The past is a shared heritage that is valued by different people for different reasons—including scientific, aesthetic, spiritual, social and political, commercial and economic, consumptive and non-consumptive and intrinsic reasons. Archaeology examines the entire range of human experience. It studies the physical remains of the past affected or altered by human activity, especially by studying architecture, artifacts, biofacts, cultural landscapes, eco-facts, material culture, etc. The main methods used in this field are excavation, remote sensing, drones, computational archaeology, etc. This vast field also has many sub-branches such as archaeometry, ethnoarchaeology, historical archaeology, cultural resources management and experimental archaeology. Theory and practice in archaeology are based in part on concepts about culture and the most ideal ways to study past human behavior.
Within the context of these guidelines, a number of general concepts have been identified as being vital to understanding the archaeological past and its wise use. For educators, this information can be valuable in presenting the perspective from which archaeologists and associated researchers work. Incorporating the following ideas into teaching strategies or resource materials provides a basis for student comprehension of archaeological principals. This book revolves around the fundamental and essential concepts of archaeology. It explores all the important aspects of this field in the present day scenario. Coherent flow of topics, student-friendly language and extensive use of examples make this book an invaluable source of knowledge in the field of archaeology.
Robbie Martindale obtained his Ph.D. in Cultural Anthropology from Public University of Wellington. He is a renowned lecturer of undergraduate programs and travels extensively for educating students across the globe. He has wide-ranging areas of academic and research interests, which include linguistic anthropology, physical anthropology and social anthropology. He has written several papers on artifact analysis, human ethology and memetics. Martindale is also a well-published author of academic textbooks.
