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oramas this being said curatorial practice has changed dramatically in recent years and it would be wrong to see anthropology as merely an extension of colonial rule and european chauvinism since its relationship to imperialism was and is complex anthropology grew increasingly distinct from natural history and by the end of the nineteenth century the discipline began to crystallize into its modern form by one nine three five for example it was possible for t k penniman to write a history of the discipline entitled a hundred years of anthropology early anthropology was dominated by the comparative method it was assumed that all societies passed through a single evolutionary process from the most primitive to most advanced non european societies were thus seen as evolutionary living fossils that could be studied in order to understand the european past scholars wrote histories of prehistoric migrations which were sometimes valuable but often also fanciful it was during this time that europeans first accurately

traced polynesian migrations across the pacific ocean for instance although some of them believed it originated in egypt finally the concept of race was actively discussed as a way to classify and rank human beings based on inherent biological difference in the twentieth century academic disciplines began to organize around three main domains the sciences seeks to derive natural laws through reproducible and falsifiable experiments the humanities reflected an attempt to study different national traditions in the form of history and the arts as an attempt to provide people in emerging nation states with a sense of coherence the social sciences emerged at this time as an attempt to develop scientific methods to address social phenomena in an attempt to provide a universal basis for social knowledge anthropology does not easily fit into one of these categories and different branches of anthropology draw on one or more of these domains drawing on the methods of the natural sciences as well as developing new techn

iques involving not only structured interviews but unstructured participant observation and drawing on the new theory of evolution through natural selection they proposed the scientific study of a new object humankind conceived of as a whole crucial to this study is the concept culture which anthropologists defined both as a universal capacity and propensity for social learning thinking and acting which they see as a product of human evolution and something that distinguishes homo sapiens and perhaps all species of genus homo from other species and as a particular adaptation to local conditions that takes the form of highly variable beliefs and practices thus culture not only transcends the opposition between nature and nurture it transcends and absorbs the peculiarly european distinction between politics religion kinship and the economy as autonomous domains anthropology thus transcends the divisions between the natural sciences social sciences and humanities to explore the biological linguistic material and

symbolic dimensions of humankind in all forms anthropology in the u s anthropology in the united states was pioneered by staff of the bureau of indian affairs and the smithsonian institution s bureau of american ethnology such as john wesley powell and frank hamilton cushing academic anthropology was established by franz boas who used his positions at columbia university and the american museum of natural history to train and develop multiple generations of students boasian anthropology was politically active and suspicious of research dictated by the u s government or wealthy patrons it was also rigorously empirical and skeptical of over generalizations and attempts to establish universal laws boas studied immigrant children in order to demonstrate that biological race was not immutable and that human conduct and behavior was the result of nurture rather than nature drawing on his german roots he argued that the world was full of distinct cultures rather than societies whose evolution could be measured by h

ow much or how little civilization they had boas felt that each culture has to be studied in its particularity and argued that cross cultural generalizations like those made in the natural sciences were not possible in doing so boas fought discrimination against immigrants african americans and native north americans many american anthropologists adopted boas agenda for social reform and theories of race continue to be popular targets for anthropologists today boas s first generation of students included alfred kroeber robert lowie edward sapir and ruth benedict all of these scholars produced richly detailed studies which described native north america in doing so they provided a wealth of details used to attack the theory of a single evolutionary process kroeber and sapir s focus on native american languages also helped establish linguistics as a truly general science and free it from its historical focus on indo european languages the publication of alfred kroeber s textbook anthropology marked a turning po

int in american anthropology after three decades of amassing material the urge to generalize grew this was most obvious in the culture and personality studies carried out by younger boasians such as margaret mead and ruth benedict influenced by psychoanalytic psychologists such as sigmund freud and carl jung these authors sought to understand the way that individual personalities were shaped by the wider cultural and social forces in which they grew up while such works as coming of age in samoa and the chrysanthemum and the sword remain popular with the american public mead and benedict never had the impact on the discipline of anthropology that some expected boas had planned for ruth benedict to succeed him as chair of columbia s anthropology department but she was sidelined by ralph linton and mead was limited to her offices at the amnh anthropology in britain whereas boas picked his opponents to pieces through attention to detail in britain modern anthropology was formed by rejecting historical reconstruct

ion in the name of a science of society that focused on analyzing how societies held together in the present the two most important names in this tradition were alfred reginald radcliffe brown and bronislaw malinowski both of whom released seminal works in one nine two two radcliffe brown s initial fieldwork in the andaman islands was carried out in the old style but after reading mile durkheim he published an account of his research entitled simply the andaman islanders which drew heavily on the french sociologist over time he developed an approach known as structural functionalism which focused on how institutions in societies worked to balance out or create an equilibrium in the social system to keep it functioning harmoniously malinowski on the other hand advocated an unhyphenated functionalism which examined how society functioned to meet individual needs malinowski is best known not for his theory however but for his detailed ethnography and advances in methodology his classic argonauts of the western p

acific advocated getting the native s point of view and an approach to field work that became standard in the field malinowski and radcliffe brown s success stem from the fact that they like boas actively trained students and aggressively built up institutions which furthered their programmatic ambitions this was particularly the case with radcliffe brown who spread his agenda for social anthropology by teaching at universities across the commonwealth from the late one nine three zero s until the post war period a string of monographs and edited volumes appeared which cemented the paradigm of british social anthropology famous ethnographies include the nuer by edward evan evans pritchard and the dynamics of clanship among the tallensi by meyer fortes while well known edited volumes include african systems of kinship and marriage and african political systems anthropology in france anthropology in france has a less clear genealogy than the british and american traditions most commentators consider marcel mauss

to be the founder of the french anthropological tradition mauss was a member of durkheim s annee sociologique group and while durkheim and others examined the state of modern societies mauss and his collaborators such as henri hubert and robert hertz drew on ethnography and philology to analyze societies which were not as differentiated as european nation states in particular mauss s essay on the gift was to prove of enduring relevance in anthropological studies of exchange and reciprocity throughout the interwar years french interest in anthropology often dovetailed with wider cultural movements such as surrealism and primitivism which drew on ethnography for inspiration marcel griaule and michel leiris are examples of people who combined anthropology with the french avant garde during this time most of what is known as ethnologie was restricted to museums and anthropology had a close relationship with studies of folklore above all however it was claude l vi strauss who helped institutionalize anthropology

in france in addition to the enormous influence his structuralism exerted across multiple disciplines l vi strauss established ties with american and british anthropologists at the same time he established centers and laboratories within france to provide an institutional context within anthropology while training influential students such as maurice godelier and francoise heritier who would prove influential in the world of french anthropology much of the distinct character of france s anthropology today is a result of the fact that most anthropology is carried out in nationally funded research laboratories rather than academic departments in universities anthropology after world war two before wwii british social anthropology and american cultural anthropology were still distinct traditions it was after the war that the two would blend to create a sociocultural anthropology in the one nine five zero s and mid one nine six zero s anthropology tended increasingly to model itself after the natural sciences som

e such as lloyd fallers and clifford geertz focused on processes of modernization by which newly independent states could develop others such as julian steward and leslie white focused on how societies evolve and fit their ecological niche an approach popularized by marvin harris economic anthropology as influenced by karl polanyi and practiced by marshall sahlins and george dalton focused on how traditional economics ignored cultural and social factors in england british social anthropology s paradigm began to fragment as max gluckman and peter worsley experimented with marxism and authors such as rodney needham and edmund leach incorporated l vi strauss s structuralism into their work structuralism also influenced a number of development in one nine six zero s and one nine seven zero s including cognitive anthropology and componential analysis authors such as david schneider clifford geertz and marshall sahlins developed a more fleshed out concept of culture as a web of meaning or signification which proved

very popular within and beyond the discipline in keeping with the times much of anthropology became politicized through the algerian war of independence and opposition to the vietnam war marxism became a more and more popular theoretical approach in the discipline by the one nine seven zero s the authors of volumes such as reinventing anthropology worried about anthropology s relevance in the one nine eight zero s issues of power such as those examined in eric wolf s europe and the people without history were central to the discipline books like anthropology and the colonial encounter pondered anthropology s ties to colonial inequality while the immense popularity of theorists such as antonio gramsci and michel foucault moved issues of power and hegemony into the spotlight gender and sexuality became a popular topic as did the relationship between history and anthropology influenced by marshall sahlins again who drew on l vi strauss and fernand braudel to examine the relationship between social structure and

individual agency in the late one nine eight zero s and one nine nine zero s authors such as george marcus and james clifford pondered ethnographic authority particularly how and why anthropological knowledge was possible and authoritative ethnographies became more reflexive explicitly addressing the author s methodology and cultural positioning and its influence on their ethnographic analysis this was part of a more general trend of postmodernism that was popular contemporaneously currently anthropologists have begun to pay attention to globalization medicine and biotechnology indigenous rights and the anthropology of europe politics of anthropology anthropology s traditional involvement with nonwestern cultures has involved it in politics in many different ways some political problems arise simply because anthropologists usually have more power than the people they study some have argued that the discipline is a form of colonialist theft in which the anthropologist gains power at the expense of subjects th

