Finding Clues To The Past What do archeologists do? How do archaeologists uncover the story of early peoples?

What is archaeology? Archaeology is the study of past human life Archeologist Matt Mattson holds a rock that may have been used as a hammering tool between 13,000 and 15,000 years ago.

Working Together Archaeologists are scientists who learn about early people - study traces of early settlements, prehistoric people - figure out the age, meaning of artifacts—human-made objects (from the past) Anthropologists study culture—way of life of a group of people - study beliefs, common language, shared ways of doing things

Studying Fossils Evidence of early people can be found in fossils - fossils—remains of early life preserved in ground - human fossils include pieces of teeth, skulls, other bones Archaeologists try to figure out ages of fossil remains, and artifacts

EQ: How do we learn about Archaeology? Archaeologists have three major ways of learning about a civilization, they are: Research Fieldwork Laboratory Analysis

1. Research How do we know what an artifact is? Archaeologists use two methods to find out what an artifact is and how it was used: Historical Approach Cross-cultural Comparison

Method #1: Historical Approach Watching how people in modern times use a similar object (living in the same area)

Method #2: Cross-Cultural Comparison Watching how people from another culture use a similar object (Today)

2. Fieldwork After the first research is done, archaeologists go outdoors and look for archaeological sites—places where artifacts are found  Archaeologists usually know where to look for these sites.

3. Laboratory Analysis Laboratory Analysis can be used to find out what an artifact is made of and how old it is. A common method of finding the age of an artifact is radiocarbon dating, which can find the age of something that was once alive.

History Detectives: List 2-3 things that they want to find out about the artifact List 2-3 tools or methods that are used to learn about the artifact What things are learned about the artifact? List 2-3 facts that are learned.