By Cynthia Steijn

ARCHAEOLOGY

What is Archaeology?

Archaeology is the study of the past by digging up fossils and artifacts and then studying them.

Fossils: fossils are the remains of human bodies, animals and plantsArtifacts: artifacts are human made objects like tools, jewelry ect.

How do Archaeologists work?

Archaeologists do their work by digging in the ground looking for fossils and artifacts. They find the places to dig by looking at maps, documents or sometimes when traces are reported to them.

Two projects that succeed:Tayinat Gate Complex Archaeologists of the university Toronto were working in Turkey to dig on a

place where a castle was found in the 1930’sThey discovered in early August 2011 a stone lion sculpture that was 3000

years old and 1.3 meters high and 1.6 meters in length.Discovery of TroyHeinrich Schliemann is an archaeologist who found the city of Troy. He found

Troy be reading the Iliad and other books that relate to Troy. He was first digging at another place but finally found Troy near the Turkish village of Hisalik.

Dating

An easy way of dating is if it is already on the object that is found.Another easy way is if there’s a written record about it.

There are two major ways of dating.Relative Dating Absolute Dating Relative dating is comparing the age between objects but you don’t know the exact

date. A type of relative dating is Stratigraphy. Stratigraphy dates the object that is found by

how deep in the ground it is. Absolute dating gives an specific age of the object. One of the methods of absolute dating is radiocarbon dating. Radiocarbon dating only

works on finding of humans, animals and plants. Also another method is Potassium-argon. Potassium-argon dating is used for rocks.A method for wood is Dendrochronology which is also absolute dating.They date wood by looking at the rings of the tree.

Importance of the work of Archaeologists

Archaeology is important because it helps historians write about the past because archaeologists help them by finding objects and dating them.

It also helps anthropologists because anthropologists describe people and cultures of how they live and archaeologists help them by giving hints on how objects were used in at the time.

Archaeology is also important because what archaeologists find can help us understand the past better. Knowing the past is needed to know how the future will look like.

Bibliography

• Textbook• Children's Illustrated Encyclopedia • Ways of Dating Objects (Zoodle)• archaeology.about.com• www.sciencedaily.com