Did you know that archaeology dates back to ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia?
Hello and welcome to World History Encyclopedia! My name is Kelly and today's video is all about
archaeology; what it is, why it's important and some of the technologies used in modern-day
archaeological excavation. Don't forget, the easiest way to support us is by giving this video
a thumbs up, subscribing to our channel and hitting that bell icon for notifications,
so you don't miss out on any new uploads. World History Encyclopedia is a non-profit organisation
and we're now on Patreon - a brilliant site where you can support our work and receive
exclusive benefits in return. Your support helps us create videos twice a week, so make sure to
check it out via the pop-up in the top corner of the screen or via the Patreon link down below.
Let's start off with answering the question "what is archaeology?" In the broadest definition
possible, archaeology is the study of human history through the material culture left behind.
The desire among human beings, the knowledge of what came before, has always been there; just look
at ancient cultures who often have myths relating the beginning of the universe and the human race.
Ancient people also engaged in archaeological studies, as in the case of Khaemwaset,
who lived circa 1281 to circa 1225 BCE, the fourth son of Ramesses the Great who
is known as the first Egyptologist for his efforts in preserving the past of his people.
The Neo-Babylonian King Nabonidus who ruled between 556 and 539 BCE is considered the first
archaeologist for organising and directing excavations in Mesopotamia in circa 550 BCE,
in his search for the ruins of the Akkadian Empire that ruled some 1,500 years before his time.
This interest in human history is not new and the practice of archaeology is closely
intertwined with numerous other disciplines such as history and anthropology. Where historians
focus on written evidence from history and anthropologists undertake the study of humanity,
archaeologists focus on human history as told through the physical evidence left behind
including artefacts like pottery, tools, human remains, cave art, coins, figurines and jewellery,
and larger things like the pyramids, tombs, temples and domestic architecture.
Archaeology is an ever-developing field and this development is seen through knowing
what questions to ask, what methods are needed to answer those questions,
and the technology and methods employed for the physical excavation of sites. An archaeological
site is any place where human beings have left evidence of their presence or activities. This
could be as small as a broken piece of pottery or as large as the site of Pompeii in Italy.
The way archaeologists have excavated sites has changed so much over the last hundred years and
will no doubt continue to develop and improve. When you think of archaeology, you probably think
of a dusty dig site where people look in the ground using shovels and trowels and brushes,
right? Well, the act of digging into the ground in order to uncover something is not
only time consuming and at high risk of missing something, it is in and of itself destructive,
but some of the forward-thinking developments in modern archaeology have been made to avoid
the destructive nature of excavation as much as possible. This includes Lidar which stands for
Light Detection and Ranging and is basically the use of airborne laser scanner technology;
these laser sensors emit pulses of light and how long these pulses take to reflect back to the
instrument is measured. Those measurements are plotted with the use of GPS and then that data
can be used to create a map of the scanned area. Lidar is used to map topography and find sites;
it can pick up surface anomalies that wouldn't be visible to the naked eye and has successfully
located ancient sites and thousands of archaeological features in a fraction of the time
it would have taken otherwise while being far less destructive. Another incredibly handy tool that
makes up for what Lidar can't do is GPR or Ground Penetrating Radar. GPR can help you decide where
to dig, where to avoid, and basically gives you a detailed picture of what's going on underneath the
surface. It sends radio waves into the ground and the reflected signals, their strength, and
speed are recorded on a computer and this is used to build a picture of what's going on underneath
the surface, including different depths. This geophysical technology can reveal details hidden
deep underground, and with the ability to show different depths, you can see different occupation
levels of a single site without having to dig. GPR technology has meant that entire cities hidden
beneath the earth have been entirely mapped out and architectural features like theatres, temples,
domestic spaces, and even plumbing can be identified using the technology.
In 1675, a tunnel was dug by Carlos de Siguenza y Gongora into the Pyramid of the Moon, a temple at
Teotihuacan, and this is considered the first archaeological excavation of the New World,
even though we don't actually know what was found. Following this, in the 18th-century,
researchers headed to sites like Pompeii in Italy and initiated excavations there,
although they weren't considered proper excavations until the 19th century. However,
the first scientific excavation in archaeological history is credited to Thomas Jefferson, the third
President of the United States, who lived between 1743 and 1826. Jefferson dug into a burial mound
on his property in Virginia in 1784 and approached his excavation carefully and in such a way that he
could identify different layers in his trench, but just because he is considered the first doesn't
make him the most famous, since there are other things Jefferson is remembered as - like being a
president. So who are some of the most famous archaeologists and what did they discover?
