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Archaeology in the Humanities

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2024

Norman Yoffee  and
Severin Fowles
Norman Yoffee*
Affiliation:
University of Michigan
Severin Fowles
Affiliation:
Barnard College
*
Norman Yoffee, Department of Near Eastern Studies, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48104-1608, USA, and Severin Fowles, Department of Anthropology, Barnard College, 3009 Broadway, New York, NY 10027, USA Email: nyoffee@umich.edu; sfowles@barnard.edu
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Abstract

Since archaeology is fundamentally the study of the human past, which is what the word “archaeology” connotes according to its Greek etymology, it is part of the humanities. However, archaeologists work in teams with scientists and employ quantitative techniques and comparative methods of the social sciences; archaeologists are thus an academic hybrid and are pleased to live in the interstices of many disciplines. In this article we review the history of archaeology in the humanities and explore some new directions in archaeological research. We discuss the enduring questions of origins of the antiquity of humanity, religion and art, the first agricultural villages, and the earliest cities, states, and civilizations. We also consider new agendas in archaeology: historical archaeology, landscapes in the past and present, material studies of the present, and how archaeologists are engaged in modern politics.

Type
Articles
Information
Diogenes , Volume 58 , Issue 1-2: The Humanities Today , May 2011 , pp. 35 - 52
Copyright
Copyright © ICPHS 2012

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