Scholars have frequently used in textual analogies such as 'record', 'source' and 'archive' to refer to material evidence of the past since at least the 19th century. The term 'archaeological record' probably originated this way, possibly via parallel concepts in
geology (
geologic record) or
palaeontology (
fossil record). The term was used regularly by
V. Gordon Childe in the 1950s, and seems to have entered common parlance thereafter. • As material deposits • As artefacts and objects • As a collection of
samples • As reports written by archaeologists Patrik argued that the first three definitions reflected a "physical model" of archaeological evidence, where it is seen as the direct result of physical processes that operated in the past (like the fossil record); in contrast, definitions four and five follow a "textual model", where the archaeological record is seen as encoding cultural information about the past (like historical texts). She highlighted the extent to which archaeologists' understanding of what constituted 'the archaeological record' was dependent on broader currents in
archaeological theory, namely, that
processual archaeologists were likely to subscribe to a physical model and
postprocessual archaeologists a textual model.
As material remains More conservative definitions specify that the archaeological record consists of the "remains", "traces" or "residues" of
past human activity, although the dividing line between 'the past' and 'the present' may not be well-defined. This view is particularly associated with
processual archaeology, which saw the archaeological record as the "fossilised" product of physical, cultural and taphonomic processes that happened in the past, and focused on understanding those processes.
As sources The archaeological record can also consist of the written documentation that is presented in scientific journals. It is what
archaeologists have learned from the artifacts they have documented. This spans the entire world;
archaeology is the human story that belongs to everyone's past and represents everyone's heritage. The mission of an archaeologist is often preservation of the archaeological record. The archaeological record serves as a database for everything archaeology stands for and has become. The material culture associated with archaeological excavations and the scholarly records in academic journals are the physical embodiment of the archaeological record. The ambiguity that is associated with the archaeological record is often due to the lack of examples, but the archaeological record is everything the science of archaeology has found and created. == Components ==