What Is Archaeological Anthropology And Its Types?

Archeological Anthropology is analysis and interpretation of culture, soil, artifacts and other materials. It is an attempt to reconstruct the cultural forms of the people and the society living in the past. It is the study which trace the growth and development in time and helps in comprehensively examining it.

Evidence In The Prehistoric Times Were Perishable

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The evidences in the prehistoric times were perishable and tangible. They did not leave any imprints behind them with the help of which it could become easy to understand the culture and behavior of the human beings in that period.

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Anthropology helps us gain information about the living culture, their genesis, cultural development and diversities through time and space. Anthropology would be meaningless without archeology.

Historical documents give detailed history of the last 5,000 years. Often it happens that the appendix which is provided in the history are inadequate to properly prove the evidence and the life form of the people in past.

Difference Between Anthropologists And Archeologists

Investigation Done By Archeologist

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Archeologists used to trace the clues of the smoked walls and caves, unusual variation in soil, pieces of stones and ancient buildings.

They found some skeletons with ornaments which were worn by the humans in the past. They even found some artifacts with imperishable material which do not get rot in spite of being millions of years old.

Investigation Done By Anthropologist

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By excavating human bones, anthropologist can easily find out number, age and the cause of their deaths.

An anthropologist, with the help of biologists, can easily find out the food consumed by the ancient people. The left behind charcoal can help in estimating the time during which they used to live.

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Pottery figurines and some other artworks could help in determining the dresses and the appearance of the people. Grains pressed or the remains of the dinner can help in understanding about agriculture and its factors during that period.

Artifacts, Features & Ecofacts

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Artifacts are the objects which are analyzed by the anthropologists to find out the cultural existence, and other hidden facts.

Features include soil stains which give the details of the storage pits, structure, and fences which existed during that period. 

Whereas ecofacts describe the remains of plants and animals, it helps the archaeologists to understand their diet and subsistence patterns.

Here Are The Four Sub-branches Or Types Of Archaeological Anthropology

1) Prehistoric Archeological Anthropology

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It is the study of prehistoric cultural history since the first appearance of the humans, till the age when they began writing about themselves. It covers origination, evolution, and diffusion of culture and traditions.

2) Text-Aided Archeological Anthropology

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It is commonly known as classical archeology. It basically deals with the reconstruction of various ancient civilization which has developed the art of writing documents.

It makes use of the written documents to bring into account the textual description as a material to study about all those civilizations who are lost in the history.

3) Text Free Archeological Anthropology

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This type includes old and new archeological anthropology. It is concerned with the illiterate people who do not require text materials. They try to find out the evidence by digging out things at the excavation sites.

4) Salvage Archeological Anthropology

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Extra effort is done by the archeologist anthropologist in order to find the maximum information possible thorough investigation. They usually excavate the site which is threatened by natural calamities and try to bring out facts and statistics about cultural life.

All these types together constitute the culture of extinct humans.

Anthropologists examine the culture, social behaviour, climatic condition and civilization from the beginning of the prehistoric existence to the advent of the civilizations. They tell us about their culture, how it expanded, evolved and progressed.