Archaeology Value and Weaknesses

Archaeology is the study of human history and can be a tool to further our knowledge from the past. Archaeology has values and weaknesses, some of the values are we get to learn about ancient civilizations and how they lived. But along with values there are weaknesses, and one of the weaknesses is we sometimes destroy artifacts that ancient civilizations left behind.

One value of archaeology, is learning about ancient civilization culture. An example of this would be hieroglyphics from the ancient Egyptians. Through archaeology we’ve excavated the pyramids, discovering these hieroglyphics and learning about the ancient Egyptians beliefs. Some of their beliefs were polytheism, building the pyramids so they can be closer to the gods while they rule in the afterlife, and preserving the body for the afterlife, but we would have never learned these things without the tool of archaeology.

Along with strengths there are weaknesses, and in this case we humans are the weakness. We sometimes do before we think and we’ve destroyed lots of artifacts acting that way. “The popularity of Egyptology in educated circles led to strange phenomena, as for instance when amateur Egyptologists would organize ‘Mummy Parties’, social gatherings with pseudo-scientific outlook, which consisted mainly of ‘unwrapping’ a mummy purchased for the purpose by the host.”1 Hundreds of mummies were ruined that way because archaeology discovered them and a weird fad was created, making archaeology a weakness.

Archaeology can be a tool to study human history, but archaeology has values and weaknesses. One value is we get to learn about ancient civilizations and how they lived, and one weakness is we as humans sometimes destroy artifacts left behind.