What do archaeologists do at a site?

They dig! What else? But wait. It's a lot more complicated than that!

Once an archaeologist finds a site and gets permission to excavate it, his or her work really begins! You'll be finding out a lot more about it during the next two weeks.

Try to remember the terms below. You'll be finding out about them soon:

• Gridding
• Tools
• Labeling/Numbering
• Field Notes

Archaeologists excavate for three kinds of information:

• Ecofacts
  They look for evidence about past environments. Things such as seeds, animal bones and soil are called Ecofacts.
• Features
  They look for evidence of things people made or did that can't be moved, such as house floors or hearths. These are called Features.
• Artifacts
  They look for evidence of the tools or other items that people made and that can be moved or carried. Objects like arrowheads or pottery are called Artifacts.

Find out about artifacts and what archaeologists do with them.

Go back to main Archaeology page