Archaeology

Archaeology is the study of past human life and culture. Archaeologists study how people lived long ago. They do this by looking at old pieces of pottery and tools and sometimes burial places.

Archaeologists at work
Copyright of Dermot Lucey, 2002

They do a lot of digging around in the mud to find things that might teach us more about our ancestors.

Archaeologists have shown us that Mesolithic people mostly ate wild pigs, fish and birds. They have also showed us that Neolithic people lived in large communities and produced a lot of their food from farming. Archaeologists have learned these things by studying places like the Céide Fields in County Mayo.

Old objects that archaeologists find when digging up old sites are called artefacts.

Could you be an archaeologist? Take this quiz to see if you know what some artefacts were used for.