Photographs Every effort has been made to secure permission and provide appropriate credit for photographic material. The publisher deeply regrets any omission and pledges to correct errors called to its attention in subsequent editions. Unless otherwise acknowledged, all photographs are the property of Pearson Education, Inc. Photo locators denoted as follows: Top (T), Center (C), Bottom (B), Left (L), Right (R), Background (Bkgd) Opener Ira Block/National Geographic/Getty Images; 3 Ira Block/National Geographic/ Getty Images; 4 Library of Congress; 6 Araldo de Luca/Corbis-Bettmann; 7 Peter Gardner/ DK Images; 8 Images&Stories/Alamy; 11 Jonathan Blair/Corbis; 12 (C) Dave King/DK Images, (B) Imagemore Co., Ltd/DK Images; 13 Steve Northup/ Time Life Pictures/Getty Images; 14 James King-Holmes/Photo Researchers, Inc.; 15 Hoberman Collection/Corbis; 16 SPL/Photo Researchers, Inc.; 18 Fotosearch/Getty Images; 19 (B) DK Images; 20 Demetrio Carrasco/ DK Images; 22 Jeff Barnard/ AP Images; 23 Sebastian Scheiner/ AP Images. ISBN 13: 978-0-328-52563-8 ISBN 10: 0-328-52563-4 Copyright by Pearson Education, Inc., or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. This publication is protected by copyright, and permission should be obtained from the publisher prior to any prohibited reproduction, storage in a retrieval system, or transmission in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or likewise. For information regarding permissions, write to Pearson Curriculum Rights & Permissions, 221 River Street, Hoboken, New Jersey 07030. Pearson is a trademark, in the U.S. and/or in other countries, of Pearson plc or its affiliates. Scott Foresman is a trademark, in the U.S. and/or in other countries, of Pearson Education, Inc., or its affiliates. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 V0G1 13 12 11 10 09 Introduction Imagine that it is your job to find clues that will help you solve an ancient mystery. Perhaps you will discover a tomb full of gold and jewels. You might figure out how a group of people vanished from a once-mighty city. These are some of the tasks that are part of an archaeologist s job. In ancient Greek, archeos means ancient, and logia is the science or study of. An archaeologist is a scientist who studies people of the past through the things they have left behind. Sometimes archaeologists find these things by making a huge discovery, such as uncovering a lost tomb. But to an archaeologist, a small find, such as a piece of a broken pot, or the strap from a harness, can be just as important and exciting. The pot might hold some food remains that will help us understand what ancient people ate. The harness might show that whoever used it knew how to put animals to work. Questions Archaeologists Ask What did this group of people look like? Where did they live? How did they find food? What were their beliefs? What were their customs? How did they defend themselves? What happened to them? 3
Trowel Archaeologists use many tools to help them properly excavate a site. Tool Time All of this work takes time because it has to be done carefully and methodically. One of the most important tools an archaeologist carries is a trowel. The trowel can be used to scrape away dirt instead of digging down with a shovel, which might damage buried artifacts. All of the dirt is then passed through a shaker screen. The dirt falls through the small holes of the screen, leaving larger objects, such as rocks, twigs, and artifacts, behind. Soil samples placed in metal baskets are sifted in streams of water. As the water washes away the soil, tiny objects, such as seeds and small fragments, float to the top, and heavy objects, such as bones and pebbles, sink to the bottom. The tools used to excavate a site range from heavy equipment, such as backhoes and diggers, to fine brushes and even dustpans. All artifacts are cleaned and then placed in a drying rack. Archaeologists also use cameras to take pictures of the artifacts, and journals and computers to keep detailed notes. 12 13
Pots, Paintings, and Palaces Archaeologists have uncovered ancient treasures all over the world. Most of the artifacts, such as clay pots and obsidian blades, give us a glimpse into the lives of people of the past how they hunted, what they ate, and how they lived every day. Others, such as cave paintings and early writings, show us how early people expressed themselves and told their stories. Cave paintings have been found all over the world, from the Spanish Pyrenees to South Africa to Mississippi. The oldest paintings we know of discovered in 1994 near Valon Pont d Arc in southern France are about 30,000 years old. The most remarkable feature of such The Rosetta Stone paintings, according to experts who have studied them, is what appears to be their highly developed style. This suggests that even older and more primitive paintings may exist elsewhere and may yet be discovered! Among the most impressive tales of archaeological finds are the big stories involving hidden This prehistoric cave painting was found in Lascaux, France. treasures or cities. The Roman town of Herculaneum had been buried under tons of volcanic ash for more than a thousand years before it was found. And when British archaeologist Howard Carter, after years of searching, opened up an alcove in the Egyptian pharaoh Tutankhamen s tomb, he certainly found a treasure. The tomb was filled with more than 5,000 objects that told about Egyptian life and art. But Carter s find was more than just a chance discovery; he had been delving in libraries and archaeological records for half his life. He knew what he was looking for and where to look. His diligence finally paid off. In the tomb there were strange animals, statues and gold, he later wrote, everywhere the glint of gold. Brown pottery inkwell found at the ancient Roman town of Herculaneum 18 19