How did archaeology start as a field of discipline?

Question

How did archaeology start as a field of discipline?

Answer 1

All the other answers are correct but the most interesting part of archaeology's history is that it first began as old rich men collecting things from their travels and from more adventurous men's travels (like Marco Polo). From these collections of relics came the decided study and classification of them as well as the realization that these items tell a story about a society's history and the history of humankind in general. Of course, when this was happening, the only "real" history people were interested in was that of the Roman civilization, it having given birth to all European nations and they considering themselves the world's most "civilized" and advanced. So, the study of artifacts first occured on populations and in territories where people figured their ancestry came from. Only later on did scholars get interested in the history of other "savage" cultures. And looting and collecting continues today...permanently destroying our ability to learn from these materials as they are ripped from their contexts and shelved on the desks of billionaires around the world. Today, this is a HUGE problem for archaeologists in the field. The value of the things they study is tremendous on the black market and they can barely hang on to them in the field long enough to get any information out of them that is useful to the study of man and past civilizations.

Answer 2

Archaeology basically means an interest in antiquities which took different directions in different countries as a field discipline. For instance in Britain, archaeology is actually a  field discipline adjoined with the history department. So if you went to college in Britain you would be basically majoring in history. While in America , archaeology developed as a branch of anthropology. So at college you would major in anthropology with an emphasis on archaeology.

I took several archaeology classes in college and majored in physical anthropology.

Answer 3

The field of archaeology as we know it today has its roots in the 18th century, starting with Thomas Jefferson, who excavated Native American burial mounds.  The British infatuation with antiquities was less about how people lived than it was about gathering treasures - ancient artifacts, precious jewels and metals.  With Darwin's evolutionary theory, archaeology developed an interest in understanding how societies formed, and a popular early paradigm (social evolution) assumed that civilization evolved from hunter/gatherers, into agrarian, and finally industrial and post-industrial civilizations.  Lewis Henry Morgan and Herbert Spencer were two of the most prominent proponents of this view.

Answer 4

It started nearly 500 years ago as an interest to the different kinds of objects.

1533- King Henry VIII, hired first "archaeologist" as antiquities clerk.

1612- First "archaeological" excavation at Rome by Howard.

1690- First Paleolithic artifact found in London. It was a biface.

1718- First NGO about history: Society of Antiquaries (London).

1738- Excavations at Pompeii and Herculaneum.

1744- First excavations in northern Europe: Zealand tumulus in Denmark.

1759- British Museum founded.

1784- First excavations in north America: President Jefferson excavated Monticello.

1797- First correlation between Paleolithic stone tools and animal bones.  

1799- Rosetta Stone discovered.

1817- First systematic exhibition: Thompsen arranged Danish museum according to his "three age system" which is still in use (Stone, Bronze and Iron ages).

1833- Stratigraphy rules by Lyell about geology.

1839- Discoveries of Mayan cities in central America.

1842- First systematic Paleolithic excavation: Abbeville.

1854- First ziggurat excavation at Mesopotamia: Ur.

1856- Neanderthal man identified.

1859- Darwin published Origin of Species.

1865- First appearance of word "Prehistory" by John Lubbock.

1879- Paleolithic paintings at Altamira Cave discovered.

1884-1908- Excavations by Schilemann (at Tiryns), Vesselovskii (at Maikop), Evans (at Knossos) and Vasic (at Vinca).

1921- Homo erectus fossils found.

1922- Grave of Tutankhamon opened by Carter.

1922- Sumerian civilization to be popularized

1924- Discoveries of first great civilizations in India.

1925- First published synthesis about prehistory by Gordon Childe: The Dawn of European Civilization.

1926- Leakey started researching in eastern Africa.

1948- Braidwood's Jarmo excavations make nature scientists and archaeologists work together.

1949- Radiocarbon (C-14) dating invented and used to date archaeological materials by Libby.

1952- First underwater excavations by Cousteau.

1959- Olduwai finds in Africa.

1974- Chinese terra cota army discovered.

1991- Ice man "Otzi" discovered in Alps.

1994- Chauvet Cave discovered.

Archaeology started as a research for roots of Middle age civilization in the Roman and Greek civilizations. It's the beginning of Classical Archaeology. European researchers started to search the holly places that are written in the Bible. This is the beginning of Near Eastern archaeology. With the Industrial Revolution, geology started to develop and it is the beginning of prehistoric archaeology. With the 20th century, every national state in Europe started to search their roots. So archaeology became more complicated and sponsored by the governments.

Answer 5

I'm not positive, but I think it started with the British.  When they took over Egypt, they found all these sites of antiquities - pyramids, tombs, etc.  It became fashionable for gentlemen of leisure (ie, rich old farts with no jobs) to explore there.  Some had the intellect to start piecing the history of Egypt together into a coherent story spanning hundreds or even thousands of years.