That day I was sitting in my veranda and wondering about my origin. Where did I come from, and how my religion developed? Many questions, and the answers were hidden somewhere back in thousands years ago. Following the great peoples’ footsteps is so helpful that a one can invest their life-styles and techniques in the obstacles or problems that they – a one might be facing daily. Civilization is combination of things achieved or erected when a few nations could do such things. Because of the Archeology, I had the chance to learn more about those nations. Archeology, the study of ancient civilization, in my personal point of view, is a useful and helpful way to know the origins of the first human beings, to determine the way of other civilizations lived and how to invest these concepts into our own life.
Archeology is a bit like historiography but the only deference is that the written documents of some civilization and the politic papers are examined by the historians. Archeologists are the ones who dug them up to the historians. In addition to that, archeology has a good relationship with Anthropology. Anthropology couldn’t work properly, if there is no base for its study. Archeology is Anthropology’s base, for it studies human fossils that are 4.5 or 3.5 million years old. Archeologists examined those fossils and study their behavior and their way of treating each other. Because life was hard at that time, people were labeled into kinds, for instance the strong and weak. The strong people were the most popular and famous, whereas the weeks were neglected and omitted. In fact, Romans have their competitions – battle-death where people have to fight against each other. The fighters, who survived, will gain respect and fear among their fellow-Romans, as many archeologist studied. That shows us how Romans managed their victories on the occupied territories.
Archeology is so important, for it can tells the origin and history of deferent kinds of humans and their ancestors who lived about 3.5 million years ago. The earliest archeological sites included these at Hadar, Ethiopia; Olduvai Gorge and Laetoli, Tanzania; Ease Turkana, Kenya; and many sites in East Africa. These sites contain evidence of the first appearance of the early humans. In addition, Laetoli even reveals footprints of the first humans of 3.6 million years ago. As a matter of fact, it shows the earliest use of simple tools: hammers, sickles and spears. Moreover, Laetoli shows an evidence of how people spread out of Africa into Asia 1.8 million years ago, and Europe 900.000 years ago. In addition to that, it shows how their beliefs were developed, where many fairy tales were emphasized and existed.
As much as Archeology is helpful for ancient civilization as much as it inspires people to apply it in modern life. Present-day societies can learn much from their forefathers. Applied Archeology refers to archeological research that is designed to have practical and educational importance for modern societies. In the hills of Bolivia and Peru, landfills, for instance, archeologists reconstructed systems of elevated field that once was used for the ancient farmers and allowed them to grow corps and potatoes without losing them from frost. Now, farmers at that region have learned to use the same technique with an outstanding success. Furthermore, since the 1960s, many urban archeologists have dug deep under the big cities like London, Paris and New York City, to reveal what lies underneath their streets and alleys and uncover the earlier cities. The excavations not only helped the archeologists to know more information about the earlier urban life, but also provided important information for city planning, for instance, the origin of social classes and also the idea of the infrastructures such as sewage systems.
In summation, Historiography, Anthropology and Archeology are connected. As we have seen, archeologists are digging things up and presenting them to historiogists, and those examine the things they have got and explain – write them down for anthropologists. How amazing this world is. I didn’t know that there is the science-cycle just like the life-cycle. An noted before, Archeology is so important to know how the past humans lived or how behaved. Seemingly, those things had developed through the old past to the present. This particular science is like a diagram that draws pictures of other people created, invented and achieved their future – what we call it “present!”