Modern archaeology is the
discipline of archaeology which contributes to
excavations.
Johann Joachim Winckelmann
Johann Joachim Winckelmann ( ; ; 9 December 17178 June 1768) was a German art historian and archaeologist. He was a pioneering Hellenism (neoclassicism), Hellenist who first articulated the differences between Ancient Greek art, Greek, Helleni ...
was one of the founders of scientific archaeology and first applied the categories of style on a large, systematic basis to the
history of art
The history of art focuses on objects made by humans for any number of spiritual, narrative, philosophical, symbolic, conceptual, documentary, decorative, and even functional and other purposes, but with a primary emphasis on its aesthetics ...
. He was "the prophet and founding hero of modern archaeology". The next major figure in the development of archaeology was
Mortimer Wheeler, whose highly disciplined approach to excavation and systematic coverage in the 1920s and 1930s brought the science into the modern era. Wheeler developed the
grid system of excavation, which was further improved on by his student
Kathleen Kenyon. The two constant themes in their attempts to improve archaeological excavation were first, to maintain strict stratigraphic control while excavating (for this purpose, the baulks between trenches served to retain a record of the strata that had been dug through), and second, to publish a record of the excavation promptly and in a form that would tell the story of the site to the intelligent reader.
Bomb damage during the Second World War and subsequent rebuilding gave archaeologists the opportunity to meaningfully examine inhabited cities for the first time. Bombed sites provided windows onto the development of European cities whose pasts had been buried beneath working buildings.
Urban archaeology necessitated a new approach as centuries of human occupation had created deep layers of stratigraphy that could often only be seen through the keyholes of individual building plots. In Britain, post-war archaeologists such as
W. F. Grimes and
Martin Biddle took the initiative in studying this previously unexamined area and developed the archaeological methods now employed in much cultural resource management and
rescue archaeology.
Archaeology increasingly became a professional activity during the first half of the 20th century. Although the bulk of an excavation's workforce would still consist of volunteers, it would normally be led by a professional. It was now possible to study archaeology as a subject in universities and other schools, and by the end of the 20th century nearly all professional archaeologists, at least in developed countries, were graduates of such programs.
New technology
Undoubtedly the major technological development in 20th century archaeology was the introduction of
radiocarbon dating
Radiocarbon dating (also referred to as carbon dating or carbon-14 dating) is a method for Chronological dating, determining the age of an object containing organic material by using the properties of carbon-14, radiocarbon, a radioactive Isotop ...
, based on a theory first developed by American scientist
Willard Libby in 1949. Despite its many limitations (compared to later methods it is inaccurate; it can only be used on organic matter; it is reliant on a dataset to calibrate it; and it only works with remains from the last 10,000 years), the technique brought about a revolution in archaeological understanding. For the first time, it was possible to put reasonably accurate dates on discoveries such as bones. This in some cases led to a complete reassessment of the significance of past finds. Classic cases included the
Red Lady of Paviland. It was not until 1989 that the Catholic Church allowed the technique to be used on the
Turin Shroud, indicating that the linen fibres were of medieval origin.
Other developments, often spin-offs from wartime technology, led to other scientific advances. For field archaeologists, the most significant of these was the use of the
geophysical survey
Geophysical survey is the systematic collection of geophysical data for spatial studies. Detection and analysis of the geophysical signals forms the core of Geophysical signal processing. The magnetic and gravitational fields emanating from the ...
. This encompasses a number of
remote sensing
Remote sensing is the acquisition of information about an physical object, object or phenomenon without making physical contact with the object, in contrast to in situ or on-site observation. The term is applied especially to acquiring inform ...
techniques, such as
aerial photography
Aerial photography (or airborne imagery) is the taking of photographs from an aircraft or other flight, airborne platforms. When taking motion pictures, it is also known as aerial videography.
Platforms for aerial photography include fixed-wi ...
and
satellite imagery
Satellite images (also Earth observation imagery, spaceborne photography, or simply satellite photo) are images of Earth collected by imaging satellites operated by governments and businesses around the world. Satellite imaging companies sell im ...
. Also used is
light detection and ranging (LIDAR), a technology that measures the height of the ground surface and other features in large areas of landscape with resolution and accuracy that was not previously available. Subsurface remote sensing techniques such as
magnetometry and
ground-penetrating radar enable an advanced picture to be built up of what lies beneath the soil before excavation even commences. The entire Roman town of
Viroconium, modern day
Wroxeter, has been surveyed by these methods, though only a small portion has actually been excavated. The application of physical sciences to archaeology, known as archaeometry or
archaeological science, is now a major part of archaeology.
Archaeology has also come to use
geographic information systems, designed to capture, store, manipulate, analyze, manage, and visualize all types of geospatial data.
The discovery in 1991 in the
Ötztaler Alps of the prehistorical mummy dubbed
Ötzi
Ötzi, also called The Iceman, is the natural mummy of a man who lived between 3350 and 3105 BC. Ötzi's remains were discovered on 19 September 1991, in the Ötztal Alps (hence the nickname "Ötzi", ) at the Austria–Italy border. He i ...
resulted in the techniques of
genetics
Genetics is the study of genes, genetic variation, and heredity in organisms.Hartl D, Jones E (2005) It is an important branch in biology because heredity is vital to organisms' evolution. Gregor Mendel, a Moravian Augustinians, Augustinian ...
being brought to bear on archaeological science. With the help of
DNA analysis, scholars were able to ascertain that Ötzi does not belong to any known human population. In the subsequent years, genetics has helped us reconstruct human migrations that occurred during prehistory.
References
Bibliography
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Attribution: text copied from {{oldid, History of archaeology, 859046461, see there for edit history.
Archaeological sub-disciplines
Modernity
History of archaeology