Your Top 3 Reasons For Studying Ancient Archeology

Posted by Dr. David Neiman on September 29th, 2016

Ancient archaeology is interesting isn’t it? Uncovering the remnants of the past in our current time, is more interesting than exploring the future.

The past is composed of the unknown, the mystic and the combined experiences of our ancestors. The study of ancient traditions and legends, help us understand the cultural changes that have led to who we are today. You can consider it as “cemented reality.”

That’s not the case with the future is it? With the future, you can at most speculate. “Maybes, ifs, and might be.”Moreover, the laws that we use to imagine the future, our derived from our understanding of the past.

So, below I’m going to mention the reasons why studying the past, is going to assist you in understanding and preparing for the future.

(1) Archeological study allows you to understand human experiences better.

Most people tend to forget that studying ancient archeology, is a look at ancient civilizations that were operated by humans. Human beings just like us. I had to repeat that, because of the tendency of people to view the past as hunted by “alien species.”

The ancients of the past are not aliens. Sure, their traditions, norms, and understanding of the past may be alien to us, but in the end, they are humans.

Getting to know the emotional and cultural trends that swept through the ancient world that wenow excavate in archeology, is very fascinating. It’s also more fascinating to see the common factors between the ancient’s experiences, and our current experiences, which so touch our human souls.

To simply put, it allows is to understand our natures a lot better. This understanding helps with ethical exchanges. 

(2) Understanding political trends.

If you have an army, you have a society. When you have an army and society, you must have politics. So as you can see, politics has been pretty much around as far back as we can excavate.

Political trends, whether they come from monarchic or democratic traditions, are another way that we can truly get a peek into human nature.

It’s interesting to see how political rules and changes in hierarchies, have caused either revolts or massive expansions of societies in the past. Understanding the politics of previous eras, gives us insight into the possible consequences of policies today.

(3) Understanding religion.

Religion forms a core part of culture both today and in the past. Not only did religion provide people a connection to a higher mission and purpose, but it also provided sets of moral systems and laws that organized interactions between people.

Synchronicity between religion and other fields of studies are also interesting to see. For example, understanding historical scenarios described in the bible, in addition to scientific laws discovered today, has given rise to movements that scout for scientific proof in the bible.

Such scientific proof in the bible may be sought after in weather events of the past, archaeological discoveries related to ancient societies in biblical narratives, and a whole host of interesting excplorations!

Overall, one has nothing to lose by listening to, and consulting the past. The past is both fun to learn from, and helps understand and deal with the challenges of the future better.

About The Author

Dr. Neiman was the author of The Book of Job, Domestic Relations in Antiquity and the unpublished Mink Shmink - the influence of the Yiddish language in the US, which is part of a comprehensive study of the history of Jewish languages.