List of different types of archaeology

The sheer variety that encompasses the rich subject of archaeology is often underestimated.

4 branches of archaeology

Digging in the sand looking for the stone walls of a lost city, pulling on a wetsuit and diving into the dark oceans with SCUBA gear, or sitting for weeks with primitive Indians high on a lonely Peruvian plateau are all working types of the archaeologist. The examination of ancient Greek and Roman civilisations is known as classical archaeology.

The two ancient cultures of Greece and Italy form the basis of classical investigation. The Grecian Empire, the Roman Empire and the transitional period between the two, the Greco-Roman Period, together permit a year era of classical history. These short years have given us the great monuments, philosophy, art, literature and architecture that are now the building blocks of western civilisation.

Certainly, the most famous sites of classical archaeology are found in Athens and Rome. Who can argue the grandeur of the Colosseum or the Parthenon? Yet classical archaeology is not confined to only the centres of these two great empires but even to the very extremities of their conquests. Unfortunately, his excavations were quick and destroyed large areas of his sites.

Many other archaeologists followed, conducting more methodical and scientific excavations. Recent archaeology of the classic civilisations has tended to concentrate less on the popular heroes and more on the lives of common citizens.