Archeologies

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The study of ancient cultures through their material remains, including artifacts, structures, and sites of historical significance
2. The branch of anthropology focused on the examination and interpretation of past human activities via physical evidence
3. An academic discipline dedicated to uncovering and understanding the behavior and lifestyles of societies through the analysis of their physical traces

Etymology: "Archeologies" is simply the plural of "archeology", the study of past human life through the material traces it left behind. The plural is used when people speak of distinct approaches or schools of that study, such as the different methods or theoretical traditions that have each claimed to read the past in their own way. The noun descends from Ancient Greek "arkhaiología", which meant something closer to antiquarian lore, ancient legends, or the telling of old history. It was built from "arkhaîos", meaning primal, old, or ancient, and "lógos", meaning speech, oration, or study. The Greek word was not a deliberate scientific coinage; the modern sense of digging up material remains developed much later, and the word reached English through Middle French "archéologie". The surface shape of the word, "archeo-" plus "-logy", suggests a neat compound of "ancient" and "study", and that reading is roughly right in meaning. Its real history, though, runs through a Greek term for old stories rather than through a modern effort to name a science of relics.