History

In the contemporary world today, a lot of emphasis is been put on history. Globally, history is being considered a benchmark that can be used to solve the problems of the modern times. Great efforts are taking place from one country to the next to acquire clear and concrete proofs on historical facts. Archeologists in this respect have been at the forefront in developing real and concrete materials to support different ideologies in history. Settlement and mobility archeology are aspects that continue to be studied for their great contribution in interpreting any knowledge in the framework of history. Excavation remains important to this quest for its practical orientation. In this regard, this study will elaborate in depth the role of excavation and how it has been adopted by archeologists as far as settlement and mobility patterns are concerned in interpreting diverse historical phenomena.

Introduction
Archeology today has become a discipline of importance to most scholars. Its value has cut across the world as different civilizations have a keen interest in digging out the past human events so that it might solve mysterious problems challenging human life (Hadlock 1947, pp.46). The aim is to acquire the hidden mysterious or knowledge inherent in our history and somehow provide interpretations that can be useful to the present world. Various designs to acquire this knowledge can be used to gain insight from the historical world. In this study a lot shall be considered as far as excavation is concerned and more so indicate how it has contributed to the interpretation system of most archeologists.

Archeology was recognized during 19th and century though its dynamics were confined to Europe. By late 19th and early 20th centuries, archaeology was established enough to be a formal subject area of study, though its main activities were based in Europe, referred to as cradle of civilization in America and southwestern Asia (Deetz 1968, pp. 268). However, currently archaeology is a diverse discipline practiced world wide with aim of revealing past chronological accounts that bear importance to todays man life. There are several definitions that have been advanced as far as archeology is concerned. They are as follows

Archeology is the science that focuses on the study of past human cultures (US Geologic Survey 2000). It is the branch of anthropology that studies prehistoric people and their cultures (Deetz 1968, pp. 267). The search for, and interpretation of, artifacts, usually recovered from underground such as grave goods, building foundations. The sub-field of anthropology that examines past human culture through the excavation and analysis of material remains (Goodwin 1892, pp.284). Archeology is a branch of anthropology where anthropology has been defined as the social science that examines human culture and experience, past and presents (Goodwin 1892, pp.289).

From the above definitions, it is evident that archeology is more concerned with the life of man in the past (Williams and Seaward 1976, pp. 543).  In other words, it is an investigation of man in the past and everything else that related to him. In this study due consideration will be accorded to settlement patterns and mobility patterns and how their interpretation can derive from excavation. A series of concrete examples shall also be considered.

Approach to archaeological interpretation
There is a great distinction between the methodology in History and that in Archeology. The historical studies are concerned more with secondary data available such as journals, archives or books, while archaeology concern more with excavations. This distinction is worth noting because it helps us understand the methodology carried out in archeology and more importantly, the source of their information or material of study. In this regard, an archeologist who seeks to do any interpretation cannot go to a library and source it from there as no archeological records can be found in a library. There cannot be an effective interpretation if there are no materials available to the archeologist (Deetz 1968, pp. 268-270). In other words, archeology and its entire methodology cannot take place in a vacuum. Archeological records consist of all the information found in archaeological survey, excavation and laboratory analysis. Archaeological record contain vast information that reveal human past showing evidence of occupied areas by humans showed by human remains obtained in those areas.  The obtained remains are studied by archaeologists through field surveys and laboratory studying of collected remains (Goodwin 1892, pp.284).

Archeology however is faced with many challenges and as noted in International History Project in the sense remains that are historical and evidence to past human societies are disintegrated over time and thus not present within archeological records. Whereas surviving excavated remains have been stored through availability of favorable preservation conditions where they are located by regions atmosphere soil or atmosphere. In regard to preservation, only durable and long lasting materials have made it through years. These materials include potsherds from pottery works, bones, building foundations, tools and teeth. In some special cases, objects with short life span have been found to be preserved. For example, flowers and fabrics were excavated in the celebrated tomb of Tutankhamun where in 1323BC the Egyptian pharaoh was buried. Tutankhamen remains a significant archaeological site even today as this tomb and its treasures were discovered by a British archaeologists Lord Carnarvon and Howard Carter in 1922 (Goodwin 1892, pp.284).

