Archaeology useless? Not in educated society

The Daily Beast, the online home of Newsweek magazine, recently posted a list of “the 13 most useless” college majors. Archaeology was listed along with anthropology at No. 9. The compilers of the list used employment opportunities and earnings potential as their criteria for usefulness.
I take issue with the notion that archaeology is useless and find it sad that the important contributions archaeology can make are so undervalued by the contemporary marketplace.
In a timely paper, published online last month in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, archaeologists Michael Smith, Gary Feinman, Robert Drennan, Timothy Earle and Ian Morris make the case that archaeology is a vital social science that provides a uniquely valuable perspective on human history.
They write that archaeology provides the only window to the human past before the invention of writing. It also provides a more comprehensive view of the early historic era, since archaeology “can inform about all segments of society, including commoners, peasants, the underclass and slaves, groups often left out of early historical accounts.”
Most importantl, “Archaeological findings provide a long-term perspective on change, documenting the origins of agriculture, the Urban Revolution and other transformational social changes.”A rguably, without an understanding of how we got to where we are, we won't be able to find our way through the maze of problems that have accompanied these changes.
For example, a commitment to agriculture and living in cities has led to a deteriorating environment, declines in health and increased social inequality. These are among the factors often suggested to have been the causes of the collapse of civilizations.
Similar problems afflict our contemporary society. Does this mean that we are headed for an inevitable collapse?
The archaeologist Karl Butzer, writing in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences this year, suggested that such alarmist comparisons too often are “poorly focused, simplistic and unhelpful.” But after reviewing five case studies of ancient societies that suffered a collapse, he has gleaned important lessons that might help us avoid the mistakes that led them to ruin.
He points out that modern nations have important advantages that make them less vulnerable to collapse than earlier civilizations. For example, we have access to better information, and we have“an increasingly educated and engaged citizenry.”
Nevertheless, the social and economic effects of global climate change, for example, pose a threat to even the most technologically advanced civilizations. Butzer argues that there is an urgent need for our political leaders to accept the overwhelming scientific evidence for climate change so that we can begin to develop effective ways of dealing with its consequences. Otherwise, we, too, will fall victim to the “poor leadership, administrative dysfunction and ideological ambivalence” that have been hallmarks of the collapse of civilizations throughout history.
Archaeology is far from useless. It certainly is not a career path for anyone who wants to get rich, but if our best and brightest are discouraged from studying the lessons of the past, then our civilization might end up as a cautionary tale for archaeologists of the future.
Bradley T. Lepper is curator of archaeology at the Ohio Historical Society.