Archaeology

Default: IQ-6

Archaeology (IQ/Hard) is the skill regarding the study of ancient civilizations.

Kromm Quotes

Sean Punch has commented on Archaeology in the following posts to the SJG GURPS Forums:

• As a component of Science! wildcard skill
• As a component of Learned! wildcard skill

Historical Note

In the real world Archaeology depends a great deal on Anthropology and parts of Geology (like stratigraphy) and has had various forms:

• Antiquarianism: effectively a treasure hunter of material from previous historical cultures rather then a "proper" Archaeologist. Heinrich Schliemann fits into this category.
• Evolutionary Archaeology: an evolutionary approach to Archaeology. Can be racist.
• Culture-historical archaeology: some times also called Boasian Archaeology this viewed every culture as unique. Marked by an exhaustive description of a site noting ever minor detail but providing next to no interpretation. Howard Carter largely falls into this category
• Processual archaeology: marked the effective merging of archaeology and anthropology resulting in such sub fields as Historical anthropology.

See Also

• List of Skills

References

• Basic Set pg 176

• Trigger, Bruce (1989) A History of Archaeological Thought. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Trigger, Bruce (2006) A History of Archaeological Thought. 2nd ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.