Archaeology Is a Necessary Science

While some may posit that archaeology is a luxury endeavor for adventurers, practitioners and their audiences know that archaeology, as both a humanistic science and a scientific humanism, continues to bring evidence and interpretation to bear on long-term change,such as climate change, and on the origins and developments of social ills such as racism, sexism , poverty and social inequality. Archaeology requires as well as  engages with not only history, social sciences and the arts, but also the earth, biological, physical and chemical  sciences,  all in order to sometimes be the only source of knowledge for much of human history as well as to provide powerful versions of events where the archaeological record actually challenges the documents and provides what  various human groups can draw upon in terms of building and  rebuilding their own senses of history and identity.