This has become the archaeologist’s grandiose task: to make dried-up wellsprings bubble forth again, to make the forgotten known again, the dead alive, and to cause to flow once more that historic stream in which we are all encompassed.
C. W. Ceram. 1949.
Archaeology is about adventure and discovery, it involves explorations in exotic places (near or far) and it is carried out by digging detectives…
Cornelius Holtorf. Archaeology Is a Brand!
Archaeology is our way of reading that message and understanding how these peoples lived. Archaeologists take the clues left behind by the people of the past, and, like detectives, work to reconstruct how long ago they lived, what they ate, what their tools and homes were like, and what became of them.
State Historical Society of South Dakota
[Archaeology] seeks to discover how we became human beings endowed with minds and souls before we had learned to write.
Grahame Clarke. 1993.
Archaeology puts all human societies on an equal footing.
Brian Fagan. 1996.
Archaeology is like life: if you’re going to accomplish anything you have to learn to live with regret, learn from mistakes, and get on with it.
Tom King. 2005.