Different Types of Archaeology

Archaeology is an academic discipline that deals with the study of past human life, in terms of behavior and culture. Those people who practice in the field of archaeology are known as archaeologists. Archaeology aims in correlating human culture, starting from the origin to the present. The past human societies are studied on the basis of material remnants (fossils) and human artifacts (jewelries and crafts) that are lying on or under the earth's surface. Most of these archaeological informations are collected through human impacts on the environment. By examining and analyzing such past evidences, the archaeologists try to reconstruct and interpret what had happened in the past human life.

Different Types of Archaeology

Archaeology is a multidisciplinary science that encompasses many academic subjects like biology, chemistry, geology, history and art. It is considered a branch of anthropology, which involves the study of biology along with human culture. Archaeology is different from paleontology (the study of fossils), as it deals only with the past life of humans. Let's take a look at the different types of archaeology.

Archaeometry: Archaeometry, also known as archaeological science, deals with the study archaeology, along with the application of scientific methods and techniques. Some of the scientific techniques include radiocarbon dating, dendrochronology, artifact analysis, mathematical methods, remote-sensing, microscopes and environmental studies.

Classical Archaeology: Classical archaeology, in simpler terms, can be considered as the study of the most civilized cultures of the world, namely, the Greek and Roman civilizations. By investigating and researching on these two ancient cultures, a 2000 years span of the classical history can be studied. Athens and Rome form the main sites of study for classical archaeology.

Ethno-Archaeology: This archaeology type attempts to link the past with the present life. The basics of ethno-archaeology involve anthropology, which is associated with the archaeological theories. For example, studying the present day hunter-gatherer groups helps in examining the mode of hunting and gathering food in the ancient times. The archaeologists found that the past and the present day hunter-gatherers share some common aspects of life.

Environmental Archaeology: Environmental archaeology deals with the study of environment by applying the archaeological principles. This is an interesting field for the science students, as the main focus is on studying soil science, sediments, pollens, diatoms and other environment-related archaeological factors. Environmental archaeology encompasses field studies along with laboratory experiments.

Historical Archaeology: This branch of archaeology includes the study of ancient history based on historical sites, artifacts and other historical documents that help in arranging the cultural chronology of ancient historic times. It is more or less similar to biblical archaeology that encompasses the study based on written records. It is to be noted that historical records are not always correct and hence, it should be supplemented with other evidences.

Pseudo- Archaeology:Another sub-discipline of archaeology is pseudo-archaeology. As the name suggests, it aims at non-scientific approach and deals with real as well as imagined evidences to reassemble past life. The pseudo-archaeologists mainly focus on the evidences that contributes to the lost of continents like Atlantis and Mu.

Underwater Archaeology: Underwater archaeology is an interesting sub-discipline of archaeology. It is associated with the study of underwater evidences such as shipwrecks, water-buried cities and other inundated archaeological sites. Archaeologists practicing in this field attempt to discover the submerged evidences by diving underwater along with sophisticated excavating tools.

Besides this, there are some other branches of archaeology that specialize in the conservation and management of cultural resources, world heritage, historical monuments, artifacts and other archaeological sites. Many people are confused about the job profile of an archaeologist. In fact, there are many career opportunities of archaeology, some of which are regional and research archaeologists, collections manager, archaeological surveyor, academic positions and jobs in local, state and federal agencies.