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Archaeology Today
As the technology available to archaeologists improves, our understanding of the past becomes clearer. Using modern techniques, experts are now able to determine the nature and age of artefacts with greater accuracy. Artefacts, buildings and even whole villages have been recreated to give us an insight into what it was like to live hundreds, or even thousands, of years ago. With the help of skull reconstructions and 3D computer imagery, we can even look into the faces of our ancestors.
Early archaeologists were not interested in skeletons, but forensic archaeology has opened up a new and fascinating line of investigation. By examining human bones, osteo-archaeologists can determine how muscular a person was and so what type of work they may have done. Scientists can identify which diseases affected a person in life, what they died from and in some cases even what they ate for their last meal.
Extracting samples of DNA from the remains of people who died hundreds of years ago enables us to trace our ancestors. Archaeologists have taken DNA samples from the remains of Vikings who invaded Britain in the 8th and 9th centuries and, by comparing it to modern DNA, were able to determine the extent of Viking ancestry in the UK. DNA testing was also used to identify the bodies of Tsar Nicholas II and his family, who were murdered by the Bolsheviks in 1918.
Every living thing contains carbon and when it dies, this carbon starts to deteriorate. Through radiocarbon dating, scientists are able to establish how old a person, animal or object containing organic matter is, by determining how far the carbon content has decayed.
Dendrochronology is used to measure the age of wood, by counting the number of growth rings. By understanding how rates of growth differ in various climates and conditions, experts can determine the age of the wood and when it was felled. Assuming the tree was used almost immediately for the construction of a house or boat, for example, experts can determine when it was built.
Aerial archaeology offers a bird’s eye view, often highlighting formations like the outlines of burial mounds, ancient walls and roads, which are invisible at ground level. Remote sensing gives archaeologists the chance to examine sites before excavation even begins: Geophysics is a new and exciting way of seeing what lies beneath the ground; magnetometry and resistivity are used to scan and plot buried walls, ditches and trenches. This gives archaeologists a guide for where to start digging and can uncover sites of interest that are not visible to the naked eye.
Combining the knowledge obtained from written texts with archaeological finds can solve mysteries and confound established theories. Recent studies in Egypt have uncovered evidence that the plague, or Black Death, may have originated here over 3,000 years ago and not in Asia, as previously thought. Medical texts from this period describe plague-like symptoms and archaeologists have recently found evidence of plague carrying fleas that infested the ancient Egyptians’ domestic animals.
Photos: DCI Press Web
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