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Modern archaeology

This article is about archaeological practices in the modern era. For the archaeological investigation of the historic past, see Historical archaeology. For the archaeological investigation of 20th- and 21st-century remains, see Contemporary archaeology.
Mortimer Wheeler pioneered a system of excavation in the early 20th century. Pictured are his excavations at Maiden Castle, Dorset, in October 1937.

Modern archaeology is the discipline of archaeology which contributes to excavations.[1][clarification needed]

Johann Joachim Winckelmann was one of the founders of scientific archaeology and first applied the categories of style on a large, systematic basis to the history of art.[2] He was "the prophet and founding hero of modern archaeology".[3] The next major figure in the development of archaeology was Mortimer Wheeler, whose highly disciplined approach to excavation and systematic coverage in the 1920s and 1930s brought the science into the modern era.[4] Wheeler developed the grid system of excavation, which was further improved on by his student Kathleen Kenyon.[5][6] The two constant themes in their attempts to improve archaeological excavation were first, to maintain strict stratigraphic control while excavating (for this purpose, the baulks between trenches served to retain a record of the strata that had been dug through), and second, to publish a record of the excavation promptly and in a form that would tell the story of the site to the intelligent reader.

Bomb damage during the Second World War and subsequent rebuilding gave archaeologists the opportunity to meaningfully examine inhabited cities for the first time.[7] Bombed sites provided windows onto the development of European cities whose pasts had been buried beneath working buildings.[8] Urban archaeology necessitated a new approach as centuries of human occupation had created deep layers of stratigraphy that could often only be seen through the keyholes of individual building plots. In Britain, post-war archaeologists such as W. F. Grimes and Martin Biddle took the initiative in studying this previously unexamined area and developed the archaeological methods now employed in much cultural resource management and rescue archaeology.[9]

Archaeology increasingly became a professional activity during the first half of the 20th century. Although the bulk of an excavation's workforce would still consist of volunteers, it would normally be led by a professional. It was now possible to study archaeology as a subject in universities and other schools, and by the end of the 20th century nearly all professional archaeologists, at least in developed countries, were graduates of such programs.

  1. ^ CNA News Service (3 October 2018). "Modern archaeology 'much more than excavations'". Cyprus Mail. Retrieved 3 October 2018.
  2. ^ Robinson, Walter (February 1995). "Introduction". Instant Art History. Random House Publishing Group. p. 240. ISBN 0-449-90698-1. The father of official art history was a German named Johann Joachim Winckelmann (1717–68).
  3. ^ Boorstin, Daniel J. (1983). The Discoverers. New York: Random House. p. 584. ISBN 978-0-394-72625-0.
  4. ^ Stout, Adam (2008). Creating Prehistory: Druids, Ley Hunters and Archaeologists in Pre-War Britain. Malden and Oxford: Blackwell. p. 208. ISBN 978-1-4051-5505-2.
  5. ^ Hawkes, Jacquetta (1982). Mortimer Wheeler: Adventurer in Archaeology. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson. pp. 149–151, 158–159. ISBN 978-0-297-78056-4.
  6. ^ Carr, Lydia C. (2012). Tessa Verney Wheeler: Women and Archaeology Before World War Two. Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 172–175. ISBN 978-0-19-964022-5.
  7. ^ Piggott, Stuart (1977). "Robert Eric Mortimer Wheeler". Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society. 23. The Royal Society: 635. doi:10.1098/rsbm.1977.0023. JSTOR 769628. S2CID 73835587.
  8. ^ Hawkes, Jacquetta (1982). Mortimer Wheeler: Adventurer in Archaeology. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson. pp. 192–194. ISBN 978-0-297-78056-4.
  9. ^ Biddle, Martin; Hudson, Daphne M (1 April 1973). Future of London's Past.

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