What Tools do Archaeologists Use
For people interested in archaeology, the information about what tools do archaeologists use would prove to be helpful. Archaeology is all about discovering facts about past human culture to gain insight into the practices they followed; their architecture and culture in general...
A science in which human culture is studied through the recovery of artifacts, fossils, architecture, biofacts, etc. to carry out further research is known as archaeology. The excavated items are studied after documenting them properly. The analysis and interpretation of artifacts, environmental data, material culture, etc. form important steps in further research. Since excavation forms an important part of archaeological studies, it is necessary to have knowledge about what kind of tools do archaeologists use in these excavations. Read more on different types of archaeology.
What Tools Do Archaeologists Use?
Excavation by archaeologists can be carried out in soft or hard soils. In few cases, they may even have to go underwater for excavations. Therefore, many different tools are required by them, for the different locations and different types of excavations. The archaeologists tool kit may contain two types of equipment, commonly used field site tools and those used by specialists. Let us find out what tools archaeologists use in recovering artifacts.
Field Site Tools
Field site equipment include digging tools, recording apparatus and safety kit. Digging tools help in breaking the soil crust and uncovering artifacts. Here is a list of the various tools used by archaeologists.
•Mattock: It is a digging tool similar to the pickaxe. The mattock is used to break hard ground and make the process of digging easy. The blade and handle of the mattock are perpendicular to each other. The blade is broad and resembles a chisel.
•Marshalltown Trowels: These trowels are commonly used in the United States. They have a sturdy body and flat blade which can be sharpened.
•Plains Trowel: This kind of trowel facilitates working in tight/awkward corners and in keeping the lines straight.
•Shovels: Shovels are of two types, i.e. round-ended and flat-ended.
•Coal Scoop: This is another field site tool used in collecting and carrying soil to the screeners. Archaeologists find this tool particularly useful when they have to deal with square holes.
•Total Station Transit: This tool is used to prepare a map of a particular archaeological site. The elements/details presented in such maps include surface topography of the site, different features of that area, positioning of the units engaged in excavation, and the relative location of artifacts.
•Bucket Auger: It is a handy tool that is used in exploration of buried sites. The need of using bucket auger arises in excavations of floodplain situations. The tool can be extended up to the length of 7 meters.
•Shaker Screen: The soil which is excavated by means of digging tools is sifted through shaker screens. This equipment has a ¼ inch mesh which helps in recovering artifacts that go unnoticed during excavation.
•Dust Pan: It is a simple tool used in taking excavated soil away from archaeological sites in a neat way.
Tools Used by Specialists
The archaeological tools mentioned below are mostly used in a laboratory environment. The information about what tools do archaeologists use in laboratories is presented below.
•Flotation Device: The flotation device is used to separate smaller and larger artifacts by the method of light and heavy fraction. Soil samples which contain artifacts are kept in metal baskets and washed by gentle streams of water. Light artifacts (for eg., seeds) float at the top, while the heavier objects sink down.
•Equipment for Analysis: Simple tools like calipers and cotton gloves are needed to carry out the analysis of artifact fragments. Gloves serve the purpose of preventing cross-contamination.
•Nested Graduated Screens: Nested graduated screen are used for size-grading. In the process of size-grading, the percentage of artifacts falling in different size-ranges are found out. Nested graduated screens used for this purpose have small mesh openings at the bottom and larger ones at the top.
•Weighing and Measuring: The artifacts obtained in excavations are carefully analyzed by weighing and measuring them. Different types of scales are used for finding out correct measurements.
Famous Archaeologists
Archaeology is the study of the remains of ancient cultures and civilizations. Take a look at the well-known names in this field in this list of famous archaeologists.
Archaeology is the study of human cultures and ancient art and architecture. It deals with the study of artifacts, environmental data and landscapes as also the discovery of ancient civilizations. Let us look at some of the well-known names in the field of archaeology.
Famous Archaeologists
Howard Carter: Born on May 9, 1874, in Kensington, Howard Carter began the study of paintings and inscriptions from an early age of 17. After working on the excavation of Beni Hasan, he sought guidance from William Flinders Petrie, an English Egyptologist. Carter is famous for excavating the remains of the tomb of Queen Hatshepsut. After retiring from archaeology, he became a collector. He died of lymphoma in 1939.
