Archaeology

　　Archaeology is a source of history, not just a humble auxiliary discipline.

　　Archaeological data are historical documents in their own right, not mere

　　illustrations to written texts. Just as much as any other historian, an

　　archaeologist studies and tries to reconstitute the process that has

　　created the human world in which we live -- and us ourselves in so far as

　　we are each creatures of our age and social environment. Archaeological

　　data are all changes in the material world resulting from human action or,

　　more succinctly, the fossilized results of human behavior. The sum total of

　　these constitutes what may be called the archaeological record. This record

　　exhibits certain peculiarities and deficiencies the consequences of

　　which produce a rather superficial contrast between archaeological

　　history and the more familiar kind based upon written records.

　　Not all human behavior fossilizes. The words I utter and you hear as

　　vibrations in the air are certainly human changes in the material world

　　and may be of great historical significance. Yet they leave no sort of

　　trace in the archaeological records unless they are captured by a

　　dictaphone or written down by a clerk. The movement of troops on the

　　battlefield may "change the course of history," but this is equally

　　ephemeral from the archaeologist's standpoint. What is perhaps worse, most

　　organic materials are perishable. Everything made of wood, hide, wool,

　　linen, grass, hair, and similar materials will decay and vanish in dust in

　　a few years or centuries, save under very exceptional conditions. In a

　　relatively brief period the archaeological record is reduced to mere scraps

　　of stone, bone, glass, metal, and earthenware. Still modern archaeology, by

　　applying appropriate techniques and comparative methods, aided by a few

　　lucky finds from peat-bogs, deserts, and frozen soils, is able to fill up a

　　good deal of the gap.