Our Ancient Selves: What Archaeology Taught Has Us About Us

What were ancient cities like? Is the story of Atlantis true? Was there a biblical flood? Where did the food we eat originate? Archaeology can address these and many more interesting questions.

Archaeology has contributed a great deal to our understanding of ourselves. Here, in layman's terms, is a discussion of the impacts of archaeological explorations on a variety of topics, why archaeology is important, and how its discoveries influence everyone. We also learn a bit about how archaeology is done and how we learn what we know (and don't know!).

We find out what makes a human and how early humans became us. We discuss a variety of other topics, including the evolution of technology (what is old is new!) and how our violent nature seems to have its roots in antiquity. While most people now get their food from farms, for the vast majority of time, humans lived on wild foods, only recently developing farming, cities, and large and complex societies. The development of farming and the transition of adapting to new environments and living in large groups is investigated.

Another hallmark of humans explored here is their complex communication systems, spoken and written languages plus all of the other symbols and icons used to convey information. Religion also uses many methods of communication but how did religion develop and what purpose does it fulfill? Religion is related to death and afterlife and ancient societies had many ways of dealing with the dead that are fascinating and informative. Associated with death is how humans cared for the sick and injured, the medicines they used and those that we have borrowed.

Archaeology also informs us about our own recent past. Much of what we know about history has been slanted by the writers of those histories, but many marginalized people and details have been ignored. Archaeology can discover those missing pieces and provide a fuller and unbiased view of the past.

Finally, we discuss some of the frauds and hoaxes that the public sees and often believes, setting the record straight on some of them.

Fun!!