Archaeology is the study of ancient civilizations through their remains and artifacts. Archaeologists excavate sites to learn about how people lived in the past. They search carefully in a grid system, record the location of any finds, and analyze artifacts in a lab. With permission, they dig at places like middens, which were ancient trash dumps that contain clues about the past through flakes and other remnants. By piecing together fossils and artifacts, archaeologists can reconstruct life in periods before written history.