Geoff Carver's Collection of Archaeology Definitions
"Archaeology is that branch of science which is concerned with past phases of human culture; in practice it is concerned more, but not exclusively, with early and prehistoric phases than with those illustrated by written documents." O.G.S. Crawford, 1960. Archaeology in the Field. Phoenix House, London.
"[Archaeology] is the method of finding out about the past of the human race in its material aspects, and the study of the products of this past." Kathleen Kenyon, 1956. Beginning in Archaeology. Phoenix House, London.
Archaeology Definition: A Few Thousand Years
"Archaeology... deals with a period limited to a few thousand years and its subject is not the universe, not even the human race, but modern man." C. Leonard Woolley, 1961. Digging up the Past. Penguin, Harmondsworth.
"Archaeology is what archaeologists do." David Clarke, 1973 Archaeology: the loss of innocence. Antiquity 47:6-18.
"Archaeology is, after all, one discipline." David Clarke, 1973 Archaeology: the loss of innocence. Antiquity 47:6-18.
Defining Archaeology: The Value of an Object
"Field Archaeology is the application of scientific method to the excavation of ancient objects, and it is based on the theory that the historical value of an object depends not so much on the nature of the object itself as on its associations, which only scientific excavation can detect... digging consists very largely in observation, recording and interpretation." C. Leonard Woolley, 1961. Digging up the Past. Penguin, Harmondsworth.
"Archaeology – the knowledge of how man has acquired his present position and powers – is one of the widest studies, best fitted to open the mind, and to produce that type of wide interests and toleration which is the highest result of education." William Flinders Petrie, 1904 Methods and Aims in Archaeology. Macmillan and Co., London.
Archaeology Definition: Not Things, But People
"If there be a connecting theme in the following pages, it is this: an insistence that the archaeologist is digging up, not things, but people." R.E. Mortimer Wheeler, 1954. Archaeology from the Earth. Oxford University Press, Oxford.
"Field archaeology is, not surprisingly, what archaeologists do in the field. However, it also has a considerable pre-field element and an even more considerable post-field element. Sometimes the term ‘field archaeology’ is used only to refer to techniques, other than excavation, used by archaeologists in the field. ‘Field archaeology’ used in this way refers essentially to the battery of non-destructive field techniques used to locate areas of archaeological interest (sites)". Peter L. Drewett, 1999. Field Archaeology: An Introduction. UCL Press, London.
"We are concerned here with methodical digging for systematic information, not with the upturning of earth in a hunt for the bones of saints and giants or the armoury of heroes, or just plainly for treasure". R.E. Mortimer Wheeler, 1954. Archaeology from the Earth. Oxford University Press, Oxford.
Archaeology Definition: The Material Remains of the Human Past
"The Greeks and Romans, though they were interested in the early development of man and in the status of their barbarian neighbours, did not develop the necessary prerequisites for writing prehistory, namely the collection, excavation, classification, description and analysis of the material remains of the human past." Glyn E. Daniel, 1975. A Hundred and Fifty Years of Archaeology. 2nd ed. Duckworth, London.
"[Archaeology] researches tending to illustrate the monuments and remains of antiquity." T. J. Pettigrew, 1848. Introductory address. Transactions of the British Archaeological Association 1-15.
"So lässt sich Archäologie bestimmen als die Wissenschaft vom materiellen Erbe der antiken Kulturen des Mittelmeerraumes." German. August Herman Niemeyer, cited in C. Häuber and F. X. Schütz, 2004. Einführung in Archäologische Informationssysteme (AIS): Ein Methodenspektrum für Schule, Studium und Beruf mit Beispielen auf CD. Philipp von Zabern, Mainz am Rhein.
More Definitions
This feature is part of the About.com Guide to Field Definitions of Archaeology and Related Disciplines.
