Portal:Archaeology

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Archaeology portal

Archaeologists in Italy.

Archaeology is the study of past human life and culture through systematically examining and interpreting the material remains left behind. These material remains include archaeological sites (e.g. settlements, building features, graves), as well as cultural materials or artifacts such as tools and pottery. Through the interpretation and classification of archaeological materials, archaeologists work to understand past human behaviour from the earliest evidence of cultural behavior (e.g. tool making of hominids) to today. In some countries, archaeology is often historical or art historical, with a strong emphasis on culture history, archaeological sites, and artifacts as art objects. In the New World, archaeology can be either a part of history and classical studies or anthropology. Anthropological archaeology is a method of analysis within cultural anthropology, which attempts to identify and reconstruct past lifeways. In general, however, archaeology has moved on from an object-based collection of art objects, to a field that tries to understand motivations, causes, and effects in past cultures. Show new selections edit

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In archaeology, the Iron Age was the stage in the development of any people in which tools and weapons whose main ingredient was iron were prominent. The adoption of this material coincided with other changes in some past societies often including differing agricultural practices, religious beliefs and artistic styles, although this was not always the case.The Iron Age is the last principal period in the three-age system for classifying pre-historic societies, preceded by the Bronze Age. Its date and context vary depending on the country or geographical region.

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Did you know

...The Kensington runestone is a slab of greywacke covered in runes on its face and side found in 1898 near Kensington, Minnesota?

...The Theseus Ring is a gold signet ring that originated in Greek Mythology and dates back to the Minoan period, and was considered as purely mythological until its confirmed authenticity on August 2, 2006?

...Oneota is a designation archaeologists use to refer to a cultural complex that existed in the eastern plains and Great Lakes area of what is now the United States from around A.D. 900 to around 1650 or 1700?

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Selected archaeologist

James Deetz (February 8, 1930 - November 25, 2000) was an American anthropologist, often known as one of the fathers of historical archaeology. His work focused on culture change and the cultural aspects inherent in the historic and archaeological record, and was concerned primarily with the Massachusetts and Virginia colonies. Deetz taught at the University of California, Santa Barbara, Harvard, Brown, William and Mary, the University of Cape Town, the University of California, Berkeley, and the University of Virginia. He received his B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. degrees from Harvard.

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Archaeology News

Radiocarbon dated to about 2100 BC, the oldest presently known gold artifacts in the Americas were reported from the site of Jiskairumoko in the southern Peruvian highlands of the Lake Titicaca Basin.[1][2]
Herod's tomb found in the Herodian (Israel) after more than 30 years of searching.[3]
In Athens the long-lost Theseus Ring, a gold ring found in the Plaka district of Athens in the 1950s and generally dismissed as a fake, has been identified by Greek archaeologists as a genuine 15th century B.C.E. artifact. The Greek press had reported the discovery of a gold signet ring, with dimensions 2.7 x 1.8 cm dating from the Minoan period.[4]
Archaeologists are working on a newly-discovered mass burial site at the historic Fortress of Louisbourg in Cape Breton. They tell CBC the burial ground, just east of reconstruction work near the coast, is the first discovery of its kind at the 250-year-old site. The graveyard dates back to the winter of 1745-46 following the first siege of the French fortress by British forces. Louisbourg was one of France’s key North American holdings during the 18th century and among the busiest harbours on the continent. About a quarter of the site has been rebuilt. [5]
A pirogue dating back 8,000 years is discovered in Lake Bracciano, near the Neolithic village of La Marmotta in Italy. [6]
French archaeologists uncover an 11,000 year old building on the banks of the Euphrates River in northern Syria. [7]

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The Terracotta Army (traditional Chinese: 兵馬俑; simplified Chinese: 兵马俑; pinyin: bīngmǎ yǒng; literally "soldier and horse funerary statues") or Terracotta Warriors and Horses is a collection of 8,099 larger than life Chinese terra cotta figures of warriors and horses located near the Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor (Chinese: 秦始皇陵; pinyin: Qín Shǐhuáng líng). The figures vary in height according to their rank; the tallest being the Generals. The heights range is 184-197cm (6ft - 6ft 5in), or more than a full foot taller than the average soldier of the period. The figures were discovered in 1974 near Xi'an, Shaanxi province, China.