Fig. 1 Tutankhamun or Tutankhamen (1343-1325 BC).
It is worth noting that archeological records exist in diverse ways and hence the difference on the method of interpretation. For example, human and animal remains, artifacts, or man-made objects, or plant and provide one mode that archeological records can take. Structural elements, hearths and pits, village sites or cemeteries are another mode that archeological records take. Technology, settlement and subsistence patters and social systems are also another mode of existence that archeological records take. The aspect of technology is understood from the study of shelter, tools and mode of acquiring raw materials utilized to manufacture them. Emphasis on the tools used, traces of former shelters and capturing the source of their raw materials acts as strong archeological evidence. Economic practices especially on how food was gathered and the uses of food resources define the subsistence patterns. Archeologists, therefore, interpret subsistence from the tools used to acquire food, animal and plant remains.

As noted earlier, archeologists system of interpretation will vary due to the material of study. For example, an archeologist who seeks to provide information as far as technology is concerned will dwell much on the tools. Whereas the one who seeks to provide information on settlement patterns will consider getting it based on type and distribution of sites, and which relates to the prehistoric land use practices. From the above example, it can be noted that the two archeologists will concentrate on different material objects and this is what will make their interpretations unique (Williams and Seaward 1976, pp. 543). By analogy, a person carrying out a study on the effects of smoke on children will dwell much on children psychology and every thing that pertains to the children contrary to the person who sets out to carry out a study on the effects of fire on old people. Their interpretations will vary greatly due to their object of study. However, archeologists share common objectives despite the differences in their interpretations. They help in shaping history from a causal viewpoint and hence harmonize our understanding of the cultural sequences from a local point of view and a regional point of view and in fact, from a global point of view. They add the value of universality to the held cultural sequence. History is playing a great role in the world today in the highly held quest for formation of United Nations bodies as this cannot be meaningful if culture is not well constructed.

Interpretation of settlement orand mobility
To have a good interpretation of settlement andor mobility patterns it is important to establish the existence of the aspects that characterize them. As discussed in approach to archaeological interpretation, technology is characterized by tools, shelters and used so any interpretation regarding technology shall be acquired by examining the tools used and not the food eaten. To give a technology-based interpretation basing on food or clothing will amount to a misinterpretation. Therefore, how do settlement orand mobility manifest itself This is a question that guides the interpretation of settlement patterns within context of archaeological field.

Settlement pattern is defined as human population distribution of across the earth landscape. Therefore for archaeologists to interpret settlement patterns of a given population from different distributions and types of sites can be interpreted basing on excavated prehistoric land use practices. Useful land use key to interpretation can be social systems encompassing religious belief, sociopolitical and institutions of cultures. The mobility orand settlement characteristics in a given social systems is evident by burial practices, decorations, and artifact forms that are indicative of individual status and social roles in the society (Deetz 1968, pp. 268).

In order to interpret settlement and mobility, settlement archaeology is utilized in the sense studies implantation and selection criteria of settlements in the landscape. Moreover, settlement archaeology deals with interrelationships between urban centers and their rural set ups, human settlement impact on the natural environment in the past era. Thus, settlement archaeology aims at reconstructing cultures of ancient urban and their hinterlands, and rural settlements (Goodwin 1892, pp.301).
Settlement archaeological research is by definition a multidisciplinary enterprise requiring expertise from the disciplines of the natural and social sciences, architecture and city planning, as well as specialized techniques related to the retrieval, recording, analysis and data bank management of archaeological data (GIS), site conservation and cultural resource management. Disciplines and interdisciplinary sub-disciplines required in addition to archaeology include geology, environmental geomorphology, archaeozoology, paleontology, paleobotany, archaeometry, ancient history, anthropology, sociology, urban geography, classical architecture and city planning (Settlement Archeology 2007).

Before 1940, archaeologists prepared site locations and site maps, but little attention was paid to settlement patterns. There were few detailed studies emphasizing the disposition of artifacts and ruins over large regions prior to Willeys investigations of Perus Vir Valley. In 1946 and 1953, field surveys were combined with aerial photography to produce detailed maps of all of the archaeological features of the valley. He looked at archeological evidence on a regional scale. He applied this approach in the Vir Valley Project resulting in the publication of prehistoric settlement patters in the Vir Valley (Willey 2009). See below a figure showing a team of archeologist in excavation activities in the Valley of Vir.

