2. Archaeologists
• Historians study written sources
• Archaeologists study artefacts
• Archaeology is the study of the remains…
• …left by people in the past
• They study skeletons, tools, jewelry,
weapons.
3. Sites
• Site – the place where artefacts
are discovered
• Could be anywhere
• Midden – an ancient rubbish
heap
• Contains many valuable artefacts
• Not valuable in money, but in
information
• Food eaten; pottery and weapons
used; clothes worn
4. What is prehistory?
• Period in time before writing was invented
• We have no written sources
• ..so we must study artefacts from this time
• …if we want to find out about their lives
5. Choosing archaeological sites
1. Rescue archaeology – when land is being
cleared for building or roads
2. Research archaeology – evidence that
objects might be there – could come from
old documents or maps
3. some artefacts are just found by accident
6. Famous sites
• Wood Quay in
Dublin (Vikings)
• Ceide Fields in Mayo
(Stone Age farm)
• Pompeii in Italy
(Ancient Rome)
• The Pyramids in
Egypt
7. Dating artefacts
• Digging in the ground looking for artefacts
• Called a ‘dig’
• Steps:
1. Preparation – a survey is carried out
2. Aerial photos taken
3. A plan or detailed map is made out
4. The site is divided into squares or grids
5. Each grid is numbered
6. The site is cordoned off with rope
8. The Dig
• Topsoil removed by JCB or
spades
• Then layers of earth scraped
away
• A trowel is used
• Hand-pick loosens soil
• Must be very careful
• Sieves used to find small
objects in the soil
9. Artefact
• Toothbrushes used to clean earth from it
• Photo taken of the artefact
• The artefact is labeled and the grid number
noted
• Then put in a plastic bag
• Brought to lab
10. Dating artefacts
• Try to find out how old the object is
• A number of ways:
1. Stratigraphy – The position of the object in the soil – the
deeper it is the older it is
2. Carbon Dating – all living things (plants and animals)
contain carbon dioxide – after death the carbon leaks out
– by measuring how much carbon is left we can discover
how long ago it died
3. Dendrocronology – Can only be used to date wooden
objects – each year a tree grows a new ring – age of the
wood = number of rings
11. Soil
• Even if no artefact is found the soil
contains info
• Dark round patches = post-holes
• Timber posts used in houses
• Square dark patch = fireplace
12. Revision: Sources
• An eyewitness account
• The film ‘Michael Collins’
• A modern biography of Julius Caesar
• An autobiography
• A school history book
• A photograph
• A census
• The novel ‘The boy in the striped pyjamas’
13. A Dig
• Write down 8 things that an
archaeologist must do at a dig
• Survey, pictures, cordon off, make grid
• Remove topsoil, dig with trowels,
toothbrush soil away
• Catalogue the artefact
• Date it
14. Q. What problemts might we have in analysing a
written source?
• Bias
• Prejudice
• Wrong Information
• Lies
