Mark Vincent E.

Colambo November 26, 2019

Archaeo 201

The Basis of Honoring the Past and Shaping the Future

By Mark Vincent E. Colambo

Archaeology is an empirical discipline that focuses on the study of past events and
phenomenon through the systematic analysis of the material remains left by the people. Most of
the findings and discoveries during the early phase of this discipline were results of “lucky
accidents”. An example is the rosetta stone that was accidentally discovered by one of Napoleon
Bonaparte’s officer. It was not until the 19 th century that the discipline of archaeology was truly
established. It was during that time that archaeology became a systematic and scientific study.
Today, archaeologists do not simply go to the field and wander about in hopes of chancing upon
some important finds. They carefully follow a systematic research method to accomplish a
specific objective.
In addition, Gibbon (2014) argued that archaeology is an empirical study. A common
misconception about the discipline is that archaeologists simply make observations. Gibbon
stated that archaeology carefully follows a research cycle that ranges from theory building to
empirical interpretations. He added that its distinguishing characteristic is that it justifies
knowledge claim by the systematic analysis of materials.
Moreover, according to Grant, Gorin and Fleming (2001), archaeologists follow a logical
process to acquire and interpret data. They usually follow a deductive type of research; starting
from a hypothesis to collecting data that support and disprove a hypothesis. For an instance, an
archaeologist may have a hypothesis that a former community is a fishing community. To test
this, the archaeologist would conduct excavations in the area to look for fish bones indicating
that the former community was harvesting them. This process is a scientific process.
Furthermore, Sharer and Ashmore (2009) supported the argument that archaeology is a
systematic study by laying a general model of archaeological research design. According to
them, there are various stages of archaeological research. It starts with the formulation of the
hypothesis to be tested through the fieldworks and with the clearing of all permits required in
implementing a fieldwork. It is then followed by data acquisition methods through
reconnaissance, survey and excavation. After that, data analysis will be employed to shed light
on the research problem or to test the hypothesis stated at the beginning and lastly is the
dissemination of the research result. They added that the efforts, findings and experience of
archaeologist are lost unless the results of the research are disseminated to colleagues in the field.
But archaeology doesn’t follow a universal linear research approach. Different social
aspects were sometimes incorporated to the archaeological method. For an instance, Hodder
(1992) stated that archaeologists increasingly use a battery of scientific techniques to deal with
the material side of this duality. They tried to integrate aspects like natural science, cultural
issues, religion, gender issues and even philosophy to the discipline.
In conclusion, archaeology is a unique scientific study. It follows a series of research
steps but is not contained in one linear research approach. It is a “free discipline” that studies
past culture through a systematic analysis of the material culture.

References:
Ashmore, W., & Sharer, R. J. (2009). Discovering the Past: A Brief introduction to Archaeology. New
York: Mc-Grawhill.

Gibbon, G. (2014). Critically Reading the Theory and Methods in Archaeology. Maryland: Altamira
Press.

Grant, J., Gorin, S., & Fleming, N. (2001). The Archaeology Course Book. New York: Routledge.

Hodder, I. (1992). Theory and Practice in Archaeology. New York: Routledge.