Fig 2. Western students Flannery Surette and Christine Boston conduct archeological excavations at Huaca Gallinazo in the Viru Valley, Peru

Settlements reflect not only a societys natural environment and level of technological sophistication, but also the influence of various institutions of social interaction and control on which the culture is maintained (19531). Traditional settlement pattern analysis involves classifying sites within a region using previously established functional categories (Williams and Seaward 1976, pp. 540).

Katharina (2010, pp. 459) notes that Archaeological settlement surveys, as they were often done in the past, and are still done in many parts of the world, were typically designed to locate sites for excavation. Other forms of survey were designed to locate particular site types pertaining to a particular time period, for example, Iron Age Hill Forts in England. Modern surveys, however, address entire regions and focus on problems of long-term cultural change. Settlement archeology is more inclined to region, in other words it brings forth issues of a regional nature. Settlement archaeology tends to address issues of a regional nature, including such problems as hunter-gatherer subsistence and the emergence of political complexity an observation made by Katharina (2010).
Jean Francois is on record for his efforts to explore Gallinazo Group a 2,000 year old city that has barely been touched by excavators.  At 70 hectares in size, the Gallinazo Group was one of the largest urban centre, in the New World, during its existence. It was built by a people that some archaeologists refer to as the Gallinazo culture.

Fig. 3 This figure shows several mounds of the Gallinazo Group city.
Warren Air Force Base is a historical fact where Native American Families pulled their travois before even the military families pulled their travel trailers there. Natine Americans began camping in the Base areas back many years approximated to be 11,500 years ago during the Paleo-Indian period. The goal of the 1992 fieldwork, then, was to determine the extent of the buried portion of the site to the south expand samples of diagnostics, tools, and subsistence remains and examine geomorphologically similar locales to the west to determine whether 48LA277 is a unique site or whether similar areas along the Crow Creek drainage were used in similar manners (Millaire 2009, pp. 115). The resulting information wasused both in the interpretive center and to enhance the existing knowledge of the prehistory of the area. The artifacts and records are stored and curated at the Bases state-of-the-art curation facility (Melissa 1997, pp. 32). In 1991, a total of 3.5 cubic meters of site 48LA277 was excavated within five excavation units. Within these units, six fire pits were found and four totally excavated. The fire pits yielded radiocarbon dates, pollen, and macrobotanical specimens, as well as lithic and faunal materials. The excavations outside the fire pits also yielded cultural remains, resulting in a total of 108 lots of faunal material, 227 pieces of lithic material, and two ceramic sherds. This testing suggested that much more cultural material was present than was originally thought (Melissa 1997, pp. 21). The interpretations out of the knowledge acquired through the above mentioned exercise helps to determine when the land-use patterns began and how they varied overtime.

Another excavation activity was carried out at Golden rock and Smoke Alley. The only way to get an idea of the structure of a settlement is by using an excavation technique with large-size pits. Such methods were used at the Golden Rock and Smoke Alley sites. An essentially uninterrupted area of 3300 m2 was excavated in the former site only less than 10 had to remain unexcavated between the large excavation pits.It is evident those large-scale excavations, and a detailed analysis of all features (discolorations that are the result of Indian activities), are necessary to obtain basic data for the archaeology of the Caribbean at the lowest level that of the individual structure, and that of the settlement. Such data yield detailed information on the prehistoric Caribbean villages, and that means on the communities that lived in these villages (Archeologisch Museum Aruba 1998). The GR-1 excavations have provided many new, and partially unique, data on the structure of a Saladoid settlement. Proof was found that middens have, in a geographical (spatial) perspective, a direct relationship with houses (living areas). The houses are characterized by a round shape, and strong, vertical supporting posts which were founded several meters deep in the ground (Archeologisch Museum Aruba cited by Millaire 2009, pp. 106).

Fig. 4One of the large postholes of the Maloca
There is no doubt that protein was primarily procured from marine resources the archaeological record and the isotope analyses of human bone are in agreement here. Meat from iguanas, agutis, rice-rats, birds, and landcrabs offered, without doubt, a welcome change to the usual meat intake, which consisted of fish and shellfish. A probable deficiency in the archaeological record (the lack of a representative number of conch, Strombus gigas) prevents an estimation of the relative importance of the latter food sources fish may or may not have been a more important protein supplier than shellfish. The isotope analyses favor an important position for shellfish, but as yet it is impossible to come to pertinent conclusions. Shellfish in large quantities were probably available from the sandy flats in front of the beaches (Strombus gigas), and from the rocky shores (Cittarium pica), on both the windward and leeward sides of the island (Archeologisch Museum Aruba 1998). In the case of Smoke Alley it was noted that Excavation of five 1 m test pits established that the midden was approximately 10 x 10 meters in size. Excavation of four large machine-made (255 m, pits resulted in the discovery of 80 features. Sixty-five of them proved to be postholes. Twelve postholes belong to one slightly oval 10-meter diameter house, 7 others belong to a round 8-meter diameter house (Archeologisch Museum Aruba 1998, cited by Trigger 1968, p. 36)

