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  • Essay / The New Archeology Movement - 904

    With the changing technologies and methodologies available, some archaeologists have become frustrated with the traditional methods of archaeology; they felt that new technologies should be used to improve archeology and the outcomes of professionals in the field. The New Archeology was a movement that sought to contribute to existing anthropological knowledge of human behavior by emerging as a science and separating itself from the historical approach. The new archeology not only incorporated scientific technology, but it also used various scientific methods and approaches. Lewis Binford was the most influential figure in the new archaeology; he considered cultures to be composed of “three interdependent subsystems: technology, social organization, and ideology” (Walsh 309). Because of this theory, he believed that the discovery of physical remains falling under a specific subsystem would help archaeologists interpret the meaning of the artifact and, therefore, allow them to understand previous civilizations. Binford was very keen to prove that archeology was not just a mere subset of history, but that it had the potential to become a science just as important as anthropology. For archeology to evolve, he believed the field needed to implement a more scientific method of research. Under Binford's leadership, the new archeology used scientific approaches to study and interpret past cultures and their remains. Traditionally, archaeologists relied on “historical explanation” to interpret the meaning of artifacts; however, New Archeology introduced the concept of implementing a scientific attitude and considering culture as a process (Renfrew and Bahn 41). Consider culture as a medium of paper cultures. He strongly believed that when archaeologists drew conclusions or hypotheses about primitive culture, they must provide evidence to prove their accuracy, because it was important to remain accurate and this would prove that archeology is a serious and scientific field of study . Although some ideas of the new archeology Although it may have been useful, such as the employment of scientific technologies to facilitate the dating of artifacts, the notion of scientific archeology was not retained. The new archeology did not take into account human action and the individualistic factors of different cultures. Furthermore, he assumed that cultures were processes that remained the same and were similar to other cultures. Although Binford was right that archeology is just as important as anthropology, his approach to archeology as a science was not very effective..