Roman Sepulchral Inscriptions

Archaeology studies human activity through discovering and analyzing items of material culture, like artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts and cultural landscapes. It is both a social science and a branch of the humanities. The first archaeologist undertaking excavations was William Cunnington (1754—1810), who excavated in Wiltshire from 1798, making meticulous recordings of Neolithic and Bronze Age barrows. The first notable stratigraphic excavation was in the 1870s at Hissarlik, the site of ancient Troy, undertaken by Heinrich Schliemann, Frank Calvert and Wilhelm Dörpfeld.