Who cares about stuff that’s old, broken, half-rotted, and falling apart? Who likes to pick through garbage dumps?
Archaeologists do, because archaeology (ar-kee-AH-luh-gee) is the study of the material remains of past peoples. An archaeologist’s goal is to learn about people who have been dead for a long time but left things behind.
Finding artifacts, or objects made by humans, is the first step. Archaeologists have to recover these artifacts, preserve them, and unlock their secrets, such as: how and why were they made, and who used them? Step by step, archaeologists piece together a narrative of human history. It’s a story that changes each time new artifacts are found, and it’s never a finished story, because many artifacts are lost forever. Also, many human activities leave no objects behind. But it’s the best depiction we have of people and places from long ago.
