Archaeological discoveries

How do anthropologists and archaeologists learn about the lives of prehistoric people?

Archaeologists:

- Excavate sites - dig into them, remove earth/objects

- Study artifacts - physical remains (ceramics, stone tools, pottery) & ecofacts (organic items) like pollen, seeds, bones)

- Radiocarbon date - dating organic matter to tell us ages of sites

Anthropologists:

- Study living & recently extinct groups to make educated guesses

- Study primate social groups

- Comparative method - compare living people to prehistoric

- Ethnoarchaeology - living humans reenact scenarios to show possible human behaviors

Both often study human remains/fossils.