From Treasure Hunting to Science

By the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, archaeology was undergoing a remarkable transformation. We will follow the emergence of new methods of excavation, recording, dating, and interpretation through a series of discoveries and the personalities behind them. We will encounter prominent figures in the archeological world alongside their digging sites where excavation was becoming increasingly systematic and comparative. Why did broken pots suddenly become as important as spectacular treasures? How could archaeologists reconstruct entire sequences of ancient cities from layers buried one beneath the other? These stories take us to the moment when archaeology began to acquire the methods and tools of modern science.