History of Archaeology - overview, authored by Chanaka Kamal, an archaeology enthusiast with a BA Honours and currently pursuing an MPhil in archaeology at the University of Peradeniya. This presentation offers a clear and professional perspective suitable for anyone interested in archaeology, from enthusiasts to BA level students. Key Points Covered: Introduction to Archaeology: Explore the study of past human culture, behavior, and cognition through material remains. Trace the gradual development of this discipline over time. Background Era: Explore the period prior to the emergence of the term "archaeology." Discover how curiosity about the past led to folklore creation and engagement of elites with ancient material remains. Renaissance Era: Learn about antiquarianism and its influence on antiquities as art. Explore how new techniques, societies, and Pompeii's excavations reshaped archaeological practices. 19th Century Evolution: Witness the transformation of archaeology from interest to scientific discipline. Understand the contributions of pioneers like Pit Rivers and Flinders Petrie. 20th Century Advancements: Dive into theoretical and methodological progress in archaeology. Learn how war, technology, and new theories shaped the field. Conclusion: Grasp the multi-phase evolution of archaeology, culminating in the practice of postprocessual archaeology. Gain a nuanced perspective on our understanding of the past. 📞 Connect with Chanaka Kamal: For inquiries, discussions, or feedback, visit Kamal's website at kamalsjournal.com or find him on Tumblr as ChanakaKamal and Twitter as KamalWMC. Explore the rich history of archaeology, from its origins to its modern application. This presentation is an excellent resource for anyone seeking to understand the evolution of this dynamic field, whether you're an archaeology enthusiast or a BA level student.

1. History of Archaeology
An overview
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2. Introduction to the history of
archaeology
• Archaeology is the study of past human culture, behaviour, and cognition through
material remains left from the past.
• The archaeology we refer to today was not born overnight.
• Archaeology first emerged as a discipline only about a hundred years ago.
• The term archaeology first came into the vocabulary in the 14th century AD.
• But archaeology’s history goes way beyond the origin of the term archaeology.
• Any time in history when the idea of looking into the past occurred among the
population is considered relevant to archaeology’s history.
• Any time in history when the idea of looking into material remains left from the
past occurred is considered relevant to archaeology’s history.

3. • Accordingly, there are five phases that can be identified in the history
of archaeology.
1. Background era of archaeology
2. Archaeology in the Renaissance Era
3. Archaeology in the 18th century
4. Archaeology in the 19th century
5. Archaeology in the 20th century
*Since 18th-century archaeology was heavily influenced by the Renaissance, this era is often
included under Renaissance-era archaeology.

4. Background Era of Archaeology
• The background era of archaeology marks the era before the term
archaeology came into vocabulary.
• The key feature of this era was the curiosity of the past.
• This curiosity of the past occurred in two ways.
1. The curiosity of material remains from the past.
2. The curiosity of the human past.
• There were two other characteristics of this era.
1. The creation of folklore around the material remains of the past.
2. The active engagement of elites in looking into those material remains that
are described in folk tales.

5. • There were several important events in this era.
1. Paraoh, during the new kingdom (ca. 1660–107 BCE), excavated and
reconstructed the spinx, which had been originally built in the old kingdom
(ca. 2575–2134 BCE).
2. Nabonidus, the last king of Babylon (555–539 BCE), excavated and
unearthed the stone foundation of a building dedicated to Naram-Sin, who
was a royal in Akkadian order, and dated the monument.
3. In the Classical Greek era, a historian named Thucydides who lived in
Greece (460–400 BC), identified some monuments in the Delos islands as
burials and presumed that those burials belonged to an ethnic population
called ‘Carians’.
4. During the Roman Empire (31 BC–476 AD), Europeans introduced the term
‘antiquities’ to refer to the monuments and other material remains inherent
in the past, which they conserved and exhibited.
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6. Archaeology in the Renaissance Era
• The key feature of this era was antiquarianism.
• Antiquarianism was the practice of taking possession of antiquities
and considering them art.
• Those who engaged in the completion of antiquarianism were
referred to as dilettantes.
• They did unorganised excavations to loot antiquities as much as
possible.
• This extensive practice caused damage to antiquities and the sites.
• They looted antiquities and displayed them in cabinets.

7. • With colonialism, antiquarianism spread all over the world.
• Both state and private antiquarians unearthed the valuable antiquities
from the original lands and looted them back to their home countries.
• The idea of studying the past through material remains was undermined by
this trend of antiquarianism and dilettantism.
• As this continued, from the 18th century on, a few new changes occurred.
• New techniques were introduced to reduce the damage caused to
antiquities when excavated.
• Experts urge stopping the looting and displaying the antiquities in the
original lands in which they were unearthed.
• Anitquarian societies were established, and they revived the study of the
past through material remains.

8. • Pompeii's excavations took place and illustrated to the world how
excavations can reveal not only antiquities but also past human life.
• Thomas Jefferson’s mound excavation in West Virginia marked the
first ever problem-oriented archaeological study, with the steps of
problem formation, excavation, recording, interpreting, and
publishing.
• New theories and discoveries on earth and material remains were
made.
• Archaeology began to develop into an organized field of study.
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9. Archaeology in the 19th Century
• Archaeology transformed into a scientific discipline from a field of
interest.
• The development of geology as a discipline impacted archaeology.
• The emergence of studies of human evolution enhanced
archaeology’s purpose.
• The emergence of prehistoric archaeology took place with the human
evolution theory.
• The priority in studies was ancient civilizations all around the world as
a result of colonialism.

10. • The consequences of antiquarianism urge ethical considerations
when unearthing archaeological remains in non-European contexts.
• The voice against looting rose higher.
• A systematic chronology of archaeology was developed.
• Pioneers like Pit Riverse and Flinders Petrie contributed to making
archaeological excavation a systematic operation.
• Unearthing material remains to reveal the past has become the
ultimate goal of archaeology.
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11. Archaeology in the 20th Century
• The theoretical development of archaeology happened in this era.
• The archaeology we know today originated in this era.
• In the first six decades of the 20th century, methodological
development occurred, and later the focus was on theoretical
enhancements.
• Warfare and development projects had a huge impact on
archaeology.
• With warfare alone, the technology developed for it was then applied
in archaeological studies.

12. • Archaeological exploration, excavation, and data analysis in
archaeology developed.
• New technology was extensively used in those steps in archaeological
studies.
• With the development of chemistry as a discipline, absolute dating
methods such as C14 and thermoluminescence were introduced into
archaeology.
• Rescue archaeology was born to deal with the dangers posed to
archaeological sites by warfare and development.
• The focus began to shed light on past humans rather than the past of
material remains recovered.
• After 1960, archaeology became much more complex.

13. • In the 1960s, new archaeology, or processual archaeology, was born.
• In new archaeology, the cultural process was started to be studied.
• Then, in the 1980s, critiquing new archaeology, postprocessual
archaeology was born.
• In postprocessual archaeology, past human behaviour and cognition
were studied.
• There are much more complex differences between processual
archaeology and prostrate processual archaeology.
• In the 1970s, archaeological heritage management was introduced to
deal with archaeological heritage all around the world.
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14. Conclusion
• Archaeology as we know it today did not originate at a specific time in
history.
• Archaeology evolved into what it is today over hundreds, if not
thousands, of years.
• The history of archaeology consists of several phases.
• In each phase, archaeology transformed into an enhanced version.
• Today, we practice postprocessual archaeology, which emerged in the
1980s.
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15. Thank You!
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