e anthropologist they argue can gain yet more power by exploiting knowledge and artifacts of the people he studies while the people he studies gain nothing or even lose in the exchange an example of this exploitative relationship can been seen in the collaboration in africa prior to world war ii of british anthropologists such as fortes and colonial forces more recently there have been newfound concerns about bioprospecting along with struggles for self representation for native peoples and the repatriation of indigenous remains and material culture other political controversies come from american anthropology s emphasis on cultural relativism and its long standing antipathy to the concept of race the development of sociobiology in the late one nine six zero s was opposed by cultural anthropologists such as marshall sahlins who argued that these positions were reductive while authors such john randal baker continued to develop the biological concept of race into the one nine seven zero s the rise of genetics

has proven to be central to developments on this front recently kevin b macdonald criticized boasian anthropology as part of a jewish strategy to facilitate mass immigration and to weaken the west the culture of critique two zero zero two as genetics continues to advance as a science some anthropologists such as luca cavalli sforza have continued to transform and advance notions of race through the use of recent developments in genetics such as tracing past migrations of peoples through their mitcochondial and y chromosomal dna and ancestry informative markers finally anthropology has a history of entanglement with government intelligence agencies and anti war politics boas publicly objected to us participation in world war i and the collaboration of some anthropologists with us intelligence in contrast many of boas anthropologist contemporaries were active in the war effort in some form including dozens who served in the office of strategic services and the office of war information in the one nine five zero

s the american anthropological association provided the cia information on the area specialities of its members and a number of anthropologists participated in the u s government s operation camelot during the war in vietnam at the same time many other anthropologists were active in the antiwar movement and passed resolutions in the american anthropological association aaa condemning anthropological involvement in covert operations anthropologists were also vocal in their opposition to the war in iraq although there was no consensus amongst practitioners of the discipline professional anthropological bodies often object to the use of anthropology for the benefit of the state their codes of ethics or statements may proscribe anthropologists from giving secret briefings the british association for social anthropology has called certain scholarships ethically dangerous for example the british association for social anthropology has condemned the cia s pat roberts intelligence scholars program which funds anthro

pology students at us universities in preparation for them to spy for the united states government the aaa s current statement of professional responsibility clearly states that in relation with their own government and with host governments no secret research no secret reports or debriefings of any kind should be agreed to or given anthropology is the study of human diversity diversity of body and behavior in the past and present anthropology consists of four subfields or subdisciplines physical anthropology studies the diversity of the human body in the past and present it includes how we acquired the structure of our body over time that is human evolution as well as differences and relationships between human populations today and their adaptations to their local environments it also sometimes includes the evolution and diversity of our nearest relatives the primates apes and monkeys cultural anthropology studies the diversity of human behavior in the present this is what most anthropologists do and what m

ost of the public sees when they look at national geographic magazine or the discovery channel on tv cultural anthropologists travel to foreign societies although it is possible to do anthropology on your own society live among the people there and try as much as they can to understand how those people live archaeology studies the diversity of human behavior in the past since it studies how people lived in the past these people are not available for us to visit and talk to or at least not people who are currently living in the same way that their ancestors did in the past therefore archaeologists must depend on the artifacts and features that the people produced in the past and attempt to reconstruct their vanished way of life from the remnants of their culture linguistic anthropology studies the diversity of human language in the past and present while language is naturally a part of culture it is such a huge topic that anthropologists have separated it into its own area of study linguistic anthropologists a

re concerned about the development of languages perhaps even back to the first forms of language and how language changes over time they are also interested in how different contemporary languages differ today how they are related and how we can learn about things like migration and diffusion from that data they also ask how language is related to and reflects on other aspects of culture other sciences study humans too of course history economics psychology sociology even biology and chemistry can study humans how is anthropology different the answer is the anthropological perspective that is the way that anthropology approaches the subject and thinks about or studies humans and their behavior the anthropological perspective has three components one cross cultural or comparative anthropology investigates humans in every form that they take we are interested to see the entire spectrum of human bodies and behaviors trying to learn the range of humanity all the ways that we can be human by seeing humans in their

every manifestation and comparing those manifestations to each other we can ask what is possible for humans and what is necessary for humans two holistic anthropology tries to relate every part of culture to every other part it understands that the various parts of culture are connected to each other and that certain combinations tend to occur or not to occur for example there are no hunting and gathering cultures that traditionally lived in cities that s just impossible we are also interested in how a people s cultures is connected to their environment again without high technology you are not going to see farming or cities in the middle of the desert or the arctic three relativistic this is the most profound yet controversial part of the anthropological perspective relativism means that the rules or norms or values of a culture are relative to that specific culture in other words say monogamy may be normal or preferred in one culture but polygamy may be normal or preferred in another the point is that diff

erent cultures believe different things or value different things or even mean different things with perhaps identical looking behaviors or objects when you go to another culture or even just interact with another culture for example when you are doing international business you cannot assume that other people understand things the same way you do in fact you should assume that they don t anthropology counsels against hasty judgement of a new culture aspects that a western visitor may find strange or distasteful can be understood when situated within that culture s history and cosmology understanding of the world there will be a rationality for the phenomenon it may be rational however according to a cultural logic that conflicts with western understandings malinowski s primacy of seeking to understand the native point of view remains fundamental to socio cultural anthropology today the point is that if we want to understand other people properly we must see what their behaviors or words or concepts mean to t

hem not what they would mean to us meaning is relative to the culture that creates that meaning this is not to say that all things are true or even that all things are good cultural relativism does not necessarily entail moral relativism indeed the american anthropological association s qualified support one nine four eight one nine nine seven for the universal declaration of human rights as well as work by sally engle merry shows the latter is not a common anthropological point of view how does anthropology study culture one other way that anthropology is unique among the sciences that study humans is by its emphasis on fieldwork you cannot get to know another culture just by reading about it or watching movies about it at best you could learn what other people have already discovered but you could not learn anything new so anthropology requires actually going to that society and living within their culture as much as possible this is called participant observation this depends crucially on finding preferrab

ly friendly informants within the society who will teach you their culture s rules of social behaviour and include you in their activities then as much as possible you will try to eat their food speak their language and live their lives often actually residing with a family in that society it is not easy work and it is not always fun but there is no better way to learn anthropological fields and subfields biological anthropology also physical anthropology forensic anthropology paleoethnobotany cultural anthropology also social anthropology anthropology of art applied anthropology cross cultural studies cyber anthropology development anthropology dual inheritance theory environmental anthropology economic anthropology ecological anthropology ethnography ethnomusicology feminist anthropology gender human behavioral ecology medical anthropology psychological anthropology political anthropology anthropology of religion public anthropology urban anthropology visual anthropology linguistic anthropology synchronic l

inguistics or descriptive linguistics diachronic linguistics or historical linguistics ethnolinguistics sociolinguistics archaeology external links the american anthropological association homepage the webpage of the largest professional organization of anthropologists in the world race a book by john randal baker discussing the origins of racial classification and oppositions to the concept anthropology info anthropologists as spies an article by david price examining the relationship between american anthropology and us intelligence services pat roberts intelligence program a bbc article on the program social and cultural anthropology in the news nearly daily updated blog anthrobase com collection of anthropological texts cybercultura collection of web resources about anthropology of cyberspace in italian anthropology net a community orientated anthropology web portal with user run blogs forums tags and a wiki association for feminist anthropology see also list of anthropologists important publications in a

nthropology anthropology mammalogy behavioural sciences archaeology or archeology from the greek words ancient and word speech discourse is the study of human cultures through the recovery documentation and analysis of material remains and environmental data including architecture artifacts biofacts human remains and landscapes the goals of archaeology are to document and explain the origins and development of human culture understand culture history chronicle cultural evolution and study human behavior and ecology for both prehistoric and historic societies it is considered to be one of the four sub fields of anthropology usage as with words such as encyclopedia and gynaecology archaeology traditionally has an ae combination however unlike other words the ae is all but universally retained contrary to popular belief in other parts of the world the spelling archeology is not predominant in united states dictionaries and would look quite odd to most americans like the claim that theater refers to a building an

d theatre refers to the performing arts the belief that archeology is an americanism is little more than an urban myth the traditional spelling archaeology continues to be used in everyday writing throughout the world including the u s even more so than theatre the alternate spelling of which while considered acceptable is preferred less often than not ontology and definition in the old world archaeology has tended to focus on the study of physical remains the methods used in recovering them and the theoretical and philosophical underpinnings in achieving the subject s goals the discipline s roots in antiquarianism and the study of latin and ancient greek provided it with a natural affinity with the field of history in the new world archaeology is more commonly devoted to the study of human societies and is treated as one of the four subfields of anthropology the other subfields of anthropology supplement the findings of archaeology in a holistic manner these subfields are cultural anthropology which studies

