Archaeology is the study of material culture to understand the past as well as the present. Any investigation of the past through the study of material remains involves the people, histories, and deep sequences that antiquity offers. Study of the past through the present also entangles it with historiography, politics, and individual identities. Archaeology has come to mean many things to different generations of scholars, from culture histories, to social processes, to social relations, yet it is always grounded in the physical remains of the past and their implications.
At Columbia, archaeology is a multidisciplinary field practiced by faculty and students in the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences. At present, there are faculty in the departments of Anthropology, Art History and Archaeology, Classics, East Asian Languages and Cultures, Historic Preservation, History, Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures, Women’s Studies (Barnard), the Center for Environmental Research and Conservation, and the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory who conduct research on prehistory, ancient society, or historical archaeology.
Among locations in which students and faculty are conducting or participating in field projects are Argentina, Peru, central America, the North American Southwest, New York City, upstate New York, France, Italy, Greece, Turkey, Cyprus, Egypt, Ecuador, and Yemen. Archaeologists at Columbia also work with professionals at a wide range of institutions in New York. Among the institutions at which students in particular programs may conduct research or work on internships are the American Museum of Natural History, the Brooklyn Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of the City of New York, the National Museum of the American Indian, the New York Botanical Garden, and the South Street Seaport Museum.
The Center for Archaeology maintains laboratory, computer, and classroom facilities for students and faculty in archaeology. The center seeks to provide space for students and faculty and work together on interdisciplinary archaeological research. To that end the center supports volunteer opportunities for students of archaeology as well as events and programs for its entire archaeological community.
