Archaeology as an Auxiliary Science to American History

The importance of archaeology in ethnohistorical studies has been convincingly demonstrated by the work of the Amerind Foundation at contact sites in Arizona and New Mexico. However, the acceptance of archaeology as an auxiliary science to American history depends not just upon the archaeologists but on the historians themselves. One of the primary aims of archaeology is to reconstruct conjecturally not only the buildings and industries and arts of bygone time but also the way of life of the builders of those buildings and the practicers of those arts. Archaeology may be able to verify or confirm a questionable or uncertain historical fact, as, for example, the exact location of Fort Raleigh, and the 1585 English settlement in North Carolina. A historian writing on the Virginia Declaration of Rights will gain a better appreciation of his subject by visiting Colonial Williamsburg. Actually, outstanding historians are already championing the cause of archaeology as an important historical tool

Archaeology · Anthropology: Ethics, History, Culture · History

• The Historical Archaeology of Native Americans

  Patricia E Rubertone•Annual Review of Anthropology•2000

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