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Archaeology is a source of history, not just a humble auxiliarydiscipline. Archaeological data are historical documents in their ownright, not mere illustrations to written texts. Just as much as any other historian, an archaeologist studies and tries to reconstitute theprocess that has created the human world in which we live -- and usourselves in so far as we are each creatures of our age and socialenvironment. Archaeological data are all changes in the material world resulting from human action or, more succinctly, the fossilizedresults of human behavior. The sum total of these constitutes what may becalled the archaeological record. This record exhibits certain peculiarities and deficiencies the consequences of which produce a rather superficial contrastbetween archaeological history and the more familiar kind based uponwritten records. Not all humanbehavior fossilizes. The words I utter and you hear as vibrations in the airare certainly human changes in the material world and may be ofgreat historical significance. Yet they leave no sort of trace inthe archaeological records unless they are captured by a dictaphone orwritten down by a clerk. The movement of troops on the battlefield maychange the course of history, but this is equally ephemeral fromthe archaeologists standpoint. What is perhaps worse, most organicmaterials are perishable. Everything made of wood, hide, wool, linen, grass,hair, and similar materials will decay and vanish in dust in a few years orcenturies, save under very exceptional conditions. In a relatively briefperiod the archaeological record is reduced to mere scraps of stone, bone,glass, metal, and earthenware. Still modern archaeology, by applyingappropriate techniques and comparative methods, aided bya few lucky finds from peat-bogs, deserts, and frozen soils, is able to fill upa good deal of the gap. | 
