The Why, What, and Who of Historical Archaeology

The distinguished archaeologist Jaquetta Hawkes has written that archaeology gives a people a “sense of having roots,” and this is indisputably true. It is why in Europe thousands of people from every walk of life spend their vacations working on their countries’ archaeological sites. Expeditions are sponsored by universities, sites are protected by federal and state agencies, and across the land societies of amateur archaeologists devote themselves to the study of the American Indian. Historical archaeological studies have been undertaken in the United States for at least thirty-five years, but until the 1950’s they were bedeviled by the dictum that any “qualified” archaeologist is the right archaeologist to dig on historical sites. Archaeology involves digging in the ground for something informative and therefore valuable. The only skill that is peculiar to the archaeologist is his ability to study the artifacts in their relationship to the ground

Archaeology · Geography · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies · Historical and Cultural Archaeology Studies · History

• Developing a new theoretical model for West African maritime archaeology

  Megan Crutcher, M Gueye et al.•Critical African Studies•2025

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