Archaeologist (2)

What an Archaeologist Does
(in middle school age level terms; underlined terms are used in the "Puzzles for Fun" section)

Archaeology is the science of the study of the past as it relates to people. Archaeology is concerned with studying and conserving or saving the physical remains of past cultures. These remains need to be preserved because they are rare and the information that we learn is very valuable. We learn fascinating information about how people adjusted to their living conditions, their art, food, housing, travel patterns, and other interesting information.

Archaeology is not an adventure like you would see in an Indiana Jones movie, although it can be very exciting. Archaeologists have a great love for our heritage, which includes our recent history as well as ancient, prehistoric cultures.

These cultures can be very old like the Egyptians or very recent like the settlers Hieroglyphic man playing flute

of the United States. The most important thing is that we as archaeologists create a record of the past. One kind of record is a chronology. A chronology is simply a time line of things that happened in the past. Things included in a chronology could be when a village was built, when an important person was buried, or how a culture developed over time. Although it may be impossible to know everything about people that lived long ago, whatever we learn is valuable to our shared history as human beings.

In order for an archaeologist to do his or her job, it is vital to find sites. A site is an area that contains a physical record of our past. One way to find sites is to do a survey. Man digging with shovel

A survey is used to locate sites over a large area. You might do a survey of a river valley in order to find out where ancient peoples might have set up camps for fishing, hunting or trading with others. Sites can be composed of many things. A site can be a building such as an old mill, or it could simply be a midden, which is just another word for a trash dump. Once a site is found, an archaeologist may call in other people to work with such as a geologist. A geologist studies rocks and soils. This can help an archaeologist know how to dig, where to dig and in what kind of soil they are digging. Another name for digging is excavation. Excavation is digging carried out in a scientific manner, paying special attention to geology and location of artifacts. An archaeologist must be sure to record everything they find so they can get as much information from a site as possible. Once a site is excavated it can never be performed again so it must be done very carefully.

An archaeologist makes use of many tools. Some tools are used to define the location of a site such as a transit. A transit is a tool that a surveyor would use to make the boundaries for a site. Maps, compasses and tape measures are also used to locate and measure the size of a site. Some tools are used for digging such as picks, shovels and buckets. Archaeologists also use tools like brushes to sweep away small amounts of dirt from the surface to locate artifacts. Trowel

All archaeologists use a specialized tool called a trowel. A trowel is a digging tool with a flat, diamond shaped blade used to scrape away dirt and pick out rocks from around artifacts. Another tool, called a screen, is used to sift away dirt from artifacts. A screen is just wire mesh inside a frame that you pass dirt through in order to find small artifacts that may be hard to find otherwise.

Archaeologists discover many different kinds of artifacts when excavating at a site. Being able to identify artifacts and determine how these items were used help the archaeologists interpret what people did at that location. The archaeologist may find historic artifacts such as bricks, coins, glass, nails and buttons. The archaeologist may also find items from Native American sites Pottery clipart

like pottery and arrowheads. Some less well-known, stone tool artifacts are scrapers, which were used Native Americans to process Spearpoints

animal and animal hides for food and clothing. Many ancient cultures used stone weapons to hunt and process the animals they killed. Flakes are the most common artifacts found at most prehistoric sites. A flake is a piece of rock that is removed from a stone when a Native American was shaping it into a stone tool.

Some things you can find at a site are not artifacts but features. A feature is a result of some activity that disturbed the dirt in the ground and is something in a site that cannot be moved. A posthole is an example of a feature. A posthole is where a hole was dug for a post which was placed in the ground to hold up a wall or a structure. Evidence of this feature is usually preserved in the soil as a dark circular stain. These are found on both prehistoric and historic sites. Another type of feature is a hearth or firepit. A hearth can be described a place where fires were built in the ground. Native Americans frequently dug large, deep holes in the ground to store food and other items. These are called storage pits. Wells are found at the location of most pioneer homes.

Once artifacts are recovered from a site, they are taken to a lab to be examined. An archaeologist might want to answer specific questions, which research may be able to answer. The true importance of the site and how the artifacts within it relate to one another can be discovered in the laboratory setting.

When the archaeologist finishes studying the artifacts, features, and all of the records from the study, then the materials are generally donated to a museum. Archaeological finds of great importance may be placed in a display at a museum. A display can consist of related artifacts such as arrowheads, pottery and clothing that are from the same time or culture. Museums connect us with our heritage. They let us identify with other cultures and traditions, which show us what archaeology really is, preserving our past for the future.

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