Definition Essay on Archaeology

Archaeology can be defined, as the ancient and recent human past thus, the study of human history and prehistory through material remains. Archaeology is a scientific research discipline that delves more into the history of humans, the things they produced, the materials they used, and the material things they discarded. Archaeology is a subfield of the study of all human culture. Archaeology can deal with the four million-year-old antiquated remains of our ancestors. Archaeology is also the ultimate discipline tasked with documenting, reconstructing, and understanding the ancient past as completely as possible, using the tools and theoretical approaches of as many disciplines as possible. Archaeology as a multidisciplinary comparative science has to do with how archaeology is used in balance with the other field of sciences or scientific techniques to research the things humans once produced, used, and discarded to reconstruct past behavior across space and time. Archaeology is termed a science because it also undertakes all the procedures of scientific methods. That's to say, archaeology begins with the locating of the site and analysis of the site by reading more about it. Archaeology also gathers information for its research through the excavation of the sites to know more about what heshe already knows about the sites. After this, archaeologists analyze the artifact and features found to be able to interpret questions like when it was produced, how it was produced, and what it is used for. Moreover, this is what puts archaeology in a science field.

Archaeology is said to be a multidisciplinary comparative science because it uses additional brains from other several sciences before its research can be understood or critically analyzed. Thus, archaeology is at the center of socio-natural sciences. To understand the reason why archaeology is a multidisciplinary comparative science, let us analyze the various types of archaeology or the divest way archaeology can be studied with proof of experimentation of how archaeology operates simultaneously with the other fields of science in the essay below;

Bioarchaeology or Forensic archaeology

This is major research done by an archaeologist. We can briefly down to say biology archaeology (bioarchaeology) or forensic archaeology. As the name dictates for itself, bioarchaeology or forensic archaeology can literally be bridged into two separate fields of science that can independently stand on their own. Forensic science is a specialty or a field where scientists study living organisms including their physical structure, chemical processes, molecular interactions, development, and evolution in the application of science in criminal or civil laws. Forensic scientist gets to collect, preserve and analyze scientific evidence during investigations. Forensic science is also a broader view of science itself. Forensic science can be defined as the use of scientific methods and processes for solving criminal-related issues.

Thus, we term archaeology as a multidisciplinary comparative science because, for someone to confidently call himself or herself a bioarchaeologist or forensic archaeologist, that person has to be knowledgeable enough about what goes into these two broad field of science before he or she can operate as a certified forensic archaeologist or a bioarchaeologist. That is to say, if you want to use archaeological methods, skills, knowledge, and field craft to recover skeletal remains for investigation whether it is to resolve issues relating to a medical problem or a legal problem, you do not rely on the knowledge gain from one aspect of science. Bioarchaeology or forensic archaeology is therefore the study of human remains from archaeological contexts and the investigation and resolution of medico-legal issues associated with the human remains discovered. Thus, the usage of forensic science and archaeology tells more about why archaeology is a multidisciplinary comparative science.

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Zooarchaeology

Zooarchaeology or zoology archaeology is an archaeological practice that serves as a ‘hybrid’ or a share of this and a share of that’ discipline; combining the studies of archaeology and zoology which are the study of the past of human culture and the study of animals respectively. Zooarchaeology (or archaeo-zoology), also known as FAUNAL ANALYSIS is the study of the remains of animals from an archaeological site. Faunal are items left behind by animals when they die. These items include bones, shells, hair, scales, DNA, proteins, and hides.

Zoology itself is a branch of biology that studies the animal kingdom in general and how they interact with their ecosystems. Zoology and archaeology combine to do intensive research about the animal kingdom and their relation to the study of human culture from ancient times to modern times.

What makes archaeology a multidisciplinary comparative science is that to become a certified zooarchaeologist, your ideas on the study of animals and their relation with the environment only are not going to help you that much and you depend on your archaeological ideas only going to make sense. However, these fields of science are used simultaneously to achieve a proper result of zooarchaeology, and that's what makes it a multidisciplinary comparative science.

Archaeobotany

This is also a hybrid discipline like the above that also combines botanical knowledge with archaeological skills, methods, knowledge, and techniques. Archaeology is termed a multidisciplinary comparative science because it mostly uses ideas of botany science simultaneously with that of an archaeological skill to produce a better result in archaeobotany. Thus, you only get to be a good archaeobotanist when you are equally good in the studies of plants, including flowering plants along with their growth, structure, evolution, and uses, and, the study of human history and prehistory through the excavation of sites and the analysis of artifacts and other physical features. Archaeobotany can also be referred to as palaeoethnobotany. Archaeobotany focuses on the study of preserved plant evidence from archaeological sites and the interpretation and reconstruction of human-plant relationships.

In conclusion, we say archaeology is a multidisciplinary comparative science field because it uses archaeology simultaneously with the other major fields of science in its research to accomplish a well-defined result.