Modern archaeology

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This article is about archaeological practices in the modern era. For the archaeological investigation of the historic past, see Historical archaeology. For the archaeological investigation of 20th- and 21st-century remains, see Contemporary archaeology.
system of excavation in the early 20th century. Pictured are his excavations at Maiden Castle, Dorset
, in October 1937.

Modern archaeology is the

excavations.[1][clarification needed
]

grid system of excavation, which was further improved on by his student Kathleen Kenyon.[5][6]
The two constant themes in their attempts to improve archaeological excavation were first, to maintain strict stratigraphic control while excavating (for this purpose, the baulks between trenches served to retain a record of the strata that had been dug through), and second, to publish a record of the excavation promptly and in a form that would tell the story of the site to the intelligent reader.

Bomb damage during the Second World War and subsequent rebuilding gave archaeologists the opportunity to meaningfully examine inhabited cities for the first time.[7] Bombed sites provided windows onto the development of European cities whose pasts had been buried beneath working buildings.[8] Urban archaeology necessitated a new approach as centuries of human occupation had created deep layers of stratigraphy that could often only be seen through the keyholes of individual building plots. In Britain, post-war archaeologists such as W. F. Grimes and Martin Biddle took the initiative in studying this previously unexamined area and developed the archaeological methods now employed in much cultural resource management and rescue archaeology.[9]

Archaeology increasingly became a professional activity during the first half of the 20th century. Although the bulk of an excavation's workforce would still consist of volunteers, it would normally be led by a professional. It was now possible to study archaeology as a subject in universities and other schools, and by the end of the 20th century nearly all professional archaeologists, at least in developed countries, were graduates of such programs.

New technology

Undoubtedly the major technological development in 20th century archaeology was the introduction of

Turin Shroud, indicating that the linen fibres were of medieval origin.[10]

Other developments, often spin-offs from wartime technology, led to other scientific advances. For field archaeologists, the most significant of these was the use of the

magnetometry and ground-penetrating radar enable an advanced picture to be built up of what lies beneath the soil before excavation even commences. The entire Roman town of Viroconium, modern day Wroxeter, has been surveyed by these methods, though only a small portion has actually been excavated. The application of physical sciences to archaeology, known as archaeometry or archaeological science
, is now a major part of archaeology.

Archaeology has also come to use

geographic information systems
, designed to capture, store, manipulate, analyze, manage, and visualize all types of geospatial data.

The discovery in 1991 in the

DNA analysis
, scholars were able to ascertain that Ötzi does not belong to any known human population. In the subsequent years, genetics has helped us reconstruct human migrations that occurred during prehistory.

References

  1. ^ CNA News Service (3 October 2018). "Modern archaeology 'much more than excavations'". Cyprus Mail. Retrieved 3 October 2018.
  2. ISBN 0-449-90698-1
    . The father of official art history was a German named Johann Joachim Winckelmann (1717–68).
  3. ISBN 978-0-394-72625-0
    .
  4. ISBN 978-1-4051-5505-2
    .
  5. ISBN 978-0-297-78056-4
    .
  6. ISBN 978-0-19-964022-5
    .
  7. S2CID 73835587
    .
  8. ISBN 978-0-297-78056-4
    .
  9. ^ Biddle, Martin; Hudson, Daphne M (1 April 1973). Future of London's Past.
  10. S2CID 27686437
    .

Bibliography

Attribution: text copied from Old revision of History of archaeology, see there for edit history.

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