Portal:Archaeology

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Archaeology portal

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.

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Featured article

Oxyrhynchus (Greek: Οξύρρυγχος; "sharp-snouted or sharp-nosed"; ancient Egyptian Per-Medjed; modern Egyptian Arabic el-Bahnasa) is an archaeological site in Egypt, considered one of the most important ever discovered. For the past century, the area around Oxyrhynchus has been continually excavated, yielding an enormous collection of papyrus texts dating from the time of the Ptolemaic and Roman periods of Egyptian history. Among the texts discovered at Oxyrhynchus are plays of Menander and the Gospel of Thomas, an important early Gnostic document.

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Selected picture

Excavated ruins of Mohenjo-daro.

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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

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 BC 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.
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.
A pirogue dating back 8,000 years is discovered in Lake Bracciano, near the Neolithic village of La Marmotta in Italy. ^[1]
French archaeologists uncover an 11,000 year old building on the banks of the Euphrates River in northern Syria. ^[2]