ShmoopTube

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What is Archaeology?, a la Shmoop.

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Think about all the stuff you have.

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All of the stuff you throw away.

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Everything you can see and touch.

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Without getting into trouble.

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Now imagine you’re suddenly… gone. Forever.

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All your stuff is left behind.

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Oh, and 2,000 years have passed. Your little brother has probably called dibs on everything by now.

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What even still exists?

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Your banana peels and tissue boxes have decomposed…

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What about less… perishable stuff?

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Your headphones? Your computer keyboard?

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That underwear your parents gave you last year when they forgot it was your birthday?

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Based on the stuff you left behind, what could someone understand about you?

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Assuming they didn’t have access to your diary. That would be cheating.

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Besides, they’ll never figure out where you hid the key.

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This is the essence of archaeology.

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Archaeologists study the people and cultures of the past, be it 20 years ago… or 200,000.

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Although… they tend to find more fossils from 200,000 years ago.

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If they uncover remains from 20 years ago,

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it probably warrants a friendly call to the local police station.

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The process of digging up various old junk is called excavation.

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Archaeologists excavate to dig up artifacts… which is basically anything that’s been

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hidden below the surface for years.

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Could be your sister’s diary… could be a metallic cylinder from the Byzantine era.

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But digging isn’t all archaeologists do.

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If that were the case, their biceps would be ridiculous.

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They also study stuff that doesn’t need to be excavated…

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…like the pyramids, the Roman coliseum, or those cool bronze statues they haul out

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of the sea once in a while.

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Okay, now we know what archaeology is...

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…but why in the world is it important?

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Can’t we just let the past remain in the past? Are we really going to solve any pressing

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modern problems by knowing what the ancient Egyptians used to brush their teeth?

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Believe it or not, the stuff we’ve unearthed has given us a better understanding of who

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we are today… not just who we used to be.

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By examining where we started, and comparing it to where we are today…

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…we can piece together patterns of human progress…

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…as well as figure out where we might be going wrong.

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It’s sort of like there’s this vast world history book buried in the ground…

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…and archaeologists are in charge of putting it back together, page by page.

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But it’s even more extensive than a regular world history book…

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…because it allows us to learn about things that pre-date written history.

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Plenty of fascinating stuff happened thousands of years ago…

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…even if no one could tweet about it.

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Archaeology has helped us to understand ancient religions,

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the daily routines of various cultures,

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how military weaponry has evolved over time,

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and oh so much more.

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It also serves as a fantastic backdrop for epic adventure movies.

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