The Record of the Past

This chapter describes the goals of archaeology and the basic processes of archaeological research that lead to remarkable studies like Cahen's and to the writing of the prehistory described. It defines the so-called archaeological record and discusses the all-important issue of archaeological context in time and space. Culture history is the record of the human past described and classified in a context of time and space across the changing ancient landscape. Culture history relies on careful excavation, detailed classifications of finds of all kinds, and accurate sequences of human cultures defined through time and by spatial distribution. Archaeology is also the study of ancient human behavior: of people, not their artifacts. The most fundamental objective of archaeology is to conserve, manage, and preserve the archaeological record of the past for future generations. This overriding objective has assumed importance in recent years. Data analysis is the most fundamental of archaeological tasks, the classification and description of everything recovered from the field.