ARCHEOLOGY

HOME

One of the main ways scientists find out about early man is by archeology.  Archeology is the study of past human life and culture, by recovering and examining remaining evidence.  Graves remains of old buildings, tools, pottery, and kitchen middens are all types of evidence that archaeologist look for.  Kitchen middens are ancient trash piles that were used in many ancient civilizations.  Archeologists search for these trash piles, because they tell a lot about what the ancient people ate.  They also sometimes give clues about what the people ate with and what they ate out of.          Archeology is a branch of anthropology.  Anthropology is the classification and analysis of human's society, culture, history, and physical traits.  One famous archeological discovery that has to do with early man occurred during 1974 in Hadar Ethiopia in Africa.  It was the discovery of Lucy, a three million year old female Australopithecine skeleton. Don Johanson and Tom Gray discovered Lucy, she was about three  and half feet tall and weighed about fifty pounds.  Other famous archeological discoveries have occurred at many other sites including Olduvi? gorge.      Once archeologists have recovered the artifacts they have several ways of finding out how old what they found is.  One way is radio carbon dating.  This is a scientific method of dating once living things.

The"Digs"

Artifacts Radio Carbon Dating Classifications Hadar, Ethiopia Evidence Olduvi Gorge Lucy Old stone age Grave sites Young technolgy

"I found him.  I found our man."  ---Mary Leakey