How does archaeology help us in understanding the past?|NIOS History

 How does archaeology help us in understanding the past?

Archaeology is the study of the material remains of the past. This enables us to systematically dig the successive layers of the old mounds and to form an idea of the material life of the people on the basis of remains found there.

It helps us to study prehistory, the history which has no evidence of written records. It tells us about the pasts, means what kind of houses the early people lived, what kind of foods the early people ate, what kind of clothes the early people wore, type of games they played and the source of entertainment they enjoyed. 

The archaeological sources are pots and pottery, tools, weapons, paintings, toys, crafts, bricks etc. Excavations of burial sites called megaliths. Megaliths are the sites where dead bodies were buried. From the burial sites it has been discovered about the socio-economic status of the people.Some burials have large number of pots with ornaments suggests the rich family while some bodies were buried with goat or servant so that they could serve their owner after death. This all suggests that there was a existence of rich and poor, and archaeology of burials  reflects the concept of religion and life after death.