Meaning & use
archaeology
Last updated
Meanings
noununcountable
The study of how people lived in the past, based on digging up and examining buildings, tools, bones and other objects they left behind.
Grammar: Uncountable and singular: archaeology is a fascinating subject.
Patterns
- study archaeology
- the archaeology of somewhere
She studied archaeology at university before joining a dig in Egypt.
Advances in archaeology have changed how we see early farming communities.
Archaeology depends as much on careful recording as on digging.
noununcountable
The physical remains of a particular place or period, considered together.
Grammar: Used with of or a modifier: the archaeology of the region.
Patterns
- the archaeology of something
The archaeology of the valley shows continuous settlement for 3,000 years.
Roman archaeology lies beneath much of the old city.
Builders must protect any archaeology they uncover.
Common combinations
- underwater archaeology
- Underwater archaeology has revealed ancient shipwrecks.
- study archaeology
- He wants to study archaeology in Rome.
- field archaeology
- Field archaeology means working outdoors in all weather.
- industrial archaeology
- Industrial archaeology records old mills and railways.
- forensic archaeology
- Forensic archaeology helps police recover buried remains.
Synonyms and how they differ
- antiquarianism
- Antiquarianism is the older, more hobby-like interest in collecting old objects, lacking the scientific methods of archaeology.
- paleontology
- Paleontology studies ancient life such as fossils, not human-made remains, which are archaeology's focus.
- anthropology
- Anthropology covers human societies and cultures broadly, while archaeology centers on material remains.
Word family
- archaeologist noun
- a person who studies the past through excavation
- archaeological adjective
- relating to archaeology
- archaeologically adverb
- in terms of archaeology
- archaeologists noun
- plural of archaeologist
Commonly confused: archaeology or paleontology? archaeology or architecture?
archaeology vs paleontology
Paleontology deals with fossils of ancient animals and plants; archaeology deals with human-made objects and sites.
archaeology vs architecture
Architecture is the design of buildings; it sounds similar but is unrelated to digging up the past.
Practice
The team spent the summer excavating a Bronze Age village as part of their ______ course.
Choose one answer.
Excavating a village for what it shows about past people is archaeology. Paleontology is tempting but concerns fossils rather than human settlement.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “archaeology”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.