Archaeology, or archeology,[1] is the study of human activity through the recovery

and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts,

architecture, biofacts or ecofacts and cultural landscapes. Archaeology can be
considered both a social science and a branch of the humanities.[2][3] In Europe it
is often viewed as either a discipline in its own right or a sub-field of other
disciplines, while in North America archaeology is a sub-field of anthropology.[4]

Archaeologists study human prehistory and history, from the development of the
first stone tools at Lomekwi in East Africa 3.3 million years ago up until recent
decades.[5] Archaeology is distinct from palaeontology, which is the study of
fossil remains. It is particularly important for learning about prehistoric
societies, for whom there may be no written records to study. Prehistory includes
over 99% of the human past, from the Paleolithic until the advent of literacy in
societies across the world.[2] Archaeology has various goals, which range from
understanding culture history to reconstructing past lifeways to documenting and
explaining changes in human societies through time.[6]

The discipline involves surveying, excavation and eventually analysis of data

collected to learn more about the past. In broad scope, archaeology relies on
cross-disciplinary research. It draws upon anthropology, history, art history,
classics, ethnology, geography, geology, literary history, linguistics, semiology,
sociology, textual criticism, physics, information sciences, chemistry, statistics,
paleoecology, paleography, paleontology, paleozoology, and paleobotany.

Archaeology developed out of antiquarianism in Europe during the 19th century, and
has since become a discipline practiced across the world. Archaeology has been used
by nation-states to create particular visions of the past.[7] Since its early
development, various specific sub-disciplines of archaeology have developed,
including maritime archaeology, feminist archaeology and archaeoastronomy, and
numerous different scientific techniques have been developed to aid archaeological
investigation. Nonetheless, today, archaeologists face many problems, such as
dealing with pseudoarchaeology, the looting of artifacts,[8] a lack of public
interest, and opposition to the excavation of human remains.