behavioural symbolic and material dimensions of culture linguistics which studies language including the origins of language and language groups and physical anthropology which includes the study of human evolution and physical and genetic characteristics other disciplines also supplement archaeology such as paleontology paleozoology paleoethnobotany paleobotany geography geology art history and classics archaeology has been described as a craft that enlists the sciences to illuminate the humanities writing in one nine four eight the american archaeologist walter taylor asserted that archaeology is neither history nor anthropology as an autonomous discipline it consists of a method and a set of specialised techniques for the gathering or production of cultural information archaeology is an approach to understanding human culture through its material remains regardless of chronology in england archaeologists have uncovered the long lost layouts of medieval villages abandoned after the crises of the one four th

century and the equally lost layouts of one seven th century parterre gardens swept away by a change in fashion in downtown new york city archaeologists have exhumed the one eight th century remains of the black burial ground traditional archaeology is viewed as the study of pre historical human cultures that is cultures that existed before the development of writing for that culture historical archaeology is the study of post writing cultures in the study of relatively recent cultures which have been observed and studied by western scholars archaeology is closely allied with ethnography this is the case in large parts of north america oceania siberia and other places where the study of archaeology mingles with the living traditions of the cultures being studied kennewick man is an example of archaeology interacting with modern culture in the study of cultures that were literate or had literate neighbours history and archaeology supplement one another for broader understanding of the complete cultural contex

t as at hadrian s wall importance and applicability most of human history is not described by any written records writing did not exist anywhere in the world until about five zero zero zero years ago and only spread among a relatively small number of technologically advanced civilisations in contrast homo sapiens have existed for at least two zero zero zero zero zero years and other species of homo for millions of years see human evolution these civilisations are not coincidentally the best known they have been open to the inquiry of historians for centuries while the study of pre historic cultures has arisen only recently even within a civilisation that is literate at some levels many important human practices are not officially recorded any knowledge of the formative early years of human civilisation the development of agriculture cult practices of folk religion the rise of the first cities must come from archaeology even where written records do exist they are invariably incomplete or biased to some extent

in many societies literacy was restricted to the elite classes such as the clergy or the bureaucracy of court or temple the literacy even of an aristocracy has sometimes been restricted to deeds and contracts the interests and world view of elites are often quite different from the lives and interests of the rest of the populace writings that were produced by people more representative of the general population were unlikely to find their way into libraries and be preserved there for posterity thus written records tend to reflect the biases of the literate classes and cannot be trusted as a sole source the material record is nearer to a fair representation of society though it is subject to its own inaccuracies such as sampling bias and differential preservation in addition to their scientific importance archaeological remains sometimes have political significance to descendants of the people who produced them monetary value to collectors or simply strong aesthetic appeal many people identify archaeology wit

h the recovery of such aesthetic religious political or economic treasures rather than with the reconstruction of past societies this view is often espoused in works of popular fiction such as raiders of the lost ark the mummy and king solomon s mines when such unrealistic subjects are treated more seriously accusations of pseudoscience are invariably levelled at their proponents see pseudoarchaeology below however these endeavours real and fictional are not representative of the modern state of archaeology goals there is still a tremendous emphasis in the practice of archaeology on field techniques and methodologies these include the tasks of surveying areas in order to find new sites digging sites in order to unearth the cultural remains therein and classification and preservation techniques in order to analyse and keep these remains every phase of this process can be a source of information the goals of archaeology are not always the same there are at least three broad distinct theories of exactly what arc

haeological research should do these are beyond the scope of the present discussion and are discussed at length below nevertheless there is much common ground academic sub disciplines main article archaeological sub disciplines as with most academic disciplines there are a very large number of archaeological sub disciplines characterised by a specific method or type of material e g lithic analysis music archaeobotany geographical or chronological focus e g near eastern archaeology medieval archaeology other thematic concern e g landscape archaeology or a specific archaeological culture or civilisation e g egyptology cultural resources management cultural resources management crm also called heritage management in britain is a branch of archaeology that accounts for most research done in the united states and much of that in western europe as well in the united states crm archaeology has been a growing concern since the passage of the national historic preservation act of one nine six six and most of the archa

eology done in that country today proceeds from either direct or related requirements of that measure in the united states the vast majority of taxpayers scholars and politicians believe that crm has helped to preserve much of that nation s history and prehistory that would have otherwise been lost in the expansion of cities dams and highways along with other statutes this mandates that no construction project on public land or involving public funds may damage an unstudied archaeological site the application of crm in the united kingdom is not limited to government funded projects since one nine nine zero ppg one six has required planners to consider archaeology as a material consideration in determining applications for new development as a result numerous archaeological organisations undertake mitigation work in advance of or during construction work in archaeologically sensitive areas at the developer s expense among the goals of crm are the identification preservation and maintenance of cultural sites on

public and private lands and the removal of culturally valuable materials from areas where they would otherwise be destroyed by human activity such as proposed construction this study involves at least a cursory examination to determine whether or not any significant archaeological sites are present in the area affected by the proposed construction if these do exist time and money must be allotted for their excavation if initial survey and or test excavation indicates the presence of an extraordinarily valuable site the construction may be prohibited entirely crm is a thriving entity especially in the united states and europe where archaeologists from private companies and all levels of government engage in the practice of their discipline cultural resources management has however been criticized crm is conducted by private companies that bid for projects by submitting proposals outlining the work to be done and an expected budget it is not unheard of for the agency responsible for the construction to simply

choose the proposal that asks for the least funding crm archaeologists face considerable time pressure often being forced to complete their work in a fraction of the time that might be allotted for a purely scholarly endeavour field methods survey a modern archaeological project often begins with a survey regional survey is the attempt to systematically locate previously unknown sites in a region site survey is the attempt to systematically locate features of interest such as houses and middens within a site each of these two goals may be accomplished with largely the same methods survey was not widely practiced in the early days of archaeology cultural historians and prior researchers were usually content with discovering the locations of monumental sites from the local populace and excavating only the plainly visible features there gordon willey pioneered the technique of regional settlement pattern survey in one nine four nine in the viru valley of coastal peru and survey of all levels became prominent wi

th the rise of processual archaeology some years later survey work has many benefits if performed as a preliminary exercise to or even in place of excavation it requires relatively little time and expense because it does not require processing large volumes of soil to search out artefacts nevertheless surveying a large region or site can be expensive so archaeologists often employ sampling methods it avoids ethical issues of particular concern to descendant peoples associated with destroying a site through excavation it is the only way to gather some forms of information such as settlement patterns and settlement structure survey data are commonly assembled into maps which may show surface features and or artefact distribution the simplest survey technique is surface survey it involves combing an area usually on foot but sometimes with the use of mechanised transport to search for features or artefacts visible on the surface surface survey cannot detect sites or features that are completely buried under earth

or overgrown with vegetation surface survey may also include mini excavation techniques such as augers corers and shovel test pits aerial survey is conducted using cameras attached to aircraft balloons or even kites a bird s eye view is useful for quick mapping of large or complex sites aerial imaging can also detect many things not visible from the surface plants growing above a stone structure such as a wall will develop more slowly while those above other types of features such as middens may develop more rapidly photographs of ripening grain which changes colour rapidly at maturation have revealed buried structures with great precision aerial survey also employs infrared ground penetrating radar wavelengths and thermography geophysical survey is the most effective way to see beneath the ground magnetometers detect minute deviations in the earth s magnetic field caused by iron artefacts kilns some types of stone structures and even ditches and middens devices that measure the electrical resistivity of the

soil are also widely used most soils are moist below the surface which gives them a relatively low resistivity features such as hard packed floors or concentrations of stone have a higher resistivity although some archaeologists consider the use of metal detectors to be tantamount to treasure hunting others deem them an effective tool in archaeological surveying examples of formal archaeological use of metal detectors include musketball distribution analysis on english civil war battlefields metal distribution analysis prior to excavation of a nineteenth century ship wreck and service cable location during evaluation metal detectorists have also contributed to the archaeological record where they have made detailed records of their results and refrained from raising artifacts from their archaeological context in the uk metal detectorists have been solicited for involvement in the portable antiquities scheme regional survey in maritime archaeology uses side scan sonar excavation archaeological excavation exis

ted even when the field was still the domain of amateurs and it remains the source of the majority of data recovered in most field projects it can reveal several types of information usually not accessible to survey such as stratigraphy three dimensional structure and verifiably primary context modern excavation techniques require that the precise locations of objects and features known as their provenance or provenience be recorded this always involves determining their horizontal locations and sometimes vertical position as well also see primary laws of archaeology similarly their association or relationship with nearby objects and features needs to be recorded for later analysis this allows the archaeologist to deduce what artefacts and features were likely used together and which may be from different phases of activity for example excavation of a site reveals its stratigraphy if a site was occupied by a succession of distinct cultures artefacts from more recent cultures will lie above those from more anc

