page_title: Archaeology
section_title: Fieldwork
hierarchical_section_title: Archaeology / Fieldwork
caption_attribution_description: English: Archaeological museum Gunzenhausen ( Bavaria ). Urnfield Culture ( 12th century BC ): Bronze age hoard from Stockheim. Deutsch: Archäologisches Museum Gunzenhausen ( Bayern ). Urnenfelder Kultur ( 12.Jhdt.v.Chr, ): Bronzezeitlicher Depotfund aus Stockheim.
context_page_description: Archaeology, or archeology, is the study of the past by looking for the remains and objects left by the people who lived long ago. These remains can include old coins, tools, buildings, and inscriptions. Archaeologists, the people who study archaeology, use these remains to understand how people lived.
context_section_description: When archaeologists do fieldwork, they look for remains, often by digging in the ground. As settlements (places where people lived in groups) change and grow, old buildings get buried. Usually, this is a natural process. A typical student project is to leave an object in a place where there is nothing going on. It will get covered rather quickly, because wind, water and plants will bury it. Sometimes buildings are deliberately buried to make way for new buildings. Ancient Rome, for example, is now up to 40 feet (12 metres) below the present city. This process of natural or man-made burial is why archaeological fieldwork involves digging, and is expensive and takes a long time.
  When things are found, or even when nothing is found, the results of the fieldwork are taken back to a base. Short term, the base is often on or near the site. Longer term, the results will usually go to a university or museum. Everything is written down on paper or entered into a computer. Gradually, they build up a picture of what happened long ago. Archaeologists publish their research so others can understand what they learned.
caption: A 12th century BC (Bronze Age) hoard from Stockheim in Germany
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