Archaeology is a branch of anthropology. Using the cultural remains of past peoples (such as artifacts, structures, and documents), archaeologists construct past ways of life. Just as important as the artifacts themselves are their contexts -- where, exactly, the artifacts were found in the ground, and their association with one another. Using the concepts of stratigraphy, or layering, archaeologists are able to reconstruct the sequence of events of the past, and assign dates and significance to various events. It is to preserve the context of artifacts that excavations are carefully controlled, and extensive notes taken. Once a site has been excavated, it is destroyed, existing only in the notes taken.

Before any excavation, extensive research is conducted about a site and the area around it. This helps archaeologists to plan their approaches to excavation, and may help clarify what questions they want to answer.

After excavation, artifacts are washed, labelled, catalogued, and sorted; field notes and drawings are transcribed and the site is "reconstructed" on paper using this information. Analysis includes cross-mending, or putting the broken pieces back together in order to identify vessel types, dating, and research into the manufacturing, source, and style of the artifacts recovered. Finally, the archaeologist pulls all this research together to produce a report that tells the story of past people, based on what was uncovered during excavation and research.