Well, first in England we have William Cunnington, who lived between 1754 and 1810,
who developed many of the archaeological methods used later and even up to the present day. Many
archaeologists all over the world, have benefited from Cunnington's pioneering work and the
following are only a few of the best known. In the region of Egypt, we have Howard Carter who
lived between 1874 and 1939 who was an English Egyptologist and is best known for his discovery
of the tomb of Tutankhamun in 1922. Tutankhamun was a pharaoh of the 18th Dynasty of Egypt,
who died when he was only 19 years old. The reason this particular discovery was so groundbreaking
was the fact that the burial was completely intact, which means that no grave robbers ever
raided it for the wealth that was left inside for the young pharaoh to take to the afterlife.
Another famous British Egyptologist is Flinders Petrie, often called the father of archaeology,
he lived between 1853 and 1942. Petrie was an archaeologist who focused on meticulous
excavations and was intent on documenting and collecting every single little thing he found,
which modern-day archaeologists thank him heartily for. Petrie excavated both in
Egypt and in Palestine and really pioneered the systematic excavation and documentation of finds.
Working on the Aegean Bronze Age in Crete was the British archaeologist Arthur Evans
who discovered the labyrinthine remains of the Palace of Knossos. Within the remarkable ancient
site was large pithoi for storage, detailed and colourful frescoes and thousands of clay tablets,
although Evans' excavations shed light on the civilization that he coined as the Minoans,
he also made some questionable decisions in the restoration of the site using concrete and
had artists recreate some of the frescoes with a bit more creative license than he ought to have.
Another big name in Bronze Age archaeology is Heinrich Schliemann who coined the term
'Mycenaean' in 1876. Schliemann was a German businessman and amateur archaeologist who
excavated the site of Hisarlik in Turkey, which is now believed to have been the ancient city
of Troy, as well as the Mycenaean sites of Mycenae and Tiryns on mainland Greece.
Schliemann pretty much attacked the sites he worked on and destroyed much in his quest to find
the ancient cities Homer described in his epic poems. Before Evans discovered the Minoan site of
Knossos though, the American archaeologist Harriet Boyd Hawes, who lived between 1871 and 1945,
discovered the Bronze Age site of Gournia, which was the first Bronze Age site to be unearthed.
She spent three years excavating the site and published her finds in an illustrated report
with remarkable classification of artefacts that is still consulted to this day. Looking to
Mesopotamia, there was Leonard Woolley, a British archaeologist who lived between 1853 and 1942 and
is best known for his excavation of the ancient Sumerian city of Ur in Mesopotamia. Woolley is
one of the first modern archaeologists, along with Flinders Petrie, to approach his excavations in a
methodical way, all while taking careful notes as he made discoveries. The British archaeologist,
Kathleen Kenyon, who lived between 1906 and 1978, was an incredibly influential archaeologist of
the 20th century who excavated two important sites in the Near East: Jerusalem and Jericho.
Why do we do this? Why have people for thousands of years already been interested in digging up
what has been left by those that came before? One of the biggest reasons is that it's pretty
difficult to understand the present, to understand our society, and the human race as we are today
without understanding where we've come from and who came before us. Archaeology in particular
can highlight how little we have changed, especially when there are no written records
or written records only from the perspective of the elite. Material remains of homes and shops
and workshops from ancient cities can show how the ordinary people lived and hardships that
they may have faced, and that we may still face today. This can also be seen on a larger scale
in how wars were fought or how droughts affected a civilization four thousand years ago, and how
they dealt with that and adapted to it. As Paul Bahn, a British archaeologist has noted: "little
did ancient people suspect that the garbage they discarded would one day be resurrected
by these scientific rag and bone merchants." And that's exactly what archaeologists strive to do;
to understand the social, the political, and the economic structures of people and civilizations
long since lost, based on the artefacts, even simple garbage, that they left behind. What
do you think is the greatest archaeological discovery of all time? Let us know what you
think in the comments down below! If you enjoyed this video, make sure to give it a thumbs up
and subscribe to our channel, so you don't miss out on our new videos every Tuesday and Friday.
This video was brought to you by World History Encyclopedia. For more great articles and
interactive content, head to our website via the link below. If you like my shirt,
you can find this design and a bunch more in our shop at worldhistory.store,
or you can find a link for it under the 'merch tab' down below.
Thank you so much for watching and we'll see you soon with another video!