ient cultures excavation is the most expensive phase of archaeological research also as a destructive process it carries ethical concerns as a result very few sites are excavated in their entirety sampling is even more important in excavation than in survey it is common for large mechanical equipment such as backhoes jcbs to be used in excavation especially to remove the topsoil overburden though this method is increasingly used with great caution following this rather dramatic step the exposed area is usually hand cleaned with trowels or hoes to ensure that all features are apparent the next task is to form a site plan and then use it to help decide the method of excavation features dug into the natural subsoil are normally excavated in portions in order to produce a visible archaeological section for recording scaled plans and sections of individual features are all drawn on site black and white and colour photographs of them are taken and recording sheets are filled in describing the context of each all th

is information serves as a permanent record of the now destroyed archaeology and is used in describing and interpreting the site post excavation analysis once artefacts and structures have been excavated or collected from surface surveys it is necessary to properly study them to gain as much data as possible this process is known as post excavation analysis and is normally the most time consuming part of the archaeological investigation it is not uncommon for the final excavation reports on major sites to take years to be published at its most basic the artefacts found are cleaned catalogued and compared to published collections in order to classify them typologically and to identify other sites with similar artefact assemblages however a much more comprehensive range of analytical techniques are available through archaeological science meaning that artefacts can be dated and their compositions examined the bones plants and pollen collected from a site can all be analysed using the techniques of zooarchaeolog

y paleoethnobotany and palynology while any texts can usually be deciphered these techniques frequently provide information that would not otherwise be known and therefore contribute greatly to the understanding of a site history of archaeology main article history of archaeology the history of archaeology has been one of increasing professionalisation and the use of an increasing range of techniques to obtain as much data on the site being examined as possible excavations of ancient monuments and the collection of antiquities have been taking place for thousands of years but these were mostly for the extraction of valuable or aesthetically pleasing artefacts it was only in the one nine th century that the systematic study of the past through its physical remains began to be carried out archaeological methods were developed by both interested amateurs and professionals including augustus pitt rivers and william flinders petrie this process was continued in the two zero th century by such people as mortimer wh

eeler whose highly disciplined approach to excavation greatly improved the quality of evidence that could be obtained during the two zero th century the development of urban archaeology and then rescue archaeology have been important factors as has the development of archaeological science which has greatly increased the amount of data that it is possible to obtain archaeological theory main article archaeological theory there is no single theory of archaeology and even definitions are disputed until the mid two zero th century and the introduction of technology there was a general consensus that archaeology was closely related to both history and anthropology the first major phase in the history of archaeological theory is commonly referred to as cultural or culture history which was developed during the late one nine th and early two zero th centuries in the one nine six zero s a number of young primarily american archaeologists such as lewis binford rebelled against the paradigms of cultural history they p

roposed a new archaeology which would be more scientific and anthropological with hypothesis testing and the scientific method very important parts of what became known as processual archaeology in the one nine eight zero s a new movement arose led by the british archaeologists michael shanks christopher tilley daniel miller and ian hodder it questioned processualism s appeals to science and impartiality and emphasised the importance of relativism becoming known as post processual archaeology however this approach has been criticised by processualists as lacking scientific rigour the validity of both processualism and post procuessualism is still under debate archaeological theory now borrows from a wide range of influences including neo darwinian evolutionary thought phenomenology postmodernism agency theory cognitive science functionalism gender based and feminist archaeology and systems theory public archaeology early archaeology was largely an attempt to uncover spectacular artifacts and features or to ex

plore vast and mysterious abandoned cities such pursuits continue to fascinate the public portrayed in books such as king solomon s mines and films such as the mummy and raiders of the lost ark much thorough and productive research has indeed been conducted in dramatic locales such as cop n and the valley of the kings but the stuff of modern archaeology is not so reliably sensational in addition archaeological adventure stories tend to ignore the painstaking work involved in modern survey excavation and data processing techniques some archaeologists refer to such portrayals as pseudoarchaeology nevertheless archaeology has profited from its portrayal in the mainstream media many practitioners point to the childhood excitement of indiana jones films and tomb raider games as the inspiration for them to enter the field archaeologists are also very much reliant on public support the question of exactly who they are doing their work for is often discussed without a strong public interest in the subject often spark

ed by significant finds and celebrity archaeologists it would be a great deal harder for archaeologists to gain the political and financial support they require in the uk popular archaeology programmes such as time team and meet the ancestors have resulted in a huge upsurge in public interest where possible archaeologists now make more provision for public involvement and outreach in larger projects than they once did however the move towards being more professional has meant that volunteer places are now relegated to unskilled labour and even this is less freely available than before developer funded excavation necessitates a well trained staff that can work quickly and accurately observing the necessary health and safety and indemnity insurance issues involved in working on a modern building site with tight deadlines certain charities and local government bodies sometimes offer places on research projects either as part of academic work or as a defined community project there is also a flourishing industry

selling places on commercial training excavations and archaeological holiday tours archaeologists prize local knowledge and often liaise with local historical and archaeological societies anyone looking to get involved in the field without having to pay to do so should contact a local group pseudoarchaeology main article pseudoarchaeology pseudoarchaeology is an umbrella term for all activities that claim to be archaeological but in fact violate commonly accepted archaeological practices it includes much fictional archaeological work discussed above as well as some actual activity many non fiction authors have ignored the scientific methods of processual archaeology or the specific critiques of it contained in post processualism an example of this type is the writing of erich von d niken his chariots of the gods one nine six eight together with many subsequent lesser known works expounds a theory of ancient contacts between human civilisation on earth and more technologically advanced extraterrestrial civilis

ations this theory known as palaeocontact theory is not exclusively d niken s nor did the idea originate with him works of this nature are usually marked by the renunciation of well established theories on the basis of limited evidence and the interpretation of evidence with a preconceived theory in mind looting looting of archaeological sites by people in search of hoards of buried treasure is an ancient problem for instance many of the tombs of the egyptian pharaohs were looted in antiquity the advent of archaeology has made ancient sites objects of great scientific and public interest but it has also attracted unwelcome attention to the works of past peoples a brisk commercial demand for artefacts encourages looting and the illicit antiquities trade which smuggles items abroad to private collectors looters damage the integrity of a historic site deny archaeologists valuable information that would be learnt from excavation and are often deemed to be robbing local people of their heritage the popular conscio

usness often associates looting with poor third world countries many are former homes to many well known ancient civilizations but lack the financial resources or political will to protect even the most significant sites certainly the high prices that intact objects can command relative to a poor farmer s income make looting a tempting financial proposition for some local people however looting has taken its toll in places as rich and populous as the united states and western europe as well abandoned towns of the ancient sinagua people of arizona clearly visible in the desert landscape have been destroyed in large numbers by treasure hunters sites in more densely populated areas farther east have also been looted where looting is proscribed by law it takes place under cover of night with the metal detector a common instrument used to identify profitable places to dig public outreach motivated by a desire to halt looting curb pseudoarchaeology and to secure greater public funding and appreciation for their wor

k archaeologists are mounting public outreach campaigns they seek to stop looting by informing prospective artefact collectors of the provenance of these goods and by alerting people who live near archaeological sites of the threat of looting and the danger that it poses to science and their own heritage common methods of public outreach include press releases and the encouragement of school field trips to sites under excavation the final audience for archaeologists work is the public and it is increasingly realised that their work is ultimately being done to benefit and inform them the putative social benefits of local heritage awareness are also being promoted with initiatives to increase civic and individual pride through projects such as community excavation projects and better interpretation and presentation of existing sites descendant peoples in the united states examples such as the case of kennewick man have illustrated the tensions between native americans and archaeologists which can be summarised

as a conflict between a need to remain respectful towards burials sacred sites and the academic benefit from studying them for years american archaeologists dug on indian burial grounds and other places considered sacred removing artefacts and human remains to storage facilities for further study in some cases human remains were not even thoroughly studied but instead archived rather than reburied furthermore western archaeologists views of the past often differ from those of tribal peoples the west views time as linear for many natives it is cyclic from a western perspective the past is long gone from a native perspective disturbing the past can have dire consequences in the present to an archaeologist the past is long gone and must be reconstructed through its material remains to indigenous peoples it is often still alive as a consequence of this american indians attempted to prevent archaeological excavation of sites inhabited by their ancestors while american archaeologists believed that the advancement o

