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Archaeology Roof Albuquerque, New Mexico

The history of the world and evolution of mankind and other creatures on the planet has been mapped out by professionals known as archeologists. Long time ago, mankind had no written records of their civilization, so it is up to archeologists to use various methods to try and understand how mankind lived. Archeology is the study of recent and ancient human past through material remains. This means that archeologists study remains of human civilizations to tell how they used to live, their diet, culture and traditions among other things. It is important to note that archeology is a diverse field with many fields of study.

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Types of Archeology

Bioarcheology:

This is the study of human remains. It is through bioarcheology that archeologists have learned about the evolution of mankind.

Zooarcheology:

This is the study of animal remains. This field has helped to show how dinosaurs evolved and their relationship to the birds of today. It is one of the widest fields of study in archeology.

Paleoethnobotany:

This is the study of plant remains.

Other fields of study in archeology are:

lithics, which studies stone tools and underwater archeology. There are also archeologists who study and map out archeological sites. These are perhaps the most important archeologists.

Archeological Methods

Before modern technologies were developed, archeologists used trial and error methods. They identified a site that needed to be excavated to identify whether or not it possessed the remains they needed to analyze. Nowadays, however, there are more efficient and accurate archaeological methods.

They include:

1        Remote Sensing

Before starting to dig at a particular location, archeologists need to first know what lies beneath the ground. Remote sensing uses ground penetrating radar to 'see' what lies beneath the ground. There are basically two categories of remote sensing technologies: passive and active. Passive remote sensing technology detects energy emitted from the targeted area. Active remote sensing technologies, on the other hand, emit energy and records the energy that is reflected from the target area. A great example of passive remote sensing is satellite imagery. LIDAR and LASER altimeter are two examples of active remote sensing.

2        Excavation

This is perhaps the oldest archeological technique. It entails removing soil and rocks from the excavation site to reveal remains that may interest archeologists. Most excavations are usually done using hand tools with the archeologists on standby onsite to analyze samples. This method is time-consuming, but it is best suited for certain archeological expeditions.

3        Field Survey

This is the attempt to locate unknown sites in a suspected archeological site. This method does not require heavy excavation work and takes little time. Most archeological projects usually start with a field survey. In some cases, the survey can be done once an archeological project has began.

4          Drones

Most archeologists nowadays use drones to carry out aerial surveys. This is a quick and cost effective method for surveying an archeological area from the air. It's also what an Albuquerque roofing company would use when doing inspections on roofs. With as little as $700, archeologists can procure a drone to quickly map out archeological sites before excavation and further exploration can commence. Drones can have different capabilities that archeologists may find useful.

5      Virtual Archeology

Nowadays, archeologists use special computer software to build models that make their work easier. It is possible to build 3-dimensional models of archeological sites. Astronomical calculations, photogrammetry and digital topographical methods can be combined to give archeologists a clearer picture of an archeological site.

Carbon dating is one of the methods used to date archeological sites. There are also many other dating techniques that archeologists can use nowadays.

Preservation of artifacts obtained from archeological sites is usually done in museums by specialists. Archeologists can be credited with the discovery of the earliest human remains. It is also their works that have helped to trace the migration of mankind from their origin to where they are today. 

One of the main challenges that archeologists normally face is looting and vandalism. Some archeological sites contain valuable artifacts that people may want to steal. Other sites are associated with events that people don't want to remember, so they may want to vandalize or destroy the archeological site. Whatever the case, the contributions made by archeologists is quite significant. 

It is important to note that the work archeologists do may be confused with what paleontologists do. For instance, while it is archeologists who discover fossils of dinosaurs, it is the paleontologists who analyze, date and name the fossils. As you can see, the two disciplines are interrelated, but distinct.

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