Interpreting the past responsibly
Archaeology is not only about objects; it is about people, and about who gets to tell their story.
From objects to societies
Archaeologists infer diet from bones and plant remains, social status from grave goods and house sizes, trade from materials found far from their source, and beliefs from art and burials. Bioarchaeologists study human skeletons to learn about health, work, violence, and nutrition in past populations.
Conservation and collections
Many finds end up in museums, where conservators stabilise fragile objects and curators decide how they are displayed. Museum collections let new researchers re-study finds with new methods. But collections also raise questions about how objects were acquired, especially during colonial times.
Descendant communities
Many archaeological sites are the heritage of living peoples. In the United States, the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA), passed in 1990, requires institutions to return certain human remains and sacred objects to tribes. Increasingly, archaeologists work with descendant communities, who help decide what is excavated and how the past is presented.
Flashcard
The study of human remains from archaeological sites
Check your understanding
A museum returns ancestral remains to the tribe they were taken from, as required by US law. This process is called: