![]() ![]() Ancient History And Archaeology Leicester![]() History & Archaeology . And while some people may seem content with the story as it stands, our view is that there exists countless mysteries, scientific anomalies and surprising artifacts that have yet to be discovered and explained. The goal of Ancient Origins is to highlight recent archaeological discoveries, peer- reviewed academic research and evidence, as well as offering alternative viewpoints and explanations of science, archaeology, mythology, religion and history around the globe. We’re the only Pop Archaeology site combining scientific research with out- of- the- box perspectives. By bringing together top experts and authors, this archaeology website explores lost civilizations, examines sacred writings, tours ancient places, investigates ancient discoveries and questions mysterious happenings. Our open community is dedicated to digging into the origins of our species on planet earth, and question wherever the discoveries might take us. We seek to retell the story of our beginnings. Archaeology - Ancient History Encyclopedia. Archaeology is a wide subject and definitions can vary, but broadly, it is the study of the culture and history of past peoples and their societies by uncovering and studying their material remains, i. Archaeology and history are different subjects but have things in common and constantly work with each other. While historians study books, tablets, and other written information to learn about the past, archaeologists uncover, date, and trace the source of such items, and in their turn focus on learning through material culture. As much of human history is prehistoric (before written records), archaeology plays an important role in understanding the past. Career Opportunities Classics and Ancient History. Classics students from universities such as Durham are highly valued by employers, who realise that, in studying. Ancient History and Archaeology. Welcome to Gobekli Tepe - 12,000 years old Built by hunter-gatherers before metal tools and farming! This page is one small part of.
Different environments and climates help or hinder the survival of materials, e. Waterlogged conditions, such as bogs, can preserve organic material, like wood, and underwater wrecks are also excavated using diving equipment. Working everywhere from digging in the ground to testing samples in laboratories, archaeology is a wide- ranging discipline and has many sub- sections of expertise. The two rapidly widening areas are experimental archaeology and ethnoarchaeology. Experimental archaeology tries to recreate ancient techniques, such as glass making or Egyptian beer brewing. Ethnoarchaeology is living among modern ethnic communities, with the purpose of understanding how they hunt, work, and live. Using this information, archaeologists hope to better understand ancient communities. Archaeology of the Past. The first scientific excavation has been attributed to Thomas Jefferson in Virginia, USA. Archaeology as an academic study, career, and university subject is a fairly recent development. Nevertheless an interest in the past is not new. Humankind has always been interested in its history. Most cultures have a myth or story that explains their foundation and distant ancestors. Ancient rulers have sometimes collected ancient relics or rebuilt monuments and buildings. This can often be seen as political strategy - a leader wanting to be identified with a great figure or civilisation from the past. On the other hand, ancient leaders have also been known for their curiosity and learning. King Nabonidus of Babylon, for example, had a keen interest in the past and investigated many sites and buildings. In one temple he found the foundation stone from 2. He housed his finds in a kind of museum at his capital of Babylon. The Roman and Greek historians wrote books about the past, and the stories of famous heroes and leaders have come down to us. However, modern archaeology, or at least its theories and practice, stem from the antiquarian tradition. Fuelled by interest they began to make some of the first studies of sites, like Pompeii, and drew ancient monuments in detail. The first scientific excavation has been attributed to Thomas Jefferson (third president of the United States of America) who dug up some of the burial mounds on his property in the state of Virginia, USA. The beginnings of modern field techniques were pioneered by General Augustus Lane- Fox Pitt Rivers, who excavated barrows at Camborne Chase with systematic recording and procedure. In the USA in the 1. CE, archaeology went through a phase of new theories, often called processual archaeology. This approach has a scientific approach to questions and designs models to suggest answers and test its theories. Famous Archaeologists. Archaeology is a time consuming study; it often takes many years of toil before an archaeologist makes a breakthrough or discovers a site. Famous archaeologists are often connected to their most famous find or theory. To name the score of people who worked and made developments in archaeology would take a hundred pages; what follows are but a few: Howard Carter, an Englishman, who in 1. CE discovered the tomb of the pharaoh. Tutankhamun in Egypt; Leonard Woolley spent years excavating the ancient city of Ur in Mesopotamia; Heinrich Schliemann unearthed what is believed to be the mythical city of Troy, building on work done by an amateur archaeologist, Frank Calvert; Sir Arthur Evans excavated much of Knossos (on the island of Crete) and developed the concept of Minoan Civilisation. These men are all well known for their famous finds but also made developments in field archaeology and techniques, although Heinrich Schliemann’s methods of digging down very quickly and only recording