tricks is HUGE !!
So, usually they just use
a few at a time.
Some tricks include
mapping, excavation, bone analysis,
archaeobotany (examining
plant remains) and faunal analysis (examining
animal remains). There
are lots more methods that archaeologists
use.....as you travel through
DhRl 16, you can see some more in action!!
