Heather's ePortfolio

ANTH-1030-Archaeology

Judith Ann Higgins

Anthropology is the study of humanity, past and present. Anthropology uses subspecialties to try to determine the nature and culture of humankind. There are four major subspecialties within anthropology: linguistic anthropology, ethnology, archaeology, and physical anthropology. These subspecialties can be further subdivided but for me archaeology is what I am interested in. 

Archaeology uses a systematic approach to study structures, artifacts, skeletal remains and even trash to try to determine how previous humans lived.  Archaeologists are actually historians tyring to put what they discover into order so it can be understood.  Archaeology is divided into periods of time such as Prehistoric, Paleo, or Historic.

People seem to have an affinity for wanting to know about the past and how humans developed into what we are today.  Archaeology grew out of that interest in the late 1700's when Napolean Bonaparte invaded Egypt and found a treasure trove of relics from prehistoric Egyptian civilizations.  Once the Rosetta stone was deciphered and heiroglphics could be interpreted the science of archaeology was on its way to being established as credible.

One of the tools that archaeologists use is carbon dating to place an artifact or bone into a time period.  The advancement of technology has given archaeologists tools that allow fine-tuning of the data that helps solve mysteries and make it possible to describe how we got to be the humans we are today.  

Our knowledege base confirms Darwin's theory of evolution. Evolution is demonstrated through the study of skeletal remains.  The Project Based Research assignment that illustrated this for me was the Skull Lab.  Various skulls were presented ranging from early Australopithecine to modern Homosapien. By comparing various skull attributes the goal of the project was to determine what species the skulls represented.  I realized that analyzing skeletal remains can be tedious and difficult but very rewarding once the species is confirmed.

This course fulfilled a Humanities requirement and I would recommend it to anyone who is curious about our human beginnings.