Anthropology

Searching Archaeological Topics 

When searching for archaeological topics in the library, try the following search terms. These terms are parts of subject headings, the tags librarians add to books' records to describe what a book is about.

• Antiquities 

  • Books about ancient artifacts, societies, and archaeological research often include the term antiquities combined with a geographic region group.
    • E.g., Turkey AND Antiquities; Sumer AND Antiquities; Easter Island AND Antiquities

• Prehistoric peoples

  • Combine with a geographic region or topic for books about prehistoric civilizations and cultures.
    • E.g., Prehistoric peoples AND Egypt; Prehistoric peoples AND Food

• Ancient or Prehistoric

  • Combine one of these with a topical or geographical term.
    • E.g., Ancient AND Weapons; Prehistoric AND Agriculture

Searching Archaeological Sites

When researching a site, try searching the site name first.  This will retrieve full-length books on the site.

   E.g.  Lascaux; Qustul; Tikal; Çatalhöyük (diacritics not required)

Next, try searching for the broader geographic region or time period for which your site is important.  There may be a chapter, or smaller portions of the book, that address your site in a broader context.

   E.g. Turkey AND Neolithic; Maya AND Antiquities

If your site or topic is very narrow, and not well represented in book-length studies, try searching for scholarly journal articles in a database such as AnthropologyPlus, HRAF, or JSTOR.