How Do Archeologists Interpret Culture from Evidence?

Archeologists learn about cultures in the past through their material remains. A culture is a people's way of life. It consists of traditions, religions, laws, social structures, languages, and foodways.

Every culture is unique, but all humans share universal traits that typically contribute to their culture. One culture may recognize aspects of another culture, even if their objects, beliefs and values differ. This is true even for cultures living in different historical times. Think about how all people:

• Have families and communities
• Grow and collect food, prepare meals, and eat
• Build, inhabit, and maintain shelters
• Make and use tools
• Create iconography, shapes, and symbols
• Gather together for ceremonies, celebrations, and special events
• Move from place to place
• Have traditions and objects representing them
• Appropriate old things for new uses

All these ways of life can be found at archeological sites because people were there, even though the evidence for them might vary from culture to culture, Comparing across sites shows the ways that people and cultures lived together and adapted to the world through different cultural means.

Archeologists study material remains in their temporal, historical, social, and geographical contexts to understand the peoples and cultures assocated with them. Context is key!

• When is a plant fossil an archeological artifact? When it's found in a curio cabinet collection from the 18th century.
• What does it mean to find an obsidian point thousands of miles from its volcanic point of origin? People valued the physical and aesthetic properties of the rock enough to trade it over great distances.
• What if a video game console from 1978 is found at a site dating to 1000 CE? It could mean that time travel is real ... but it almost certainly means that someone disturbed the site.

Think about what you believe and how your possessions represent your culture. What might an archeologist find in the future?