History is a dwelling house of all subjects because without documented the past events, no other discipline known its development of their own discipline. But for writing history of the pre history, it depends upon other subjects for writing analytical way of inquiry is necessary to write objective history. Pre history is writing with the archaeological evidences found in the excavated sites. Hence, it depends on scientific techniques to adopt for excavation, preservation, and finding truth based on scientific methods to fix the date, contacts, metals and its manufacturing skills are proved with scientific systematic investigation required. Hence, history is an art or science a question raised on its nature. The word ‘History” is derived from ‘ historia’ a Greek term, which means inquiry or research. Aristotle regarded history as a systematic account of a set of natural phenomena, whether or not chronological ordering was a factor in the account. History is to be applied to accounts of events that are narrated in a chronological order, and deal with the past mankind.
AIMS AND OBJECTIVES
Aims and
objectives of this paper is to emphasis the value of history and how history
helps other disciplines by documenting daily incidents systematically. But at
the same time give insight into how archaeology and history are twin eyes to
write history scientifically. History
enables the readers and researchers to understand the value of history to
enrich our national pride. To understand
the techniques used for archaeological site excavation and data analyses. To
enable the researchers to know the scientific techniques applied for deriving
facts on field survey, and inquiry about the past to rewrite history.
VALUES OF HISTORY AND ARCHAEOLOGY
Studying history is important because it allows us to
understand our past, which in turn allows us to understand our present. People
often say that “history repeats itself,” but if we study the successes and
failures of the past, we may, ideally, be able to learn from our mistakes and
avoid repeating them in the future. Studying history can provide us with
insight into our cultures of origin as well as cultures with which we might be
less familiar, thereby increasing cross-cultural awareness and understanding.
Whereas Archaeology is the study of people
in the past, their activities and actions, cultural practices, tools and
technological development, their superstitious and religious practices,
expression of their cultural identity and other beliefs about themselves or the
world around them. Aracheaological survey mostly search material
remains in the past, later evolved to examine landscapes, topography, human
geography, Environmental studies. For the first time in Europe made an attempt to studying ancient
monuments and sites for the purpose of discovering artifacts and treasures. Its
purpose may changed over the period of time, now the archaeologists are working
as an anthropologists to study of the prehistoric and the historic period.
However, these two disciplines are differs from paleontology in that this area
studies fossils of extinct species and not humans or human ancestors.
DIFFERENCE BETWEEN ANTHROPOLOGY AND
ARCHAEOLOGY
Anthropology is the study of people of the past, their culture and
practices, the locations of habitation, how they survived or thrived in the
landscape, what they ate, what they believed
and practices. With this,
anthropologists attempt to build a narrative of human culture in the past.
Whereas Archaeology is the study of the material remains of the
human past – artifacts like weapons, tools and jewelry, technology, buildings and structures like graves, grave markers and grave
goods, how humanity altered a landscape or other natural feature. Some
archaeologists study modern technologically primitive peoples to understand the
beliefs and practices of the past the studying or investigate their materials
and technology by using the ruins left by the people of the past.
During the Roman Empire, archaeology as a discipline of “antiquarianism” for keeping of artifacts as cultural or historical curiosities, but not considered politically valid or as a sense of national pride. Humans have always placed value on objects of its own family historical importance. Even during the medieval society, interested people were collected images of ancient stone texts, sketches of curious monuments and other artifacts of archaeological interest. The antiquarianism later cause for the foundation of nation- state and birth to local historians as well as archaeology.
TRANSFORMATION OF IDEOLOGY
The fundamental changes of the European powers, cause for
the changes were made fueled by the idea of national cultural identity or
cultural destiny, which gave way to the idea of a sense of the uniqueness of
one’s own country. A sense of
cherishing previous generations cause for the
preserving the idea of the importance of descendants through lineage.
ORIGIN
OF MODERN ARCHAEOLOGY
Archaeology began as a natural and necessary progress from
the enlightenment but it was
still largely influenced by a sense of national identity and local pride by
opening museum to propagate their antiquities. For instance, The British Museum
opened its doors in 1753; The Egyptian Museum of Antiquities opened in Cairo in
1835 with the current building in 1851 to house all later finds. The National
Archaeological Museum of France was opened by Napoleon III in 1862.
