Unit XVI

I. Look through these words and expressions and learn them:

• recovery – відновлення;

• human remains – людські останки;

• underpinning – підтримка/підкріплення;

• achieving the goal – досягнення цілі;

• natural affinity – природна спорідненість;

• material dimensions – матеріальний обсяг/розмах;

• to enlist – заручитися (підтримкою);

• parterre gardens – квітники;

• long-lost layouts – давно загублені плани;

• burial ground – кладовище/цвинтар;

• to mingle – змішуватися

II. Read and translate the text: archaeology

Archaeology, archeology, or archæology (from the Greek words αρχαίος – ‘ancient’ and λόγος – ‘word/speech/discourse’) is the study of human cultures through the recovery, documentation and analysis of material remains and environmental data, including architecture, artifacts, biofacts, human remains, and landscapes.

The goals of archaeology are to document and explain the origins and development of human culture, understand culture history, chronicle cultural evolution, and study human behaviour and ecology, for both prehistoric and historic societies.

Archaeology is the study of human culture through material remains from humans in the past. In the Old World, archaeology has tended to focus on the study of physical remains, the methods used in recovering them and the theoretical and philosophical underpinnings in achieving the subject's goals. The discipline's roots in antiquarianism and the study of Latin and Ancient Greek provided it with a natural affinity with the field of history. Archaeology is more commonly devoted to the study of human societies and is regarded as one of the four branches of anthropology. The other three branches are cultural anthropology, which studies behavioural, symbolic, and material dimensions of culture; linguistics, which studies language, including the origins of language and language groups; and physical anthropology, which includes the study of human evolution and physical and genetic characteristics. Other disciplines also supplement archaeology, including palaeontology, paleozoology, paleoethnobotany, paleobotany, geography, geology, art history. Archaeology has been described as a craft that enlists the sciences to illuminate the humanities. According to American archaeologist Walter Taylor in A Study of Archaeology, "Archaeology is neither history nor anthropology. As an autonomous discipline, it consists of a method and a set of specialized techniques for the gathering, or 'production' of cultural information".

Archaeology is an approach to understanding human culture through its material remains regardless of chronology. In England, archaeologists have uncovered the long-lost layouts of medieval villages abandoned after the crises of the 14th century and the equally lost layouts of 17th century parterre gardens swept away by a change in fashion. In downtown New York City archaeologists have exhumed the 18th century remains of the Black burial ground. Traditional archaeology is viewed as the study of pre-historical human cultures, that is, cultures that existed before the development of writing for that culture. Historical archaeology is the study of cultures with some form of writing.

In the study of relatively recent cultures by Western scholars, archaeology is closely allied with ethnography. This is the case in large parts of North America, Oceania, Siberia, and other places where the study of archaeology mingles with the living traditions of the cultures being studied. In the study of cultures that were literate or had literate neighbours, history and archaeology supplement one another for broader understanding of the complete cultural context, as at Hadrian's Wall.