archaeological record
Buried human traces
The archaeological record is the total body of physical evidence left by past human activity—artifacts, structures, features, and their spatial relationships.
Archaeologists reconstruct history from this record, reading layers of soil and debris like pages in a book.
The archaeological record suggests humans arrived in the Americas earlier than once believed.
- dig siteArchaeological excavation location
- toolDevice for a task
- artifactsHuman-made historical objects
- shellHard outer covering
- stratigraphyStudy of rock layers
soil · provenance · erosion · chronology · stone · pottery · features · deposition · excavation · test pit · field notes · palimpsest · carbon dating · structures · climate effects · bone · human remains · buried treasure
archaeological recordwritten record
historical documents · documentary evidence · archival records · chronicles · annals
archaeological recordoral tradition
Culture passed by speech
oral history · folklore · collective memory · cultural memory · storytelling traditions
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