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Paper prepared by Prof. Omar Hasan Kasule Sr. MB ChB (MUK), MPH (Harvard) DrPH (Harvard) Chairman, Institutional Review Board - KFMC
DEFINITION AND CLASSIFICATION
• Archeology is the study of the material remnants of what earlier societies made. Archeology fills in gaps in historical knowledge. For the pre-historic period, only archeology and books of revelation are sources of historical information.
• Archeology relies on methods of biological and physical sciences. Geology and radioactivity enable archeologists to date artifacts.
• Using geology archeologists have identified stages in human technological development: old stone age (Paleolithic), new stone age (Neolithic), bronze age, and iron age. Paleontology is the study of plant and animal fossils preserved in the ground.
HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT
• Archeology started during the European renaissance with an interest in collecting archeological remains of ancient Greece and Rome.
• Excavations of ancient Roman, Greek, Egyptian, and Mesopotamian remains in the 18th and 19th centuries.
• Ancient Egyptian writing was deciphered in 1822 and the Mesopotamian cuneiform writing was deciphered in 1846 enabling archeologists to read much ancient written material.
• Excavations were carried out in other parts of the world.
• With the accumulation of information archeology became established as an independent academic discipline.
BASIC PRINCIPLES AND PARADIGMS
RESEARCH METHODS
• Archeologists carry out reconnaissance to map areas of interest either on the ground or from the air. Potential archeological sites can be identified using electric or magnetic field mapping or using probes into the soil.
• Excavation follows reconnaissance. Excavation can be on the ground or underwater. Many archeological sites are discovered by accident during construction.
• After excavation, the artifacts are described fully and are classified. They are then interpreted.
• Dating of the artifacts using radioactive carbon dating, potassium-argon dating, and thermoluminescence.
ISLAMIC EPISTEMOLOGICAL CRITIQUE
ISLAMIC INTRODUCTION TO THE DISCIPLINE