How do Archaeologists Date Artifacts?
The human race has been around for at least a couple hundred thousand years, perhaps longer. However, we only invented writing in 5000 BCE, and even then, few people were literate and archival methods were very poor. Therefore, information of about 99% of our human history can only be retrieved through the study of artifacts and fossils. To understand where a given artifact fits into the scheme of history requires dating it with a reliable degree of precision. Luckily, there exist good methods to do so. The earliest method of dating artifacts is to look at which strata of rock they are found within. There exist large databases that tell us which artifacts corresponding to which civilizations are found in certain layers of soil, often giving us context for dating an artifact. The business of archeology is careful for this reason – to accurately determine the layer in which the artifact is found, each layer must be removed carefully during the dig. Unevenness in the soil and rock can com
