Dictionary of Artifacts

It is an often stated truism that archaeology is about investigating people of the past (“digging up people” has macabre connotations): but when investigating peoples for whom no direct or indirect written records survive, and apart from the examination of ancient human remains, that investigation can only be through the interpretation of things that are dug up. There is always a risk associated with over‐interpretation of finds, as much as there is a risk of confining study to merely antiquarian concerns, but the artifacts dug out of the earth are often the only means of studying, or even identifying, many...