Archaeology is partly the discovery of treasures of the past, partly the work of the scientific analyst, partly the exercise of the creative imagination. Do you agree or disagree?

Archaeology is an ancient science, so it has undergone a lot of changes. Nowadays it is modern as any science should be these days. Different tools are used to study humanity’s history, from scientific research to analysist’s creativity. So I agree that it is versatile, not just a digging it was a few centuries ago. First of all, the basis of archaeology is surely an exploration of new artefacts as without it there will be nothing to examine. Part of the archaeologist’s work is travelling around the globe to discover new mysteries of the history of humankind. When the researchers arrive to the destination they spend years excavating skulls and bones. So it is indeed a huge part of archaeological exploration. Secondly, once the excavating process is finally done, all the relics should be studied in the laboratory. The main goal here is to identify to which period the finding belongs. Scientists use various methods to do it, from X-ray to radiocarbon dating. Then they do an extended description on the artefact and test hypotheses about its past. It is a challenging mental activity, so scientific research is an important part of archaeology. To those who believe archaeological analysis ends on these two steps and is just a scientific routine, I’d like to point out that it is often hard to see the whole picture during analysis, as scholars have to deal with very little information, so it is where human’s imagination takes over. All in all, archaeology is a diverse science. I strongly agree with the idea that it includes various skills, from a strong mind to creativity.