DEVELOPMENT OF ARCHAEOLOGY
Thomsen, who proposed the first “three age” system like
Stone Age, Bronze Age, and Iron Age for
the relative dating of artifacts’ and their stratigraphic relationships. Sir John Lubbock divided these stages
further, for example dividing the Stone Age period into Paleolithic or Old
Stone Age, Mesolithic or Middle Stone Age
and Neolithic or New Stone Age.Stratigraphic theory was already in
development and based partly on the older idea of the three-age system. William
Cunnington excavated Stonehenge in the early 1800s along with many
other prehistoric monuments. He largely categorized into those belonging to the
Stone Age, Bronze Age or Iron Age using a meticulous system of stratigraphy
that still informs archaeology today. Later, a more complex system and one
adapted based on regional variation was applied.
GOLDEN AGE FOR EARLY ARCHAEOLOGY
The Father of Archaeology is William
Flinders Petrie was the first to investigate the Great Pyramid of
Giza in Egypt, many finds in Memphis in Egypt and extensively in the Levant In each case he meticulous recorded each artifact no matter how seemingly insignificant,
its location and relationship with other finds and the landscape. This was a
golden age for early archaeology with the discovery of Troy in modern Turkey
and the investigation of Knossos in Crete.
SCIENTIFIC EXCAVATION
During 20th century Sir Mortimer Wheeler
introduced a scientific excavation method still in use. By 1950s Archaeological
excavation was a professional academic discipline requiring high-level education
and long-term study all over the developed world. Colleges and universities offered degrees and
post-graduate courses before the 1960s.
By the 21st century, practically all archaeologists
which including manual labour excavators had archaeology degrees to get
theoretical and practical knowledge about archaeological activities like
identify the area, using scientific technology to locate the site, finding
result of the objects found in excavation, gather data, excavate, report on
findings and preserve artifacts. There are many tools at the disposal of
archaeologist from excavation and associated tools, documentation
research, aerial photography, cartography, soil sampling with the technical
support of other subject experts. Based on excavated artifacts has proved
one nations pride.
ARCHAEOLOGICAL THEORIES
Archaeology
is not simply about digging up past human remains and preserving it for people
to enjoy, wonder at and feel a sense of shared identity. Academic archaeology
is about interpreting, its uses and purpose of the objects, technical skill of
that product. There are four types of
theories developed viz. Antiquarianism, Culture-Historical Archaeology,
Historical Particularism and National
Archaeology
Computational Archaeology uses for data
analyses uses of digital technology which includes technology like Geographic
Information Systems, surveying and satellite data for spatial
analysis. It also involves the study, use and application of statistical models
for big data analytics in human behavior, probability models, intra site
analysis like digitized data of stratigraphic relationships 3D modelling, artifact
concentration and distribution, predictive modeling and heritage conservation.
An Archaeological Investigation usually involved
variety of methods followed before and after excavation. Archaeologist aims and objectives are find
the site with a site surveyed based on literary evidences, archaeological features
buried underneath, the data collected from the excavation is studied and
evaluated in an attempt to achieve the original research objectives of the
archaeologists. It is then considered good practice for the information to be
published so that it is available to other archaeologists and historians.
REMOTE SENSING INSTRUMENTS
There are two types of remote
sensing instruments helps the excavators that the sites are located for larger
area or provide more information about the regions.
1.
Passive instruments detect natural energy that is reflected or emitted from
the observed scene. Passive instruments sense only radiation emitted by the
object being viewed or reflected by the object from a source other than the
instrument.
2.
Active
instruments emit energy and record what is reflected. Satellite imagery
is an example of passive remote sensing.
There are two active
remote sensing instruments
·
Lidar(Light
Detection and Ranging) uses a laser to transmit a light pulse and a receiver
with sensitive detectors to measure the backscattered or reflected light.
Distance to the object is determined by recording the time between the
transmitted and backscattered pulses and using the speed of light to calculate
the distance travelled.
·
Laser
altimeter uses to measure the height of
the instrument platform above the surface. By independently knowing the height
of the platform with respect to the mean Earth's surface, the topography of the
underlying surface can be determined.
SURVEY METHODS - FIELD
SURVEY
Identify the site with the help
of literary evidences, or more pottery found any region on the surface of the
region, or digging well or any other purpose, if the people doubted about that
region have more product found underneath, any structure found, then site
survey is attempted by archaeologist systematically.
Initially sampling methods
followed to ensure before processing large volumes of soil to search for
artifacts, to avoid unwanted expenses and save time. During field survey to
gather information about the site whether it has any ethical issues. Try to find out the form of settlement
patterns and settlement structures, distribution of artifacts in that site.
SURFACE SURVEY
Surface survey is the simple
survey technique, by which combing that site on foot or sometimes by mechanized
transport to search for features or any artifacts found on the surface. Some surface are fully covered with
vegetation, where the archaeologist made mini-excavation techniques like shovel
test pits or augers. If nothing found means
stop survey that site.
