Numbers
 

Archaeology

  The first "archaeologists" were grave robbers.  It is the custom to this day in many cultures, to bury prominent people with their riches.  Grave robbers have located the graves of many of these wealthy people removing the treasures they have found.  They are not interested in the meaning of the societies that built the graves.  They usually melt down the treasures of precious metal or otherwise destroy the treasures in order to profit from them.

  Today, archaeologists have come to focus on learning about the daily lives of the peoples they study.  A broken piece of pottery, called a potsherd, is as sought after as any other find.  Potsherds have become the "fingerprints" of lost societies.

  In nearly 200 years of archaeological research there has been a gradual change from the robbing techniques to the cautious methods used by modern archaeologists.  Archaeologists no longer try to restore all of a site to its original condition.  Instead, they map the site into a grid, and only portions of the grid are excavated.  This process leaves major parts of the site untouched for later archaeologists, who may have improved tools and techniques.  Every bit of soil that is excavated is sifted for tiny artifacts that can reveal the details of daily life.  Instead of carting most of the material to faraway collections or museums, as much as possible is returned to local repositories.  Scientific archaeology of today is a far cry from the work of the grave robbers.

 

Answer the questions below

 
 According to this passage, even today many prominent people are buried with their .
 
Early archaeologists were not interested in the meaning of the that built the graves.
 
A broken piece of pottery is called a .
 
The first archaeologists were

prominent people.

scientific in their search.

grave robbers.

 
Today, modern archaeologists map a site into a .
 
Even tiny artifacts can reveal the of daily life long ago.

 

Unlike early archaeologists, today's archaeologists on learning about the daily lives of the peoples they study.
 
 This passage about archaeologists refers to

very little archeological research.

nearly 500 years of archeological research.

nearly 200 years of archeological research.

 
Today's archaeologists no longer try to restore all of a site to its condition.
 
Potsheards have become of lost societies.

 

 

Elementary & Middle School Lessons & Self-Correcting Tests for Children in all Subject Areas.
If you have found an error or would like to make comments on this lesson, please email us at:
MySchoolhouse.online@gmail.com

Copyright 1999-2024 by Educational Designers, LLC.  All rights reserved.
Lessons & Tests in Math, Reading, Spelling, Science, Language, and Social Studies.

"This site uses cookies from Google to deliver its services and analyze traffic. Your IP address and user-agent are shared with Google along with performance and security metrics to ensure quality of service, generate usage statistics, and to detect and address abuse."
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
WORK SPACE