Boyd Wettlaufer: He is regarded as the Father of Saskatchewan Archaeology. His archaeological work in western Canada brought about the discovery of the Northern Plains First Nations people. He is the discoverer of the Belly River meteorite. He was one of the pioneering Canadian archaeologists who used the radiocarbon dating method to date or calculate the age of excavated materials.
John Bryan Ward-Perkins: Born in 1912 in the United Kingdom, John Bryan Ward-Perkins was a student of the Winchester School and New College in Oxford, from where he graduated in 1934. In pursuit of archaeology, he toured to France and Great Britain. He explored the historic region of Tripolitania and its Roman ruins, when he was with the British Royal Artillery in North Africa, during the Second World War. He was always interested in pieces of ancient art and city topography. He introduced the technique of field surveys to access land patterns.
Giacomo Boni: Born on April 25, 1859, Giacomo Boni grew up to become a famous Italian archaeologist. After studying architecture at the Academy of Fine Arts in his hometown, he began archaeological work in the Forum Romanum in Rome. He was later a student of the Accademia di Belle Arti, an art academy in Florence, Italy. The discovery of the Iron Age Necropolis, the Lapis Niger and the Regia were some of his contributions to archaeology.
Emil Haury: Born on May 2, 1904, Emil Haury went on to become an important name in the field of archaeology. After graduating from high school in 1923, he attended the University of Arizona. He earned a doctorate from the Harvard University. He is best known for his work at Snaketown, a Hohokam site in Arizona.
Glynn Isaac: He was a South African archaeologist and one of the most eminent figures in the field of archaeology. He earned a degree from the University of Cape Town and later a PhD from Peterhouse, Cambridge. He died at a fairly early age of 47.
Rakhaldas Bandyopadhyay: No discussion of archaeology can end, without the mention of the discovery of Mohenjo-daro and Harappa civilizations by Rakhaldas Bandopadhyay, an Indian historian. He was born on April 12, 1885. He graduated from the Presidency College in Kolkata and earned a Master’s degree from the Calcutta University in India. His discovery of Mohenjo-daro, led to the knowledge of the Harappa culture of 3000 BC.
This was a glimpse of some of the prominent names in archaeology that made a mark in history. It was due to their work that we could gain knowledge about life in the ancient times.
For people interested in archaeology, the information about what tools do archaeologists use would prove to be helpful. Archaeology is all about discovering facts about past human culture to gain insight into the practices they followed; their architecture and culture in general...
A science in which human culture is studied through the recovery of artifacts, fossils, architecture, biofacts, etc. to carry out further research is known as archaeology. The excavated items are studied after documenting them properly. The analysis and interpretation of artifacts, environmental data, material culture, etc. form important steps in further research. Since excavation forms an important part of archaeological studies, it is necessary to have knowledge about what kind of tools do archaeologists use in these excavations. Read more on different types of archaeology.
What Tools Do Archaeologists Use?
Excavation by archaeologists can be carried out in soft or hard soils. In few cases, they may even have to go underwater for excavations. Therefore, many different tools are required by them, for the different locations and different types of excavations. The archaeologists tool kit may contain two types of equipment, commonly used field site tools and those used by specialists. Let us find out what tools archaeologists use in recovering artifacts.
Field Site Tools
Field site equipment include digging tools, recording apparatus and safety kit. Digging tools help in breaking the soil crust and uncovering artifacts. Here is a list of the various tools used by archaeologists.
•Mattock: It is a digging tool similar to the pickaxe. The mattock is used to break hard ground and make the process of digging easy. The blade and handle of the mattock are perpendicular to each other. The blade is broad and resembles a chisel.
•Marshalltown Trowels: These trowels are commonly used in the United States. They have a sturdy body and flat blade which can be sharpened.
•Plains Trowel: This kind of trowel facilitates working in tight/awkward corners and in keeping the lines straight.
•Shovels: Shovels are of two types, i.e. round-ended and flat-ended.
•Coal Scoop: This is another field site tool used in collecting and carrying soil to the screeners. Archaeologists find this tool particularly useful when they have to deal with square holes.
•Total Station Transit: This tool is used to prepare a map of a particular archaeological site. The elements/details presented in such maps include surface topography of the site, different features of that area, positioning of the units engaged in excavation, and the relative location of artifacts.
•Bucket Auger: It is a handy tool that is used in exploration of buried sites. The need of using bucket auger arises in excavations of floodplain situations. The tool can be extended up to the length of 7 meters.
