Q: What challenges in the field do archaeologists face?

A: The greatest challenge archaeologists face in the field is not making finds, but conserving the past for the future. Every time we dig a site, we effectively destroy it. This makes it vital to maintain accurate records of everything we find—the layers from which it came, its relationship to other finds, dwellings, and so on. These details comprise the record for future generations. Maintaining painstakingly accurate records is one part of conserving the past for the future.

We must also preserve what we dig up—finds, structures, and other features of archaeological sites—for the future. A site may be stabilized for tourists, or simply to preserve a structure. Preservation is a complex task that often involves high-tech methods. For example, the wooden tools found with the Ice Man from the Alps, who dates to the Bronze Age, can be preserved by deep freezing, or by replacing the water in them with chemicals. There are many high-tech methods used to preserve artifacts.

All archaeological excavation is destruction; it is our responsibility both to leave parts of sites for future generations to investigate, perhaps with better methods, and to preserve part of the finite archaeological record as an archive for the future. An enormous amount of damage has been done. It’s our responsibility not only to dig and find sites or artifacts, but also to preserve the past for future generations.

Q: When and where did civilization begin?

A: The world’s first literate civilizations developed in Mesopotamia, now southern Iraq, and in ancient Egypt, about 5,000 years ago. The process took many centuries and involved the development of complex cities, writing, metallurgy, and hierarchical societies led by powerful, charismatic leaders, who became divine kings. The Sumerian civilization of Mesopotamia, with its wedge-shaped cuneiform script, was a patchwork of small city-states that quarreled constantly with one another. Egyptian civilization developed when a series of powerful leaders unified Upper and Lower Egypt into a single kingdom after centuries of diplomatic competition, fighting, and trade.

Q: Were Cro-Magnons and Neandertals compatible enough to mate and produce offspring?

A: No one really knows whether the Cro-Magnons and Neandertals were able to interbreed. The chances are against it, however. Recent DNA studies from Austria, using a sample of Neandertal DNA obtained from a bone, suggest that Neandertal DNA was totally incompatible with the DNA of Cro-Magnons, or modern humans.

Q: Does Egypt belong to Africa or the Middle East? It’s in Africa, but you always hear about it involved with Middle Eastern politics.

A: Actually, ancient Egypt straddled both worlds. The pharaohs maintained trading and diplomatic ties with the eastern Mediterranean states, because ancient Egypt obtained timber and other valuable raw materials from those states.

New Kingdom pharaohs, who ruled during the 2nd millennium bc, maintained diplomatic and trading ties with Mesopotamia and the Hittites of Turkey. At the same time, they relied on Africa for many products, among them gold, semiprecious stones, leopard skins, ivory, and slaves. They traded with, and later controlled, Nubia. Nubia comprised the Nile-based lands (now part of Sudan) that were ruled by African chiefdoms as early as 2000 bc. Some Nubian chiefs actually became pharaohs of Egypt in the 7th century bc, before the Assyrians chased them out in 633 bc.

However, Egyptian civilization was not founded from tropical Africa. It was an indigenous state developed from local roots, and it became increasingly cosmopolitan in the 2nd millennium bc. Throughout Egyptian history, many Nubians served in the Egyptian army, where they were famous as bowmen.

Modern-day Egypt has its roots in the world of Islam and has closer cultural and historical ties to the Near East than it does to tropical Africa.

Date: 2015-02-16; view: 1843