f scientific knowledge was a valid reason to continue their studies this contradictory situation was addressed by the native american graves protection and repatriation act nagpra one nine nine zero which sought to reach a compromise by limiting the right of research institutions to possess human remains due in part to the spirit of postprocessualism some archaeologists have begun to actively enlist the assistance of indigenous peoples likely to be descended from those under study archaeologists have also been obliged to re examine what constitutes an archaeological site in view of what native peoples believe to constitute sacred space to many native peoples natural features such as lakes mountains or even individual trees have cultural significance australian archaeologists especially have explored this issue and attempted to survey these sites in order to give them some protection from being developed such work requires close links and trust between archaeologists and the people they are trying to help and

at the same time study while this cooperation presents a new set of challenges and hurdles to fieldwork it has benefits for all parties involved tribal elders cooperating with archaeologists can prevent the excavation of areas of sites that they consider sacred while the archaeologists gain the elders aid in interpreting their finds there have also been active efforts to recruit aboriginal peoples directly into the archaeological profession repatriation a new trend in the heated controversy between first nations groups and scientists is the repatriation of native artifacts to the original descendants an example of this occurred june two one two zero zero five when a community members and elders from a number of the one zero algonquian nations in the ottawa area convened on the kitigan zibi reservation in kanawagi quebec to inter ancestral human remains and burial goods some dating back six zero zero zero years the ceremony marked the end of a journey spanning thousands of years and many miles the remains and

artifacts including beads tools and weapons were originally excavated from various sites in the ottawa valley including morrison and the allumette islands they had been part of the canadian museum of civilization s research collection for decades some since the late one eight zero zero s elders from various algonquin communities conferred on an appropriate reburial eventually deciding on traditional redcedar and birchbark boxes lined with redcedar chips muskrat and beaver pelts now an inconspicuous rock mound marks the reburial site where close to nine zero boxes of various sizes are buried although negotiations were at times tense between the kitigan zibi community and museum they were able to reach agreement source canadian geographic online see also list of significant archaeological discoveries list of archaeological sites sorted by country list of archaeologists biblical archaeology list of archaeological periods prehistory external links archeologia belga the alphabetical of archaeology french archaeolo

gy archaeology news current news and information pertaining to all areas of archaeology plus free news feeds for webmasters north pacific prehistory is an academic journal specialising in northeast asian and north american archaeology excavation sites archaeological work and volunteer pages archaeology in popular culture anthropology resources on the internet anthropology resources on the internet a web directory part of the www virtual library with over four zero zero zero links grouped in specialised topics archaeology magazine published by the archaeological institute of america archaeology directory directory of archaeological topics on the web the two zero zero three iraq war a history of archaeological thought cambridge cambridge university press isbn zero five two one three three eight one eight two anthropology archaeology humanities occupations social sciences agricultural science is a broad multidisciplinary field that encompasses the parts of exact natural economic and social sciences that are used

in the practice and understanding of agriculture veterinary science but not animal science is often excluded from the definition agriculture and agricultural science the two terms are often confused however they cover different concepts agriculture is the set of activities that transform the environment for the production of animals and plants for human use agriculture concerns techniques including the application of agronomic research agronomy is research and development related to studying and improving plant based agriculture agricultural sciences include research and development on production techniques e g irrigation management recommended nitrogen inputs improving production in terms of quantity and quality e g selection of drought resistant crops and animals development of new pesticides yield sensing technologies simulation models of crop growth in vitro cell culture techniques transformation of primary products into end consumer products e g production preservation and packaging of dairy products pr

evention and correction of adverse environmental effects e g soil degradation waste management bioremediation theoretical production ecology relating to crop production modeling traditional agricultural systems such as which serve to feed most people in the world and which often retain integration with nature in a way that hs proven more sustainable than modern systems food production and demand on a global basis with special attention paid to the major producers of china and india agricultural science a local science with the exception of theoretical agronomy research in agronomy more than in any other field is strongly related to local areas it can be considered a science of ecoregions because it is closely linked to soil properties and climate which are never exactly the same from one place to another many people think an agricultural production system relying on local weather soil characteristics and specific crops has to be studied locally others feel a need to know and understand production systems in a

s many areas as possible and the human dimension of interation with nature history of agricultural science main article history of agricultural science agricultural science is seen by some to have began with mendel s insightful genetc work but in modern terms might be better dated from the chemical fertilizer outputs of plant physiological understanding in eighteenth century germany today it is very different from what it was even in one nine five zero intensification of agriculture since the one nine six zero s in developed and developing countries often referred to as the green revolution was closely tied to progress made in selecting and improving crops and animals for high productivity as well as to developing additional inputs such as artificial fertilizers and phytosanitary products as the oldest and largest human intervention in nature the environmental impact of agriculture in general and more recently intensive agriculture industrial development and population growth have raised many questions among

agricultural scientists and have led to the development and emergence of new fields these include technological fields that assume the solution to technological problems lies in better technology such as integrated pest management waste treatment technologies landscape architecture genomics and agricultural philosophy fields that include references to food production as something essentially different from non essential eeconomic goods in fact the interaction between these two approaches provide a fertile field for deeper understanding in agricultural science new technologies such as biotechnology and computer science for data processing and storage and technological advances have made it possible to develop new research fields including genetic engineering agrophysics improved statistical analysis and precision farming balancing these as above are the natural and human sciences of agricultural science that seek to understand the human nature interactions of traditional agriculture including interaction of re

ligion and agriculture and the non material components of agricultural production systems prominent agricultural scientists norman borlaug luther burbank louis pasteur gregor mendel ren dumont george washington carver agricultural science and agriculture crisis agriculture sciences seek to feed the world s population while preventing biosafety problems that may affect human health and the environment this requires promoting good management of natural resources and respect for the environment and increasingly concern for the psychological wellbeing of all concerned in the food production and consumption system economic environmental and social aspects of agriculture sciences are subjects of ongoing debate recent crises such as avian flu mad cow disease and issues such as the use of genetically modified organisms illustrate the complexity and importance of this debate fields of agricultural science agricultural engineering agricultural philosophy biosystems engineering aquaculture agronomy and horticulture agro

physics animal science plant fertilization animal and human nutrition plant protection and animal health soil science especially edaphology water science biotechnology genetic engineering and microbiology farming equipment irrigation and water management agricultural economics food science environmental science and engineering waste management ecology and environment theoretical production ecology see also agricultural sciences basic topics agrology agronomy history of agricultural science agriculture agronomy soil science alchemist s laboratory by hans vredman de vries c one five nine five alchemy is an early protoscientific and philosophical discipline combining elements of chemistry metallurgy physics medicine astrology semiotics mysticism spiritualism and art alchemy has been practiced in ancient egypt india and china in classical greece and rome in the islamic empire and then in europe up to the one nine th century in a complex network of schools and philosophical systems spanning at least two five zero

zero years western alchemy has always been closely connected with hermeticism a philosophical and spiritual system that traces its roots to hermes trismegistus a syncretic egyptian greek deity and legendary alchemist these two disciplines influenced the birth of rosicrucianism an important esoteric movement of the one seven th century in the one nine th century as mainstream alchemy evolved into modern chemistry its mystic and hermetic aspects became the focus of a modern spiritual alchemy where material manipulations are viewed as mere symbols of spiritual transformations the alchemists did not follow what is now known as the scientific method and much of the knowledge they produced was later found to be banal limited wrong or meaningless today the discipline is of interest mainly to historians of science and philosophy and for its mystic esoteric and artistic aspects nevertheless alchemy was one of the main precursors of modern sciences and we owe to the ancient alchemists the discovery of many substances a

nd processes that are the mainstay of modern chemical and metallurgical industries overview the alchemist by sir william fettes douglas alchemy as a proto science the common perception of alchemists is that they were pseudo scientists crackpots and charlatans who attempted to turn lead into gold believed that the universe was composed of the four elements of earth air fire and water and spent most of their time concocting miraculous remedies poisons and magic potions this picture is rather unfair although many alchemists were indeed crackpots and charlatans many were well meaning and intelligent scholars who were simply struggling to make sense of a subject which as we now know was far beyond the reach of their tools these people were basically proto scientists who attempted to explore and investigate the nature of chemical substances and processes they had to rely on unsystematic experimentation traditional know how rules of thumb and plenty of speculative thought to fill in the wide gaps in existing knowled

ge given these conditions the mystic character of alchemy is quite understandable to the early alchemist chemical transformations could only seem like magical phenomena governed by incomprehensible laws whose potential and limitations he had no way of knowing having discovered that a specific procedure could turn an earth like ore into glistening metal it was only natural to speculate that some different procedure could turn a metal into another at the same time it was clear to the alchemists that something was generally being conserved in chemical processes even in the most dramatic changes of physical state and appearance i e that substances contained some principles that could be hidden under many outer forms and revealed by proper manipulation throughout the history of the discipline alchemists struggled very hard to understand the nature of these principles and find some order and sense in the results of their chemical experiments which were often undermined by impure or poorly characterized reagents the

