This document discusses the background era of archaeology, prior to its emergence as a formal discipline. It describes how early humans were curious about the past and physical remains from earlier periods. Over time, folklore and myths developed around these remnants, and elites began actively discovering, investigating, and collecting artifacts. Eventually, practices like systematic recording, conservation, and studying the past through artifacts emerged. Some key events that displayed early archaeological tendencies included pharaonic excavations of structures in Egypt, excavations and interpretations of remains in ancient Babylon, and analyses of burials on Delos by the historian Thucydides. Overall, the document traces the gradual development of practices that led to the field of archaeology.

1. Background era
of
Archaeology
overview
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2. Introduction
• Archaeology was not born overnight.
• It has a background era of thousands of years.
• During this era, there was not something called archaeology but were
the roots of it.
• This era consists of several phases which do not show clear divisions
in between
• All those phases together shows the gradual formation of
archaeology.
• This era is longer than the timespan since archaeology’s emergence
until today.
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3. Key Feature of this era
• The key feature of this era was the curiosity or the desire of past.
• People during the background era of archaeology were curious on
two things.
1. They were curious about past.
2. They were curious about the physical remains such as objects and
monumnets they saw in their surroundings that existed even before their
known ancestors were born.
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4. Other Characteristics of this Era
• Folklore culture constructed around the objects and monuments left
form the past.
• Elites who actively involved in discovering, investigating the objects
and monumnetss that are scribed in the folk tales.
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5. Evolution of Characteristics of this
Era
• First, it was just the curiosity for the past as well as the material
remnants of the past that were found in the environments.
• Then, people constructed legends, myths, and folk tales around the
material remains that they found in the environment. They connected
the stories to those objects and monuments. And they also
connected those things to the people they thought lived in the past.
• Then, people started to actively engage with those material remains,
discovering, investigating, and collecting the collectibles.
• Then they started to keep records of the collections.
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6. • This practice of keeping records developed further into keeping
records of everything, regardless of its tangible or intangible nature.
• Soon, all of the relics left from the past, including intangibles such as
customs, were recorded.
• Manuscripts were copied to ensure the safety of their contents.
• Conserving antiques became a most important thing.
• Studying the past through antiques was slightly practiced. But the
inclination was more towards discovering, collecting, investigating,
recording, and preserving antiques.
• During the Middle Ages following the Roman Age, systematically
recording everything that comes from the past faded away, and the
focus was on manuscripts and other material remains.
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7. Key Events evident in this Era
• According to the archaeological and literary evidence, there were
several events that happened during this era.
1. Paraoh’s excavation and reconstruction of Spinx
2. Nabonidus excavation, dating, and interpretation
3. Thucydides investigation and interpretation
4. Roman involvement with material remains
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8. 1. Paraoh’s excavation and reconstruction of Spinx in
2nd millennium BC
• The first excavation in history is considered to have happened during
the new kingdom era in Egypt (ca. 1660–1070 BCE).
• The pharaoh excavated and reconstructed the sphinx, which was
originally built during the old kingdom (ca. 2575–2134 BCE).
• Here, the need for ensuring the lifespan of material remains from the
past can be seen.
• That showed an early form of preservation and conservation that is
present in modern archaeology.
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9. 2. Nabonidus's Excavation and Interpretation in the
6th Century BC
• Since there are no written records other than archaeological evidence
of paraoh’s involvement, the first ever recorded excavation is
considered to have been done by Nabonidus.
• He was the last king of Babylon (555–539 BCE).
• He excavated and unearthed the stone foundation of a building
dedicated to Naram-Sin, who was a royal in the Akkadian order.
• Nabonidus even dated the unearthed monument, though the dates
were inaccurate by 1500 years.
• So, here, excavating material remnants that come from the past and
giving interpretations based on the excavation results were evident.
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10. • Those interpretations were simple conclusions they reached after
searching.
• This was the first ever practical involvement done regarding the
history of humankind and the monuments inherent in the past in the
documented history.
• In other words, it was the first documented incident of researching
first and then interpreting inherent material from the past.
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11. 3. Thicydides's Interpretations of Delos Island Burials
in the 5th Century BC
• 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.
• He presumed that those burials belonged to an ethnic population
called ‘Carians’.
• This was the first incident in history in which a historian, a person
who specialised in studying humanity’s past, studied the material
remains and constructed a simple interpretation.
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12. 4. Romans' Involvement with Antiquities in the 1st
Century BC to the 5th Century AD
• During the Roman Empire (31 BC–476 AD), Europeans introduced the
term ‘antiquity' to refer to monuments and other material remains
inherent in the past.
• Antiquity is a word that gives the meaning of ‘ancient’.
• They not only recognised material remains as antiquities but also
conserved and exhibited them.
• They considered "all of the relics from the past," regardless of
whether they were objects or non-objects.
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13. Conclusion
• It is evident that mankind, from ancient times to the 15th century AD, was
curious and passionate about their past and the monuments inherent in it.
• Clearly, this led to the gradual emergence of practices and trends that
paved the way for archaeology during the period.
• One significant practice introduced was identifying monuments and other
material remains inherent in the past as antiquities.
• The trend of constructing folk stories connecting the antiquities to the
ancestors who lived in the past was a significant feature.
• Similarly, looking for antiquities in order to investigate them and conserve
them was a prominent feature of this era.
• Furthermore, unearthing, collecting, and then exhibiting antiquities was
popular during this time period.
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