Germination period (Renaissance to 65438+1920s)
The main feature of the budding period is to collect and study the cultural relics of ancient Greece, ancient Rome and ancient Egypt, and to inspect the ancient ruins in Europe and the monuments left by the North American Indians. In the sense of studying antiquities, the tradition of epigraphy in China from the Song Dynasty can be regarded as the bud of archaeology, but it did not involve the study of ancient cultural relics, nor did it directly develop into modern archaeology.
Formation period and initial development period (65438+1920s to 1920s)
The formation period was 19, the "three-stage theory" put forward by Nordic scholars simonson and Thomson in the 1920s, that is, according to the materials of production tools, ancient times were divided into three stages, namely the Stone Age, the Bronze Age and the Iron Age, represented by Thomson's staged exhibition of museum cultural relics and publication of monographs. The method of distinguishing strata according to soil quality and soil color in geology was introduced into archaeology, which became "archaeological stratigraphy", which made archaeological research get rid of the limitation of studying only the shape of relics and embark on a scientific track. During this period, a series of archaeological excavations were carried out in Egypt, the two river basins and Europe, such as the excavation of the famous Pompeii site in Italy.
During the initial development period (about 1867 ~ 19 18), archaeological excavations gradually became scientific, and treasure excavation was criticized. Excavating by horizon, accurately recording the unearthed positions of all relics and collecting them all, and publishing the excavation results in a comprehensive and timely manner are highly respected by people. At the same time, archaeological typology, known as one of the two basic methods of archaeology, came into being, that is, relics were classified according to their shapes and ornamentation, so as to clarify the internal relations between these relics. The universal application of archaeological stratigraphy and the emergence of archaeological typology are the most representative signs of this stage. Archaeological theory mainly uses the communication theory and evolution theory of related disciplines.
Basically mature (early 1920s to late 1950s)
Basic maturity (from the early 1920s to the late 1950s) can be divided into two stages. The early period (from the early 1920s to the late 1930s) was marked by the richness and innovation of archaeological theories, the expansion of the scope of archaeological work and the increase of major discoveries. During this period, a number of important archaeological discoveries were made, and archaeological cultural sequences were initially established in some areas where archaeological work was carried out earlier. In addition, the area of archaeological excavation and research expanded eastward from Europe and the Near East to China and India, which opened the curtain of modern archaeology in these two ancient civilizations.