lack of quantitative measurements and confusing and inconsistent nomenclature in spite of those difficulties and of many false turns and loops the alchemists managed to make steady progress in the understanding of the natural world to them we owe the discovery of many important substances and chemical processes which paved the way for the modern science of chemistry and are still the mainstay of today s chemical and metallurgical industries alchemy as a philosophical and spiritual discipline the best known goals of the alchemists were the transmutation of common metals into gold or silver and the creation of a panacea a remedy that supposedly would cure all diseases and prolong life indefinitely starting with the middle ages european alchemists invested much effort on the search for the philosopher s stone a mythical substance that was believed to be an essential ingredient for either or both of those goals alchemists enjoyed prestige and support through the centuries though not for their pursuit of those un

attainable goals nor the mystic and philosophical speculation that dominates their literature rather it was for their mundane contributions to the chemical industries of the day ore testing and refining metalworking production of ink dyes paints and cosmetics leather tanning ceramics and glass manufacture preparation of extracts and liquors and so on it seems that the preparation of aqua vitae the water of life was a fairly popular experiment among european alchemists on the other hand alchemists never had the intellectual tools nor the motivation to separate the physical chemical aspects of their craft from the metaphysical interpretations indeed from antiquity until well into the modern age a physics devoid of metaphysical insight would have been as unsatisfying as a metaphysics devoid of physical manifestation for one thing the lack of common words for chemical concepts and processes as well as the need for secrecy led alchemists to borrow the terms and symbols of biblical and pagan mythology astrology kab

balah and other mystic and esoteric fields so that even the plainest chemical recipe ended up reading like an abstruse magic incantation moreover alchemists sought in those fields the theoretical frameworks into which they could fit their growing collection of disjointed experimental facts starting with the middle ages some alchemists increasingly came to view these metaphysical aspects as the true foundation of alchemy and chemical substances physical states and material processes as mere metaphors for spiritual entities states and transformations thus both the transmutation of common metals into gold and the universal panacea symbolized evolution from an imperfect diseased corruptible and ephemeral state towards a perfect healthy incorruptible and everlasting state and the philosopher s stone then represented some mystic key that would make this evolution possible applied to the alchemist himself the twin goal symbolized his evolution from ignorance to enlightenment and the stone represented some hidden spi

ritual truth or power that would lead to that goal in texts that are written according to this view the cryptic alchemical symbols diagrams and textual imagery of late alchemical works typically contain multiple layers of meanings allegories and references to other equally cryptic works and must be laborously decoded in order to discover their true meaning some humanistic scholars now see these spiritual and metaphysical allegories as the truest and most valuable aspect of alchemy and even claim that the development of chemistry out of alchemy was a corruption of the original hermetic tradition this is the view espoused by contemporary practitioners of spiritual alchemy most scientists on the other hand tend to take quite the opposite view to them the path from the material side of alchemy to modern chemistry was the straight road in the evolution of the discipline while the metaphysically oriented brand of alchemy was a wrong turn that led to nowhere in either view however the na ve interpretations of some p

ractitoners or the fraudulent hopes fostered by others should not diminish the contribution of the more sincere alchemists alchemy and astrology since its earliest times alchemy has been closely connected to astrology which in islam and europe generally meant the traditional babylonian greek school of astrology alchemical systems often postulated that each of the seven planets known to the ancients ruled or was associated with a certain metal see the separate article on astrology and alchemy for further details alchemy in the age of science up to the one eight th century alchemy was actually considered serious science in europe for instance isaac newton devoted considerably more of his time and writing to the study of alchemy than he did to either optics or physics for which he is famous see isaac newton s occult studies other eminent alchemists of the western world are roger bacon saint thomas aquinas tycho brahe thomas browne and parmigianino the decline of alchemy began in the one eight th century with the

birth of modern chemistry which provided a more precise and reliable framework for matter transmutations and medicine within a new grand design of the universe based on rational materialism in the first half of the nineteenth century one established chemist baron carl reichenbach researched on concepts similar to the old alchemy such as the odic force but his research did not enter the mainstream of scientific discussion matter transmutation the old goal of alchemy enjoyed a moment in the sun in the two zero th century when physicists were able to convert lead atoms into gold atoms via a nuclear reaction however the new gold atoms being unstable isotopes lasted for under five seconds before they broke apart more recently reports of table top element transmutation by means of electrolysis or sonic cavitation were the pivot of the cold fusion controversy of one nine eight nine none of those claims have yet been reliably duplicated alchemical symbolism has been occasionally used in the two zero th century by ps

ychologists and philosophers carl jung reexamined alchemical symbolism and theory and began to show the inner meaning of alchemical work as a spiritual path alchemical philosophy symbols and methods have enjoyed something of a renaissance in post modern contexts such as the new age movement even some physicists have played with alchemical ideas in books such as the tao of physics and the dancing wu li masters alchemy as a subject of historical research the history of alchemy has become a vigorous academic field as the obscure hermetic of course language of the alchemists is gradually being deciphered historians are becoming more aware of the intellectual connections between that discipline and other facets of western cultural history such as the sociology and psychology of the intellectual communities kabbalism spiritualism rosicrucianism and other mystic movements cryptography witchcraft and of course the evolution of science and philosophy etymology the word alchemy comes from the arabic al k miya or al kh

miya or which might be formed from the article al and the greek word chumeia meaning cast together pour together weld alloy etc from khumatos that which is poured out an ingot or from persian kimia meaning gold a decree of diocletian written about three zero zero ce in greek speaks against the ancient writings of the egyptians which treat of the kh mia transmutation of gold and silver it has been suggested that the arabic word al k miya actually means the egyptian science borrowing from the coptic word for egypt k me or its equivalent in the mediaeval bohairic dialect of coptic kh me the coptic word derives from demotic km itself from ancient egyptian kmt the ancient egyptian word referred to both the country and the colour black egypt was the black land by contrast with the red land the surrounding desert so this etymology could also explain the nickname egyptian black arts however this theory may be just an example of folk etymology history extract and symbol key from a one seven th century book on alchemy

the symbols used have a one to one correspondence with symbols used in astrology at the time alchemy encompasses several philosophical traditions spanning some four millennia and three continents these traditions general penchant for cryptic and symbolic language makes it hard to trace their mutual influences and genetic relationships one can distinguish at least two major strands which appear to be largely independent at least in their earlier stages chinese alchemy centered in china and its zone of cultural influence and western alchemy whose center has shifted over the millennia between egypt greece and rome the islamic world and finally back to europe chinese alchemy was closely connected to taoism whereas western alchemy developed its own philosophical system with only superficial connections to the major western religions it is still an open question whether these two strands share a common origin or to what extent they influenced each other alchemy in ancient egypt the origin of western alchemy may gen

erally be traced to ancient pharaonic egypt metallurgy and mysticism were inexorably tied together in the ancient world as the transformation of drab ore into shining metal must have seemed to be an act of magic governed by mysterious rules it is claimed therefore that alchemy in ancient egypt was the domain of the priestly class egyptian alchemy is known mostly through the writings of ancient hellenic greek philosophers which in turn have often survived only in islamic translations practically no original egyptian documents on alchemy have survived those writings if they existed were likely lost when the emperor diocletian ordered the burning of alchemical books after suppressing a revolt in alexandria two nine two which had been a center of egyptian alchemy nevertheless archaeological expeditions in recent times have unearthed evidence of chemical analysis during the naqada periods for example a copper tool dating to the naqada era bears evidence of having been used in such a way reference artifact five fou

r three seven on display at also the process of tanning animal skins was already known in predynastic egypt as early as the six th millennium bc although it possibly was discovered haphazardly other evidence indicates early alchemists in ancient egypt had invented mortar by four zero zero zero bc and glass by one five zero zero bc the chemical reaction involved in the production of calcium oxide is one of the oldest known references calcium oxide limekiln caco three heat cao co two ancient egypt additionally produced cosmetics cement faience and also pitch for shipbuilding papyrus had also been invented by three zero zero zero bc legend has it that the founder of egyptian alchemy was the god thoth called hermes thoth or thrice great hermes hermes trismegistus by the greek according to legend he wrote what were called the forty two books of knowledge covering all fields of knowledge including alchemy hermes s symbol was the caduceus or serpent staff which became one of many of alchemy s principal symbols the e

merald tablet or hermetica of thrice great hermes which is known only through greek and arabic translations is generally understood to form the basis for western alchemical philosophy and practice called the hermetic philosophy by its early practitioners the first point of the emerald tablet tells the purpose of hermetical science in truth certainly and without doubt whatever is below is like that which is above and whatever is above is like that which is below to accomplish the miracles of one thing this is the macrocosm microcosm belief central to the hermetic philosophy in other words the human body the microcosm is affected by the exterior world the macrocosm which includes the heavens through astrology and the earth through the elements it has been speculated that a riddle from the emerald tablet it was carried in the womb by the wind refers to the distillation of oxygen from saltpeter a process that was unknown in europe until its re discovery by sendivogius in the one seven th century in the four th ce

