Archaeology Essay -- essays research papers

ArchaeologyThere is a saying that goes One must(prenominal) first have an understanding of the away in order to go on into the future. An archaeologists job, therefore, is very important because they have the crucial social function of interpreting the past through archaeological finds. How does an archaeologist go closely doing this? How does he interpret his findings? How are the artifacts that he finds related to the behaviors of past humanity? Concepts such as patterning and essence range theory are the primary(prenominal) tools used for this interpretation of the past. Patterning is the regular relationship between material objects and space, and middle range theory is how the visible archaeological data can be related to past human behaviors or actions. Patterning is used to interpret past human behavior because the products of human action usually suggest repetitiveness or a pattern of activity that can be discerned by the archaeologist. For example in the Olsen-Chub buck site in Colorado, a bison graveyard was sight of 190 bison. The pattern or relationship between the bones and how they were set in motion gives the archaeologist clues as to how the bison were butchered. Some bones were found with spear points in the bodies, some whole skeletons were found closer to the bottom, and some bones were bewildered all over. It can be inferred from the patterning of the bison bones that they were butchered differently. Middle range theory also plays a p...