A study was conducted in medieval mound in Tuscany, Italy by the Laboratory for Landscape Archeology and remote sensing, University of Siena research team during aerial prospection in spring 2005. Analysis of the aerial photographs allowed interpretation of the site as a triple-ditched enclosure. During subsequent field-walking survey a number of archaeological artifacts were collected and mapped. Differential global positioning system (DGPS) survey confirmed the morphological pattern of the site, which seems to represent a survival of the Early Medieval Age settlement pattern on the coastal plain (Millaire 2009, pp. 109). The field-walking and DGPS surveys were followed by a programme of geophysical survey combining three different methods differential magnetics (Overhauser probe), ground-penetrating radar (GPR) and Automatic Resistivity Profiler (Millaire 2009, pp. 106). Finally, three sample areas were excavated, mainly to test the evidence collected previously. The excavation data - ditches, post-holes, domestic pottery, animal bones, and wall remains - support the interpretation of the site as the first earth-and-timber castle mound, or motte, to be identified in Tuscany (Wiley 2009).

Recent archaeological excavations at Vindolanda, Northumberland and at York have uncovered considerable quantities of bryophytic material. The mosses are considered here not in terms of their value to the archaeologist as indicators of prevailing environmental conditions but from an ethnological viewpoint. There is strong reason to believe that the mosses at both sites were deliberately harvested in large quantities and employed mainly for their bedding, packing, insulatory and absorbent qualities (Seaward  Williams 1976). Large-scale excavations took place in the site of Inamgaon in Western India to unravel in order to acquire some information about the culture of the Chalcolithic farmers. Excavations were carried out twelve seasons (1969-1982). The main objective in undertaking large-scale excavations at Inamgaon was to obtain detailed knowledge of material culture of the Chalcolithic farmers (Sheena 1999).

Fig. 5 At Inamgaon site, the dried up river Ghod
Mobility, concerns the archaeological excavations regarding hunter-gatherer society which was their primary method of obtaining subsistence for their family by directly procuring edible animals and plants from the wild without intent of domestication. Because of difficulties accrued from hunting historically, the hunter-gatherers usually obtained 80 of their substance from gathering than hunting. Kelly (1983, pp. 279) states that hunter-gatherers society is characterized by egalitarianism because mobility requires minimal material possessions for society. Therefore, interpretation can be based minimal structural constructions, and remains found as there were no surplus resources for accumulation by any individual member. An example of excavation on mobility is cited in Australia by Chase (1989, p. 46) is represented below.

Fig.6 19th Century Indigenous Australian encampment engraving
Moreover, Hoffman (1955, p. 45) developed a modern comprehensive model relying on ethnohistoric sources but sensitive to aboriginal culture changes. Hoffmans comprehensive model is simple cyclical model representing late prehistoric era featuring inland hunting during winter and coastal habitation during summer with scarce resources. The representation was represented on a circular chart that showed flora and fauna availability for each season, resource exploitation areas, and social groupings size.

Conclusion
From our study, we can see that excavation plays a very big role in understanding history. It offers credibility to theoretical knowledge we have as far as different aspects of our historical knowledge are concerned. In deed, settlement and mobility will make little sense if it is not backed by some concrete evidence. Whenever archeologists set out to carry out some findings, excavation is a major factor just as science requires laboratory test. We know that science can only develop sound theories after empirical verifications done in the laboratory. We can argue on the same note that archeologists can develop sound knowledge after an excavation process. Though excavation can be considered risky especially when carried out in places that are unsafe, for example, in the desert, forests, secluded places and even tombs the society should recognize it as a value. Today, so many discoveries have been made due to the courageous efforts of the archeologist and in deed shaping the history and adding more substance to it. We cannot dispute that knowledge without concrete evidence is null and void. In modern world people need facts to support what they would consider knowledge.