ntury bc the greek speaking macedonians conquered egypt and founded the city of alexandria in three three two this brought them into contact with egyptian ideas see alchemy in the greek world below chinese alchemy whereas western alchemy eventually centered on the transmutation of base metals into noble ones chinese alchemy had a more obvious connection to medicine the philosopher s stone of european alchemists can be compared to the grand elixir of immortality sought by chinese alchemists however in the hermetic view these two goals were not unconnected and the philosopher s stone was often equated with the universal panacea therefore the two traditions may have had more in common than it initially appears black powder may have been an important invention of chinese alchemists described in nine th century texts and used in fireworks by the one zero th century it was used in cannons by one two nine zero from china the use of gunpowder spread to japan the mongols the arab world and europe gunpowder was used by

the mongols against the hungarians in one two four one and in europe starting with the one four th century black powder was most likely invented in the middle east before it found its way to china saltpeter the critical oxidising component was found naturally in india and along the salt trade routes in the middle east chinese alchemy was closely connected to taoist forms of medicine such as acupuncture and moxibustion and to martial arts such as tai chi chuan and kung fu although some tai chi schools believe that their art derives from the hygienic or philosophical branches of taoism not the alchemical indian alchemy little is known in the west about the character and history of indian alchemy an one one th century persian alchemist named al biruni reported that they have a science similar to alchemy which is quite peculiar to them which is called rasav tam it means the art which is restricted to certain operations drugs compounds and medicines most of which are taken from plants its principles restored the

health of those who were ill beyond hope and gave back youth to fading old age the best example of a text based on this science is the vaishashik darshana of kanada fl six zero zero bc who described an atomic theory over a century before democritus the texts of ayurvedic medicine and science have aspects related to alchemy such having cures for all known diseases the similarities in ayurveda and alchemy are that both had methods used to treat people by putting oils over them some people have also noted certain similarities between the metaphysics of the samkhya philosophical tradition of hinduism and the metaphysics of alchemy whether there is any direct connection between the two systems is an open question the rasavadam was understood by very few people at the time two famous examples were nagarjunacharya and nityanadhiya nagarjunacharya was a buddhist monk who in ancient times ran the great university of nagarjuna sagar his famous book rasaratanakaram is a famous example of early indian medicine in traditi

onal indian medicinal terminology rasa translates as mercury and nagarjunacharya was said to have developed a method to convert the mercury into gold much of his original writings are lost to us but his teachings still have strong influence on traditional indian medicine ayureveda to this day alchemy in the greek world the greek city of alexandria in egypt was a center of greek alchemical knowledge and retained its preeminence through most of the greek and roman periods the greeks appropriated the hermetical beliefs of the egyptians and melded with them the philosophies of pythagoreanism ionianism and gnosticism pythagorean philosophy is essentially the belief that numbers rule the universe originating from the observations of sound stars and geometric shapes like triangles or anything from which a ratio could be derived ionian thought was based on the belief that the universe could be explained through concentration on natural phenomena this philosophy is believed to have originated with thales and his pupil

anaximander and later developed by plato and aristotle whose works came to be an integral part of alchemy according to this belief the universe can be described by a few unified natural laws that can be determined only through careful thorough and exacting philosophical explorations the third component introduced to hermetical philosophy by the greeks was gnosticism a belief prevalent in the christian and early post christian roman empire that the world is imperfect because it was created in a flawed manner and that learning about the nature of spiritual matter would lead to salvation they further believed that god did not create the universe in the classic sense but that the universe was created from him but was corrupted in the process rather than becoming corrupted by the transgressions of adam and eve i e original sin according to gnostic belief by worshipping the cosmos nature or the creatures of the world one worships the true god gnostics do not seek salvation from sin but instead seek to escape ignor

ance believing that sin is merely a consequence of ignorance platonic and neo platonic theories about universals and the omnipotence of god were also absorbed one very important concept introduced at this time originated by empedocles and developed by aristotle was that all things in the universe were formed from only four elements earth air water and fire according to aristotle each element had a sphere to which it belonged and to which it would return if left undisturbed the four elements of the greek were mostly qualitative aspects of matter not quantitative as our modern elements are true alchemy never regarded earth air water and fire as corporeal or chemical substances in the present day sense of the word the four elements are simply the primary and most general qualities by means of which the amorphous and purely quantitative substance of all bodies first reveals itself in differentiated form later alchemists if plato and aristotle can be called alchemists extensively developed the mystical aspects of

this concept alchemy in the roman empire the romans adopted greek alchemy and metaphysics just as they adopted much of greek knowledge and philosophy by the end of the roman empire the greek alchemical philosophy had been joined to the philosophies of the egyptians to create the cult of hermeticism however the development of christianity in the empire brought a contrary line of thinking stemming from augustine three five four four three zero ad an early christian philosopher who wrote of his beliefs shortly before the fall of the roman empire in essence he felt that reason and faith could be used to understand god but experimental philosophy was evil there is also present in the soul by means of these same bodily sense a kind of empty longing and curiosity which aims not at taking pleasure in the flesh but at acquiring experience through the flesh and this empty curiosity he is dignified by the names of learning and science augustinian ideas were decidedly anti experimental yet when aristotelian experimental

techniques were made available to the west they were not shunned still augustinian thought was well ingrained in medieval society and was used to show alchemy as being un godly much of the roman knowledge of alchemy like that of the greeks and egyptians is now lost in alexandria the centre of alchemical studies in the roman empire the art was mainly oral and in the interests of secrecy little was committed to paper whence the use of hermetic to mean secretive it is possible that some writing was done in alexandria and that it was subsequently lost or destroyed in fires and the turbulent periods that followed alchemy in the islamic world after the fall of the roman empire the focus of alchemical development moved to the middle east much more is known about islamic alchemy because it was better documented indeed most of the earlier writings that have come down through the years were preserved as islamic translations the islamic world was a melting pot for alchemy platonic and aristotelian thought which had alre

ady been somewhat appropriated into hermetical science continued to be assimilated islamic alchemists such as al razi latin rasis or rhazes contributed key chemical discoveries of their own such as the technique of distillation the words alembic and alcohol are of arabic origin the muriatic sulfuric and nitric acids soda potash and more from the arabic names of the last two substances al natrun and al qal y latinized into natrium and kalium come the modern symbols for sodium and potassium the discovery that aqua regia a mixture of nitric and muriatic acids could dissolve the noblest metal gold was to fuel the imagination of alchemists for the next millennium islamic philosophers also made great contributions to alchemical hermeticism the most influential author in this regard was arguably jabir ibn hayyan arabic latin geberus usually rendered in english as geber jabir s ultimate goal was takwin the artificial creation of life in the alchemical laboratory up to and including human life he analyzed each aristot

elian element in terms of four basic qualities of hotness coldness dryness and moistness according to geber in each metal two of these qualities were interior and two were exterior for example lead was externally cold and dry while gold was hot and moist thus jabir theorized by rearranging the qualities of one metal a different metal would result by this reasoning the search for the philosopher s stone was introduced to western alchemy jabir developed an elaborate numerology whereby the root letters of a substance s name in arabic when treated with various transformations held correspondences to the element s physical properties it is now commonly accepted that chinese alchemy influenced arabic alchemists although the extent of that influence is still a matter of debate likewise hindu learning was assimilated into islamic alchemy but again the extent and effects of this are not well known alchemy in medieval europe the alchemist in search of the philosophers stone by joseph wright of derby one seven seven one

because of its strong connections to the greek and roman cultures alchemy was rather easily accepted into christian philosophy and medieval european alchemists extensively absorbed islamic alchemical knowledge gerbert of aurillac who was later to become pope silvester ii d one zero zero three was among the first to bring islamic science to europe from spain later men such as adelard of bath who lived in the one two th century brought additional learning but until the one three th century the moves were mainly assimilative in this period there appeared some deviations from the augustinian principles of earlier christian thinkers saint anselm one zero three three one one zero nine was a benedictine who believed faith must precede rationalism as augustine and most theologians prior to anselm had believed but anselm put forth the opinion that faith and rationalism were compatible and encouraged rationalism in a christian context his views set the stage for the philosophical explosion to occur peter abelard follo

wed anselm s work laying the foundation for acceptance of aristotelian thought before the first works of aristotle reached the west his major influence on alchemy was his belief that platonic universals did not have a separate existence outside of man s consciousness abelard also systematized the analysis of philosophical contradictions robert grosseteste one one seven zero one two five three was a pioneer of the scientific theory that would later be used and refined by the alchemists he took abelard s methods of analysis and added the use of observations experimentation and conclusions in making scientific evaluations grosseteste also did much work to bridge platonic and aristotelian thinking albertus magnus one one nine three one two eight zero and thomas aquinas one two two five one two seven four were both dominicans who studied aristotle and worked at reconciling the differences between philosophy and christianity aquinas also did a great deal of work in developing the scientific method he even went as f

