When people solve crimes on TV, they examine all the evidence. Archaeologists do that, too.
They look at evidence like carbon dating of bones and weapons, or DNA of family relations. They even look at the remains of food from long ago! To these scientists, many things they dig up are evidence of events that happened long before people could write things down.
What is archaeology? It comes from the Greek word for the study of ancient things. Archaeologists study early humans, but they also examine and learn from history—sometimes as recent as the last century.