Archaeology for Kids

Category: File - :archaeology.rome.arp.jpg|thumb|right|The 2,000-year-old remains of Ancient Rome in Italy are being excavated and mapped by these archaeologists.

Archaeology (sometimes written archæology) or archeology (from Greek , archaiologia ? , arkha?os, "ancient"; and , -logi?, "-logy") is the science that studies human cultures through the recovery, documentation, analysis, and interpretation of material culture and environmental data, including architecture, artifacts, biofacts, and landscapes. Archaeology aims to understand humankind through these humanistic endeavors.Renfrew and Bahn (1991) In the United States it is commonly considered to be a subset of anthropology, along with physical anthropology, cultural anthropology, and linguistic anthropology,Cultural Anthropology The Human Challenge (2005). whereas in British and European universities, archaeology is considered as a separate discipline entirely.

Methodology, theory, and philosophy centralize archaeological (and anthropological) debate. Research, survey, excavation, analysis, and preservation are the tools of archaeological processes.

'Archaeological goals' are debatable. Some goals include the documentation and explanation of the origins and development of human cultures, understanding culture history, chronicling cultural evolution, and studying human behavior and ecology, for both prehistoric and historic societies.

In broad scope, archaeology relies on cross-disciplinary research. It draws upon anthropology, history, art history, classics, ethnology, geography,Aldenderfer and Maschner (1996) geology,Gladfelter (1977)Watters (1992)Watters (2000) linguistics, physics, information sciences, chemistry, statistics, paleoecology, paleontology, paleozoology, paleoethnobotany, and paleobotany.