Historians can learn a lot from artifacts about past civilizations. Here are some examples of what they can learn:
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Livelihood: Tools and weapons can help historians determine the livelihood of early civilizations. For example, if they find a lot of hunting tools, they can infer that hunting was an important part of the civilizations way of life.
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Culture: Artifacts such as pottery and clothing can specify what a civilizations culture was like. For example, the design and style of pottery can give clues about the civilizations artistic traditions.
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Use: The shape and physical features of an artifact can tell archaeologists how it was used. For example, a cutting tool can be identified as such based on its shape.
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Context: The context in which an artifact was found can provide further conclusions. For example, if a cutting tool was found with animal bone, archaeologists might infer that hunting, butchering, or cooking activities had happened in that location.
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Material: Archaeologists also study the material that an artifact is made of. For example, with stone tools, they can sometimes tell if the object was made from a local or non-local source of stone. Knowing whether an artifact was made of material acquired from nearby or far away might help us understand movement around the landscape or suggest that trading was going on between different groups of people.
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Food: Animal bones, shells, and the rarely preserved seed or nutshell from trash piles, or middens, help us understand what people were eating. Studying the types of tools on site alongside the food scraps can help us understand how people cooked and prepared their meals.
In addition to the above, artifacts can be sources for better understanding our history. By looking closely at artifacts, putting them into historical context, and using them to understand the past, historians can learn a lot about past civilizations.