AERIAL SURVEY
Aerial photographs are useful for
quick mapping of large and complex sites, which helps to detect many invisible
objects from the surface, plants growing over the tomb or a stone wall,
photographs of ripening grain, which changes colour rapidly at its growth etc.
Aerial survey uses ultraviolet infrared which penetrating radar wavelengths,
Lidar and thermography at different times of day will shows the outlines of
structures by changes in shadows.
GEOPHYSICAL SURVEY
Geographical survey is the most
effective methods to study underneath of earth by using Magnetometers to
identify minute deviations in the Earth’s Magnetic field by iron artifacts,
kilns or stone structures. Generally
electrical resistivity contrasts with that of surrounding soils can be detected
and mapping archaeological features like stone or brick have higher resistivity
than typical soils, and to have lower resistivity on organic deposits or
unfired clay. For instance marine magnetometer, side-scan sonar or sub –bottom
sonar are the geophysical remote sensing devices uses in underwater
archaeological survey.
POST –EXCAVATION ANALYSIS
Once artifacts and structures
have been excavated, or collected from surface surveys, it is necessary to
investigate, which is time consuming,
this process is known as post – excavation analysis. The final excavation
reports for major sites to take years to be published.
At a basic level of analysis,
artifacts found are cleaned, catalogued and compared to published collections.
This comparison process often involves classifying them typologically and
identifying other sites with similar artifact assemblages. However, a much more
comprehensive range of analytical techniques are available through
archaeological science, meaning that artifacts can be dated and their
compositions examined. Bones, plants, and pollen collected from a site can all
be analyzed using the methods of zooarchaeology, paleoethnobotany, palynology
and deciphered text .
ENVIRONMENTAL ARCHAEOLOGY
Environmental Archaeology is divided into three broad areas
like Archaeozoology, Archaeobotany, and Geoarchaeology.
·
Archaeozoology, the study of how humans interacted
with animals in the past. This examines ancient hunting practices and the
transition to farming. Archaeozoologist will spend a lot of time looking at
bones and apply spatial analysis, distribution models and animal husbandry
·
Archaeobotany is the study of past human
relationships to plants. Similarly, they will look at ancient farming practices, land clearance, examine landscape changes
as indicators of human action, study palynology and phytoliths.
Archaeobotanists experience some overlap with archaeozoology in that they may
examine entomology as indicators of plant type change
·
Geoarchaeology is the study of the matters of the
Earth as it pertains to the human past. Palaeoclimate data from a time of human
interaction with the environment. For
instance the last Ice Age is classified as geoarchaeological. It looks at broad
distribution data such as pottery and flint tools and tries to calculate the
spread of a technological culture
History is about reconstructing the past
through evidences. Archaeology examines
stone tool, the development of early bronze and iron smelting and mining, how
to construct a building and making clothing. Archaeology always had a sense of
historic landscapes and places. Without Archaeological evidences, ancient India
has no pre-historic period. Kizhadi excavation result will change the history
of India that civilization originates from Tamil Nadu in South India. Aathichanallur excavation proved that earlier
than Indus valley civilization by excavated bronze miniature artifact from that
region. History documented geneses of
growth and development of each and every department. But at the same time history proved with
scientific methods to find date of an object by using chemistry, for
calculating year by mathematics, find the archaeological site by physics, for
data analysis using computational analyses.
However, without documentation, there is no other way to know about our
past history of development of any department.
Hence, history is the dwelling house of all subjects including
archaeology. Without history, other
subjects are unable to scaling the growth and development of their own
departments. History is the record of
the past, guide the present and future.
ENDNOTES
1.https://www.livescience.com/44448-what-is-archaeology.html
2.
ibid.
3. https://www.archaeology.co.uk/advice/ethnoarchaeology.htm
4.
https://www.thoughtco.com/the-history-of-archaeology-171205
5. https://www.archaeologybulletin.org/articles/10.5334/bha.17203/gal/117/download,
pp.19-20.
6. https://www.archaeologybulletin.org/articles/10.5334/bha.17203/galley/117/download/p.14.
7. https://www.britannica.com/technology/hand-tool#ref424379
8.
https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=CfQIAQAAIAAJ&redir_esc=y
10. http://www.pef.org.uk/profiles/sir-william-flinders-petrie-1853-1942
11. http://www.annualreviews.org/doi/abs/10.1146/annurev-anthro-102215-095946
12.
https://www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/envarch/what/
