What benefits do archeological sites and artifacts offer a culture?

Question

What benefits do archeological sites and artifacts offer a culture?

Answer 1

Many archeological sites have been left relatively undisturbed because of their location within the wilderness area.

Pot sherds, petrified wood flakes and hammer stones, manos and metates (grinding stones), and petroglyphs can be found with a quick eye and careful steps.

All archeological sites and artifacts are protected. Always leave them where you find them.



Pottery is one of the most common archeological artifacts found in the park. Even small pieces give scientists many clues about past cultures.

By looking at the artistic style, type of paint, kind of clay and the material mixed into it, an archeologist may be able to identify the time period and geographical region  in which the pottery was originally made.

Petroglyphs are images, symbols, or designs scratched, pecked, or carved on natural rock surfaces. Most of the rocks are coated with a natural patina called desert or rock varnish. To make these petroglyphs, people  knocked away the dark varnish exposing the lighter rock underneath.

Petroglyphs are found both in high concentrations and alone. Each is unique and intriguing.



We may never know for sure what petroglyphs mean. Whether done for religious purposes, to mark migratory routes or water sources, to commemorate an event, to tell stories, or to keep track of seasons, these images pecked into stone provoke many questions.

Petroglyphs may have significance that can only be explained by the original artist.

Some petroglyphs have been found placed in such strategic locations that an interaction with the sun can be observed. Using light captured through cracks or shadows created by other rocks or geologic features, these types of petroglyphs mark the summer and winter solstices, spring and fall equinoxes, as well as other solar times during the year.

Petrified wood was an important material for stone tools. With the right skills, a piece of agatized wood could be flaked and shaped into a knife, scraper, or projectile point. Hand-sized pieces were also used as hammer stones.

Some archeologists believe that because of the number of archeological sites close to petrified wood deposits, it is an indication of the importance of petrified wood for personal use and as a trade item.

Just like the early inhabitants, modern people began to come to this area for the petrified wood, both to see it and to take it. This part of the park's human history has not been erased from the wilderness area.

All historical sites and artifacts are protected. Always leave them undisturbed and where you find them.

From early explorers and scientists to workers in the Civilian Conservation Corps and the first tourists, evidence of use over the last 50-100 years is apparent in the historical artifacts and features scattered amongst the petrified wood and pot sherds.

What did they think of this wild land? Did they go out into the vastness only for work or did they find enjoyment in the adventure?

Answer 2

Without knowing where you come from you are destined to repeat the same mistakes.

Someone famous once said that. Never a truer word spoken.

Answer 3

A visual collection of history and advancement.

Answer 4

It answers the defining question of who we are.  I am this kind of person because these things happened and it has shaped me into the person I am. I have this name because of events in my parents lives, I have this last name because my ancestors were doing this, I eat these foods because trade hundreds of years ago brought these foods to my area. I have this religion because..., etc.  As information of the past comes to light we know more about how to define ourselves and thus understand ourselves.  Maybe, it adds to our ego.

Answer 5

It provides physical proof of one's history. Show people where they came from and how they became what they are today and it brings in tourist dollars.

Egypt has 5.4 million tourists providing $4.5 billion in revenue. Most of that is in foreign exchange, which helps the balance of payments.

Answer 6

Gives people tangible reminders of past inhabitants of their land, whether ancestral or not.

Offers a sense of mystery and wonder, and - sometimes - an oppurtunity to scientifically answer the questions mystery and wonder generate.

Allows people to understand the history of human modification of environment and environmental effects on human populations.

In some cases, archaeology can give people a sense of national history which is more immediate than what a person reads in books.  This can be both empowering and cautionary. For example, battlefields of the American revolution can remind us of the high cost of freedom, and plantations where slavery occured can remind us of the same, but in a very different way.  

Archaeology plays a part in how cultures look at themselves.  Often, they reflect social values and aspects of history about which a culture feels the need to be directly, hermeneutically reminded.  In addition to the scientific questions archaeology can contribute to, this is probably the most important social function of the field.