Hobbies And Interests
Archeology, Paleontology, and History
Archeology, paleontology, and history are interrelated and distinct disciplines. Paleontology uses the fossil record and artifacts dug out of the earth to study ancient life on earth, including the dinosaurs and other extinct creatures. Archeology also uses things dug up from he earth (including fossils) to study the past, but it focuses exclusively on the history of mankind. History and archeology are closely related, since both study the human past. There is much overlap between these two disciplines, but archeology focuses primarily on physical objects dug out of the ground, while history focuses on texts and documents.
The Prehistoric Past
Prehistory refers to the time before written records -- which accounts for the vast majority of human history. Close human ancestors have been on the earth for 2 million years, and modern humans emerged roughly 200,000 years ago. Writing has existed for only 3000 years, and the first known work of history was written just 2500 years ago. This means that there are more than 197,000 years of human history that we can learn about only through archeology, not to mention the millions of years of evolution that conspired to create the modern human.
Our Biological Origins
Fossil archeology gives us insights into our origins as humans. Louis B. Leakey working in Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania, Africa, as well as other researchers in Tanzania, Ethiopia, East Turkana, and Kenya found fossil skeletons of our earliest ancestors, which were advanced primates that lived roughly 4 million years ago. The fossilized skeletons they discovered prove that humans evolved from primates in Africa, and show the many stages of evolution from primate to modern human. Without archeology, we would have no way of understanding our origins on earth, or how we became the dominant species on Earth.
The Origins of Civilization
It is not only the time scale that makes archeology important. Every modern institution has prehistoric origins that archeology can shed light upon. Religion, technology, agriculture, warfare, living in cities -- all these aspects of modern life began in the prehistoric past. Archeology examines the tools, dwellings, graves, and artwork left behind by ancient humans to understand how humans went from hunter-gatherers to farmers to city-dwellers. It's only thanks to archeology that we understand how human life became what it is.
Modern Archeology
Archeology isn't all about fossils or the ancient past. Archeologists study all eras of human history, right up to the present day. Archeology helps us understand the progress of the Black Death in the Middle Ages, the colonization of the American West, and the battles of the Second World War. Some archeologists even excavate modern garbage dumps to better understand how we live and how we consume today.