How Are the Physical and Cultural Remains of Past Humans Investigated?
Archaeologists and paleoanthropologists investigate the past by excavating sites where biological and cultural remains are found. Unfortunately, excavation results in the site’s destruction. Thus every attempt is made to excavate in such a way that the location and context of everything recovered, no matter how small, are precisely recorded. Through careful analysis of the physical and cultural remains recovered through excavation, scientists make sense of the data and enhance our knowledge of the biology, behavior, and beliefs of our ancestors. The success of an excavation also depends upon cooperation and respect between anthropologists who are investigating the past and the living people connected to the sites and remains being studied.
How Are Archaeological or Fossil Remains Dated?
Calculating the age of physical and cultural remains is an essential aspect of interpreting the past. Remains can be dated by noting their stratigraphic position, by measuring the chemicals contained in fossil bones, or by association with other plant, animal, or cultural remains. More precise dating methods rely upon advances in the disciplines of chemistry and physics that use properties such as rates of decay of radioactive elements. These elements may be present in the remains themselves or in the surrounding soil. By comparing dates and remains across a variety of sites, anthropologists can make inferences about human origins, migrations, and technological developments. Sometimes the development of a new dating technique leads to an entirely new interpretation of physical and cultural remains.
Paleoanthropology and archaeology are the anthropological specialties most concerned with our past. They share a focus on prehistory, a conventional term used to refer to the period of time before written records. For some people, the term prehistoric might conjure up images of “primitive” cavemen and cavewomen, but it does not imply a lack of history or any inferiority—merely a lack of written history. Archaeologists also focus on the cultural remains of peoples living since the invention of writing, such as the makers of the Bamiyan Buddhas and the oil paintings buried in caves behind them as described in the chapter opener.65 The next several chapters of this book focus on the past; this chapter examines the methods archaeologists and paleoanthropologists use to study that past.
Most of us are familiar with some kind of archaeological material: a coin dug out of the earth, a fragment of an ancient pot, a spear point used by some ancient hunter. Finding and cataloguing such objects are often thought to be the chief goal of archaeology. This was true up until the early 20th century, when professional and amateur archaeologists alike collected cultural treasures, but the situation changed by the mid-20th century. Today, the aim is to use archaeological remains to reconstruct the culture and worldview of past human societies. Archaeologists examine every recoverable detail from past societies, including all kinds of structures (not just palaces and temples), hearths, garbage dumps, bones, and plant remains. Although it may appear that archaeologists are digging up things, they are really digging up human biology, behavior, and beliefs.
Similarly, paleoanthropologists who study the physical remains of our ancestors and other ancient primates do more than find and catalogue old bones. Paleoanthropolo-gists recover, describe, and organize these remains to see what they can tell us about human biological evolution. It is not so much a case of finding the ancient bones but finding out what the bones mean.
World History