the earlier levels are today questioned and criticised, as are the reports that he smuggled artefacts out of the country. Others such as Sir Mortimer Wheeler, Sir William Flinders Petrie, and Gordon Childe are famous for their methods of recoding, precision in excavations, and approaches to archaeology theory. Mary and Louis Leakey worked for many years in East Africa transforming our knowledge of human development and pushing back the dates of humans ancestors by millions of years. The work of other individuals, not all classified as archaeologists but rather as scholars, who worked for decades on the study of languages, should be mentioned. Jean- Francois Champollion cracked the Egyptian hieroglyphics in 1. CE. Tatiana Proskouriakoff worked in the later half of the twentieth century CE on the problems of Maya hieroglyphic writing and contributed to the final breakthrough. In the 1. 85. 0s CE Henry Rawlinson cracked the Mesopotamian cuneiformscript. Modern Archaeological Techniques. Modern archaeology is a diverse field with many techniques in use. However, there are common ones that most archaeologists working in the field use. Field walking and surface survey: Basically this is when a team of people walk across the countryside, an equal distance apart, with each recording finds and features in his or her path. This is used, for example, to track settlement patterns. Surveys are also done in the air, by airplanes, or using satellites. In England the outlines of hill forts or Roman villas are easily visible under the soil. Excavation: Probably the most recognisable feature of archaeology, (that, and of course, treasure). There are three types of excavations (or digs): research, rescue, and salvage. The first is usually to test a theory or answer a question. The last two types of digs are those conducted on sites that are threatened with, or are after, destruction. Excavations are usually carried out on a grid plan and go down in layers, carefully recording each layer and the finds, before clearing it away to reach an earlier level. This is called stratification. There is debate about when it is alright to dig, as excavations are in themselves destructive. However, they still remain the primary source of collecting archaeological knowledge. Typologies: After finds have been cleaned, they are then sorted into groups and classified according to material, size, and decoration. This can help to provide a rough date for an object and provide a basis on which further study can be made. Studying the decoration or shape of an object can tell us about trade networks, craft skills, and people’s artistic tastes and values. Laboratory analyses: A great deal of knowledge can be gained from looking at an artefact under a microscope or chemically testing it. Radiocarbon dating measures the rate of decay of carbon 1. This and other similar processes can help to give a fairly accurate date to an object. Another feature of testing is food sources. Even after thousands of years, food sediments can be traceable on artefacts. This can tell us what foods people were eating and even how they cooked. By carefully studying a simple object, or mapping an ancient city or opening a forgotten tomb or excavating a sunken galleon, the past is opened up and we can all learn more about peoples and societies otherwise outside our reach. The ruins of many successive civilizations are found at Byblos, one of the oldest Phoenician cities. Inhabited since Neolithic times, it has be.. Mediterranean region for thousands of years. Byblos is also directly associated with the history and diffusion of the Phoenician alphabet. Byblos is a testimony to a history of uninterrupted construction from the first settlement by a community of fishermen dating back 8. Bronze Age, to the Persian fortifications, the Roman road, Byzantine churches, the Crusade citadel and the Medieval and Ottoman town. The city began as a small fishing village. By 3. 00. 0 BC the little village had grown to a prosperous city through trade. Byblos became the single most important shipping port for timber to Egypt and elsewhere. Byblos was also the first city to perfect ship- building. It was primarily through trade with Egypt that Byblos grew so incredibly wealthy. The Egyptians flooded Byblos with material wealth but also with aspects of their culture and religion. The Amorites burned the city in their invasion of 2. BC. After subduing the populace they re- built and settled in the area. Their control of the region ended in 1. BC with the invasion of the Hyksos people who ruled until they were driven out by the Egyptians in 1. BC. The Egyptians then lay claim to the coast of Canaan. Between 1. 10. 0 and 7. BC Byblos declined in importance as her sister city, Tyre, grew. After the conquest of the region by Alexander the Great, and the destruction of Tyre in 3. BC, Byblos again prospered and became completely hellenized. During the hellenistic period (3. BC) Byblos became most famous for the production of papyrus. In 6. 4 BC the region was conquered by the Romans and continued as a Roman colony from 6. BC - 3. 95 AD. The Romans, as usual, improved upon the city they found, ordering the streets and building large temples, baths and civic gardens. After the fall of the Roman Empire, the Byzantine Empire controlled Byblos from 3. AD when the Muslim invaders took the region and drove the Byzantines out. Under Muslim rule, Byblos steadily declined in wealth and importance. The great port was virtually ignored for centuries and provided an easy target for invading Crusaders in 1. CE. The Crusaders built a castle on the place. Once the Crusaders had been driven out, the Muslim rulers continued to neglect the city Info: - http: //www. Byblos- http: //whc.
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