ar as claiming that universals could be discovered only through logical reasoning and since reason could not run in opposition to god reason must be compatible with theology this ran contrary to the commonly held platonic belief that universals were found through divine illumination alone magnus and aquinas were among the first to take up the examination of alchemical theory and could be considered to be alchemists themselves except that these two did little in the way of experimentation the first true alchemist in medieval europe was roger bacon his work did as much for alchemy as robert boyle s was to do for chemistry and galileo s for astronomy and physics bacon one two one four one two nine four was an oxford franciscan who explored optics and languages in addition to alchemy the franciscan ideals of taking on the world rather than rejecting the world led to his conviction that experimentation was more important than reasoning of the three ways in which men think that they acquire knowledge of things auth

ority reasoning and experience only the last is effective and able to bring peace to the intellect bacon p three six seven experimental science controls the conclusions of all other sciences it reveals truths which reasoning from general principles would never have discovered roger bacon has also been attributed with originating the search for the philosopher s stone and the elixir of life that medicine which will remove all impurities and corruptibilities from the lesser metals will also in the opinion of the wise take off so much of the corruptibility of the body that human life may be prolonged for many centuries the idea of immortality was replaced with the notion of long life after all man s time on earth was simply to wait and prepare for immortality in the world of god immortality on earth did not mesh with christian theology bacon was not the only alchemist of the high middle ages but he was the most significant his works were used by countless alchemists of the fifteenth through nineteenth centuries

other alchemists of bacon s time shared several traits first and most obviously nearly all were members of the clergy this was simply because few people outside the parochial schools had the education to examine the arabic derived works also alchemy at this time was sanctioned by the church as a good method of exploring and developing theology alchemy was interesting to the wide variety of churchmen because it offered a rationalistic view of the universe when men were just beginning to learn about rationalism so by the end of the thirteenth century alchemy had developed into a fairly structured system of belief adepts believed in the macrocosm microcosm theories of hermes that is to say they believed that processes that affect minerals and other substances could have an effect on the human body e g if one could learn the secret of purifying gold one could use the technique to purify the human soul they believed in the four elements and the four qualities as described above and they had a strong tradition of c

loaking their written ideas in a labyrinth of coded jargon set with traps to mislead the uninitiated finally the alchemists practiced their art they actively experimented with chemicals and made observations and theories about how the universe operated their entire philosophy revolved around their belief that man s soul was divided within himself after the fall of adam by purifying the two parts of man s soul man could be reunited with god in the fourteenth century these views underwent a major change william of ockham an oxford franciscan who died in one three four nine attacked the thomist view of compatibility between faith and reason his view widely accepted today was that god must be accepted on faith alone he could not be limited by human reason of course this view was not incorrect if one accepted the postulate of a limitless god versus limited human reasoning capability but it virtually erased alchemy from practice in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries pope john xxii in the early one three zero ze

ro s issued an edict against alchemy which effectively removed all church personnel from the practice of the art the climate changes black plague and increase in warfare and famine that characterized this century no doubt also served to hamper philosophical pursuits in general nicholas flamel had these mysterious alchemical symbols carved on his tomb in the church of the holy innocents in paris alchemy was kept alive by men such as nicolas flamel who was noteworthy only because he was one of the few alchemists writing in those troubled times flamel lived from one three three zero to one four one seven and would serve as the archetype for the next phase of alchemy he was not a religious scholar as were many of his predecessors and his entire interest in the subject revolved around the pursuit of the philosopher s stone which he is reputed to have found his work spends a great deal of time describing the processes and reactions but never actually gives the formula for carrying out the transmutations most of his

work was aimed at gathering alchemical knowledge that had existed before him especially as regarded the philosophers stone through the high middle ages one three zero zero one five zero zero alchemists were much like flamel they concentrated on looking for the philosophers stone and the elixir of youth now believed to be separate things their cryptic allusions and symbolism led to wide variations in interpretation of the art for example many alchemists during this period interpreted the purification of the soul to mean the transmutation of lead into gold in which they believed elemental mercury or quicksilver played a crucial role these men were viewed as magicians and sorcerers by many and were often persecuted for their practices one of these men who emerged at the beginning of the sixteenth century was named heinrich cornelius agrippa this alchemist believed himself to be a wizard and actually thought himself capable of summoning spirits his influence was negligible but like flamel he produced writings wh

ich were referred to by alchemists of later years again like flamel he did much to change alchemy from a mystical philosophy to an occultist magic he did keep alive the philosophies of the earlier alchemists including experimental science numerology etc but he added magic theory which reinforced the idea of alchemy as an occultist belief in spite of all this agrippa still considered himself a christian though his views often came into conflict with the church alchemy in the modern age and renaissance european alchemy continued in this way through the dawning of the renaissance the era also saw a flourishing of con artists who would use chemical tricks and sleight of hand to demonstrate the transmutation of common metals into gold or claim to possess secret knowledge that with a small initial investment would surely lead to that goal the most important name in this period is philippus aureolus paracelsus theophrastus bombastus von hohenheim one four nine three one five four one who cast alchemy into a new form

rejecting some of the occultism that had accumulated over the years and promoting the use of observations and experiments to learn about the human body he rejected gnostic traditions but kept much of the hermetical neo platonic and pythagorean philosophies however hermetical science had so much aristotelian theory that his rejection of gnosticism was practically meaningless in particular paracelsus rejected the magic theories of agrippa and flamel he did not think of himself as a magician and scorned those who did williams p two three nine four five paracelsus pioneered the use of chemicals and minerals in medicine and wrote many have said of alchemy that it is for the making of gold and silver for me such is not the aim but to consider only what virtue and power may lie in medicines his hermetical views were that sickness and health in the body relied on the harmony of man the microcosm and nature the macrocosm he took an approach different from those before him using this analogy not in the manner of soul

purification but in the manner that humans must have certain balances of minerals in their bodies and that certain illnesses of the body had chemical remedies that could cure them while his attempts of treating diseases with such remedies as mercury might seem ill advised from a modern point of view his basic idea of chemically produced medicines has stood time surprisingly well alchemik micha s dziw j oil on board by jan matejko seven three x one three zero cm museum of arts in d in england the topic of alchemy in that time frame is often associated with doctor john dee one three july one five two seven december one six zero eight better known for his role as astrologer cryptographer and general scientific consultant to queen elizabeth i dee was considered an authority on the works of roger bacon and was interested enough in alchemy to write a book on that subject monas hieroglyphica one five six four influenced by the kabbala dee s associate edward kelley who claimed to converse with angels through a crysta

l ball and to own a powder that would turn mercury into gold may have been the source of the popular image of the alchemist charlatan another lesser known alchemist was michael sendivogius micha s dziw j one five six six one six three six a polish alchemist philosopher medical doctor and pioneer of chemistry according to some accounts he distilled oxygen in a lab sometime around one six zero zero one seven zero years before scheele and priestley by warming nitre saltpetre he thought of the gas given off as the elixir of life shortly after discovering this method it is believed that sendivogious taught his technique to cornelius drebbel in one six two one drebbel practically applied this in a submarine tycho brahe one five four six one six zero one better known for his astronomical and astrological investigations was also an alchemist he had a laboratory built for that purpose at his uraniborg observatory research institute the decline of western alchemy the demise of western alchemy was brought about by the r

ise of modern science with its emphasis on rigorous quantitative experimentation and its disdain for ancient wisdom although the seeds of these events were planted as early as the one seven th century alchemy still flourished for some two hundred years and in fact may have reached its apogee in the one eight th century robert boyle one six two seven one six nine one better known for his studies of gases cf boyle s law pioneered the scientific method in chemical investigations he assumed nothing in his experiments and compiled every piece of relevant data in a typical experiment boyle would note the place in which the experiment was carried out the wind characteristics the position of the sun and moon and the barometer reading all just in case they proved to be relevant this approach eventually led to the founding of modern chemistry in the one eight th and one nine th centuries based on revolutionary discoveries of lavoisier and john dalton which finally provided a logical quantitative and reliable framework

for understanding matter transmutations and revealed the futility of longstanding alchemical goals such as the philospher s stone meanwhile paracelsian alchemy led to the development of modern medicine experimentalists gradually uncovered the workings of the human body such as blood circulation harvey one six one six and eventually traced many diseases to infections with germs koch and pasteur one nine th century or lack of natural nutrients and vitamins lind eijkman funk et al supported by parallel developments in organic chemistry the new science easily displaced alchemy from its medical roles interpretive and prescriptive while deflating its hopes of miraculous elixirs and exposing the ineffectiveness or even toxicity of its remedies thus as science steadily continued to uncover and rationalize the clockwork of the universe founded on its own materialistic metaphysics alchemy was left deprived of its chemical and medical connections but still incurably burdened by them reduced to an arcane philosophical sy