Archeology is a social science that is concerned with understanding or information about the company and the old forms of human organization through the direct study of historical evidence. The most common is that the studies are undertaken by surveys of soil and archaeological materials that have been buried or damaged over time.

We know that the construction of societies, civilizations, and the entire geographic space produced by human activities are expressed through a set of techniques and technical objects. Thus, the degree of advancement in the use of these techniques and the production of these objects directly influences the way these societies function. Therefore, obtaining information about these elements by Archeology is vitally necessary to understand how human beings performed their activities and constructed their space in remote times.

The archaeological sites are the locations where they perform archeology studies. They are considered heritage areas where it is possible to obtain a large amount of information about the practices, values ​​, and structures of ancient societies. These areas need to be correctly identified and preserved so that no historical information assets are lost.

Furthermore, it is important to clarify the difference between archeology and paleontology, as they are totally different areas. At the same time, archeology studies ancient human societies, paleontology studies the Earth’s geological past as a whole, in times long before the constitution of humanity. Therefore, it is wrong to say, for example, that there is “an archaeological site for dinosaurs,” as it is, in fact, a paleontological site.

According to many historians of scientific thought, the beginning of Archeology is attributed to the Renaissance period, throughout the 16th century, given the growing curiosity about lost information about the past of societies throughout the evolution of time. The main place of the first archaeological practices was Italy, where the first great discoveries took place, with emphasis on the discovery of the cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum, which had been buried by ashes from the eruption of the volcano Vesuvius.

The Archaeological Society of Minnesota was founded in 1898. From 1903 onwards, it was renamed the Minnesota Archaeological Society. Its statutes are clear in relation to the objectives of the Society: it proposed to carry out research and excavations, organize collections, as well as promote the acquisition and conservation of monuments of antiquity that were discovered, assuming responsibility for their dissemination, giving them publicity, and committing to maintain close links with the national and international scientific community.

The enthusiasm that characterized its first years of activity – and which was also reflected in the growth of the Municipal Museum’s collections – could not withstand, however, the death of its great mentor in 1910.

It is not possible, today, to dissociate the activity of the Archaeological Society from the entire cultural movement that Minnesota at the end of the century witnessed, as well as, in the words of the founder himself, “from the scientific and cultural movement in Minnesota.”