Archeology and History of the People - Essay Example

Archeology and History of the People Historical Archeology is one area that has suffered from great misperception due to lack of understanding of its necessity in the society. It plays a crucial role in writing history of the people, and one could say that without archeology history cannot exists. Contrary to people’s beliefs, archeologists have passion to study the past through investigation of human life way back from the origins to the modern times, rather than exploring fanciful images. Therefore, historical archeology presents methods, concepts and fundamental principles regarding history of human to provide information on their culture and different aspects of history. Hence, archeology has the capability of bringing out the history of a particular culture and their relationship to past events such as exploitation, slavery and even colonization. This is essay is a reflection on how archeology helps to write history of people from different cultural background and with various past experiences. Robert Painter, an archeologist once said that ‘history is written by winners’. History is written by winners mean that whoever emerges as the victor is the one who determines the history, its course, how it is written and what is written (Orser 98). As a result, this creates a history that is written on one perspective or point of view. The side which wins gets to decide the kind of information that comes out as history, for example, they might have used unorthodox to win whether it is war or anything else, but they will not let this get out to the people. Furthermore, they are the ones who make the books and print the papers, thus, they provide information to be written compile and print it for people to read. Evidently, historical stories are gotten from people who win, for example, in America; the War of Independence was won against the British by George Washington among others who were declared heroes. If the tables were turned and it is the British who had won, then the history would have changed to a rebellion and George Bush labeled a traitor. Thanks to archeology, this gap caused by uncertainty on the credibility of the people who tell history has been successfully filled. Archeology provides data and evidence that gives a unique perspective on history of human culture and other aspects, which has greatly contributed to a clear understanding of recent and ancient past. Archeology not only explores when and where humans lived, but also how and why they lived, which involves examination of cultures overtime through changes and patterns from when and how people came to inhabit a particular place, for instance, America. Archeology also explores and reveals information about origins of complex societies and other activities such as agriculture (Orser 102). History primarily relies on written documents and records to interpret great events, lives, which do not provide exclusive and conclusive information about history and culture of a people. On the other hand, archeology allows people to delve way back into the period before existence of written languages, and have a glimpse of everyday lives of these people through analysis of the tools they made and things they left behind. Similarly, archeology helps in understanding regions inhabited by people because it covers geographical regions, as well as all times periods. For example, through archeology, people have been able to understand the history and concepts of important topics such as Egyptian religion, colonial events in Jamestown Virginia, origins of agriculture in Near East, lives of Africans enslaved in North America, early Mediterranean trade routes and so on. Moreover archeology informs people about lives of families, individuals and even communities which would otherwise remain invisible to the current generation. Historical archeology, for instance, explores cultures that existed thousands of years ago or a period of recorded history in Old World, as well as a number of years ago in the Americas. As the primary source of information of mans cultural evolution for long periods in the prehistoric times, archeology provides sustained efforts that has enabled tracing of man’s antiquity on the planet several years ago. This is achieved by systematic study of fossils and tools embedded in terraces; through which humans can be able to learn the nature of mans implements of offence and defence, habitat, way of life and tool techniques. As such, archeology has achieved reconstruction of the Stone Age man’s environment, and also his adaptations and responses to the climate. For example, archeology has achieved reconstruction of proto-historic cultures of India, pushing back Indian Civilization from the Vedic period to about 3000B.C (Orser 105). For instance, Indus Valley Civilization discovery puts the community on par with other famous ancient communities such as Sumerian and Egyptian civilizations. Archeology not only provides primary source of information on historical cultures of people, but also supplementary source of information. Evidently, it fills the gaps created by uncertainty found in the written documents and records about historical period. For example, it provides valuable information about Ikshvaku dynasty, which had scrappy information before archeology came in. Likewise, archeology has revealed more information through excavations at Satanikota, Vijayapuri and Kaveripattanam, which show trade contacts with Romans during the early periods of Christian era. Hence, archeology provides a means of verifying information provided by the written records about history of people. A good example of the imperative role played by archeology in determining history of the people who were enslaved or exploited is the history of rising racism and nationalism in Europe. During this period, ethnicity rose as a concrete factor in shaping culture and history of the people. Consequently, nationalistic sentiments were adopted with emphasize on solidarity within nations following social unrest that was an impact of industrialization. Thus, it led to blaming neighbor states, and consequently, seeing Europe in different nationalities such as Germans, French and English. The people believed that the differences in biological make up led to display of particular behavior determined racial differences rather than economic or social factors. As a result, culture-historical archeology was utilized in supporting political causes and nationalistic ideas. This is because people used archeological interpretations to underline and celebrate the ancient and prehistoric past of the ancestors; thus, prove cultural and ethnic link to them. As such French claimed to be descendants of Gauls, English, Anglo-Saxons and Irish, Celts. Similarly, the focus on ethnicity and racism led to the establishment of nationalistic movements such as the Nazi Party. Nazis claimed racial supremacy and sought to unify all communities who were German speakers under one political state. The behavior of the Nazis or Pre-historic Germans that followed saw great mistreatment and enslavement of the Jewish. Therefore, to understand exploitation and mistreatment of the Jewish under Nazi rule, it is essential; to explore the role archeology played in these events, as well as in writing the history. Historical archeology examines all elements of cultures that are important in understanding a particular group of people. Historical archeologists combine data and excavations with documents provided by historians to do their research on the way of life and cultural history of particular regions. For example, archeological findings and historical records reveals relations among Native Americans and settlers in the Colonial America, medieval villages in England, factories of Industrial Revolution in North America and Europe, religious missions in Spain among others. Another example is the culture created by Alfred Kidder, an American archeologist, who created Pecos Pueblo culture history in New Mexico. He excavated human occupations in the form of defined layers of fossils and artifacts. Apart from this, he collected pottery of people who lived at the place, and also passed on through various generations of inhabitants of pueblo (Orser 110). This enabled him to create a continuous evidence of pottery styles over a period of about 2000 years. The change in pottery style was associated to change in culture as seen with change of clothing styles in the current society. These pottery styles also revealed differences among cultures and the cultural ties of the inhabitants of that particular place. No doubt history plays a crucial role in revealing past events and cultural life. However, its credibility is questioned because it relies primarily on written records and narration from the winners, who might be bias. Thus, historical archeology plays a more important role in determining historical culture of people, patterns of living and other important past events. This is because it relies on excavation of fossils and ancient tools, which give evidence and information on a particular culture. As such, archeology helps in writing history of different communities and societies. References Orser, Charles Jr. Historical Archaeology. Second edition. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 2004. Read More