This book provides an excellent introduction to archaeology, filled with full-color pictures, maps, and photographs of ancient sites and artifacts.

The first part of the book is about how archaeologists work: how they locate sites, excavate, and preserve and date evidence.

The other chapters describe archaeological findings around the world. The Latin American sites and objects in the book include the first farms in ancient Mexico; Tenochtitlan, the capital city of the Aztecs, and the clay pots of the Moche of ancient Peru.
Amanda, a fifth-grader from P.S. 321 in Brooklyn says, "I learned that our human history began almost 4 million years ago, and that most cultures gave offerings to the gods. The pictures were good because they explain the text."

 

Archaeology is the scientific study of past human lives and activities through material objects.

Artifacts are objects that can give us information about another culture or time.

To excavate means to dig something up.

Tenochtitlan was the capital of the Aztec empire, conquered by Cortes. Mexico City now stands on the site of Tenochtitlan.

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Reprinted with permission from The Young Oxford Book of Archaeology by Norah Moloney ©1995, Oxford University Press, New York