Importance of Archaeology

Archaeology is a magical gateway to the past. It is the discipline that complements History best with its hard evidences and methodological advantages

The discipline of archaeology studies human cultures and past. Through recovery and interpretation of architectures, artefacts, bio facts, and landscapes, archaeology seeks to a) determine the chronology of human development, b) unearth the cultural history of various human settlements, c) and substantiate or fill the lacunae of history with material evidence, and d) understand the processes that underlie the changes taken place in human societies across cultures.

How is archaeology placed?

Archaeology is a part of both history and anthropology. There is much hue and cry over its disciplinary identity given that most historians and anthropologists consider archaeology to be an addendum. However, of late archaeology has proven itself to be indispensable to the writing of any kind of tracts of our distant past.

With something as little as broken bits of pottery, or carvings, archaeological analyses can turn the pages of history upside down. Excavation exercises have unearthed civilizations and recuperated cities. Histories have been written and rewritten. No other discipline deals with material evidence. No other discipline has the reach archaeology does.

We can explore into the lives of aboriginal slaves or wonder at the inhabitants of the Stone Age because hard material evidences about everyday life and hardships have been made available to us by archaeology.

Why is archaeology important?

It has been therefore wrongly deduced that archaeology is subservient to the discipline of history. The deal is the other way round. Archaeology has two of the greatest advantages. It has the unique capability of stretching back to the remotest eras of human existence and drawing the hitherto unknown out of the darkness of time. Secondly, archaeology deals in tangible relics and therefore it can claim credibility that no other human sciences can. What this means is that archaeology’s efforts can cast much needed light upon present day’s issues with identity and possession. By discovering valuable facts in terms of land, bones and artefacts it can help put issues of retention or restitution of land rights of indigenous or minority groups in perspective.

Archaeology’s value therefore remains untouchable. Even in the field of anthropology, it has emerged from the shadows of a mother discipline. Anthropology being the study of past and present human societies, seeks to uncover patterns of meaning as they exist in the present by broadly interpreting sources, and mostly archaeological finds. Anthropology by itself will be restricted to the recent and immediate past of cultures, but archaeology’s ability to look at long term change and come out with broader generalisations about why certain cultures and groups changed or perished over time.

The origin of archaeology

Moreover the two disciplines emerged out of colonialism. Exercises that necessarily focused on the non-West, or in lay terms, ‘exotic’ cultures and ‘natives.’ A team of anthropologists would just go off somewhere and study ‘primitive’ cultures in their quest to know the Other. It’s only recently that this otherisation and exoticisation of other cultures through discourses of academic disciplines have come under the scanner and research (especially the white western academe) and has become more reflective.

The role of archaeology

The role of archaeology here becomes crucial. Archaeology can contribute immensely by revealing cultural ways and artefacts that can help in identification of historical incorrect views and understandings.

Archaeology therefore becomes necessary to forge points of unity and points of diversity in varied cultures and civilizations. It helps in discovering not only the ‘other’ but also rediscovering our own selves.

Losing an archaeological site or artefact is therefore akin to losing stories that cannot be retold. If the past needs to be preserved archaeology needs to be treated as a valuable discipline bringing to the fore buried pasts and misconstrued stories.