•Shaker Screen: The soil which is excavated by means of digging tools is sifted through shaker screens. This equipment has a ¼ inch mesh which helps in recovering artifacts that go unnoticed during excavation.
•Dust Pan: It is a simple tool used in taking excavated soil away from archaeological sites in a neat way.
Tools Used by Specialists
The archaeological tools mentioned below are mostly used in a laboratory environment. The information about what tools do archaeologists use in laboratories is presented below.
•Flotation Device: The flotation device is used to separate smaller and larger artifacts by the method of light and heavy fraction. Soil samples which contain artifacts are kept in metal baskets and washed by gentle streams of water. Light artifacts (for eg., seeds) float at the top, while the heavier objects sink down.
•Equipment for Analysis: Simple tools like calipers and cotton gloves are needed to carry out the analysis of artifact fragments. Gloves serve the purpose of preventing cross-contamination.
•Nested Graduated Screens: Nested graduated screen are used for size-grading. In the process of size-grading, the percentage of artifacts falling in different size-ranges are found out. Nested graduated screens used for this purpose have small mesh openings at the bottom and larger ones at the top.
•Weighing and Measuring: The artifacts obtained in excavations are carefully analyzed by weighing and measuring them. Different types of scales are used for finding out correct measurements.
Famous Archaeologists
Archaeology is the study of the remains of ancient cultures and civilizations. Take a look at the well-known names in this field in this list of famous archaeologists.
Archaeology is the study of human cultures and ancient art and architecture. It deals with the study of artifacts, environmental data and landscapes as also the discovery of ancient civilizations. Let us look at some of the well-known names in the field of archaeology.
Famous Archaeologists
Howard Carter: Born on May 9, 1874, in Kensington, Howard Carter began the study of paintings and inscriptions from an early age of 17. After working on the excavation of Beni Hasan, he sought guidance from William Flinders Petrie, an English Egyptologist. Carter is famous for excavating the remains of the tomb of Queen Hatshepsut. After retiring from archaeology, he became a collector. He died of lymphoma in 1939.
Boyd Wettlaufer: He is regarded as the Father of Saskatchewan Archaeology. His archaeological work in western Canada brought about the discovery of the Northern Plains First Nations people. He is the discoverer of the Belly River meteorite. He was one of the pioneering Canadian archaeologists who used the radiocarbon dating method to date or calculate the age of excavated materials.
John Bryan Ward-Perkins: Born in 1912 in the United Kingdom, John Bryan Ward-Perkins was a student of the Winchester School and New College in Oxford, from where he graduated in 1934. In pursuit of archaeology, he toured to France and Great Britain. He explored the historic region of Tripolitania and its Roman ruins, when he was with the British Royal Artillery in North Africa, during the Second World War. He was always interested in pieces of ancient art and city topography. He introduced the technique of field surveys to access land patterns.
Giacomo Boni: Born on April 25, 1859, Giacomo Boni grew up to become a famous Italian archaeologist. After studying architecture at the Academy of Fine Arts in his hometown, he began archaeological work in the Forum Romanum in Rome. He was later a student of the Accademia di Belle Arti, an art academy in Florence, Italy. The discovery of the Iron Age Necropolis, the Lapis Niger and the Regia were some of his contributions to archaeology.
Emil Haury: Born on May 2, 1904, Emil Haury went on to become an important name in the field of archaeology. After graduating from high school in 1923, he attended the University of Arizona. He earned a doctorate from the Harvard University. He is best known for his work at Snaketown, a Hohokam site in Arizona.
Glynn Isaac: He was a South African archaeologist and one of the most eminent figures in the field of archaeology. He earned a degree from the University of Cape Town and later a PhD from Peterhouse, Cambridge. He died at a fairly early age of 47.
Rakhaldas Bandyopadhyay: No discussion of archaeology can end, without the mention of the discovery of Mohenjo-daro and Harappa civilizations by Rakhaldas Bandopadhyay, an Indian historian. He was born on April 12, 1885. He graduated from the Presidency College in Kolkata and earned a Master’s degree from the Calcutta University in India. His discovery of Mohenjo-daro, led to the knowledge of the Harappa culture of 3000 BC.
This was a glimpse of some of the prominent names in archaeology that made a mark in history. It was due to their work that we could gain knowledge about life in the ancient times.
