Although an archaeologist can gain some information from artifacts that have been removed from a site, much more information can be gleaned through careful survey and excavation. During a survey, the archaeologist examines artifacts remaining on the ground and records large concentrations as sites. The archaeologist evaluates each site’s size and age, and determines how it contributes to an overall understanding of Louisiana’s past.

No two sites exactly duplicate each other, but some are more unusual than others. Some provide new or important information linking a group of people with a certain location or activity for the first time. This means that sometimes a small site, without elaborate or especially beautiful artifacts, may be more important to the understanding of the past than another site that is larger. An archaeologist who records an important site will recommend protection or excavation for it.

The archaeologist will evaluate threats to the site to determine the possibility of preserving the site intact. Some sites must be protected to insure that future generations can see unexcavated sites, and so that future archaeologists with improved techniques will have sites left to study. Even if an archaeologist excavates a site, he or she will usually leave parts of it untouched.

Archaeological excavation of a site is meticulous in order to preserve every piece of information. The archaeologist photographs and draws soil changes and artifacts as they are uncovered. This provides a permanent record of the relationships of materials to each other and to other parts of the site. Samples of charcoal, soil, bones, and decayed plants are collected for laboratory analysis.

Long months of study and interpretation follow excavations as the archaeologist and technicians piece together the many bits of information. Laboratory analysis may indicate what people ate, what plants were growing around the site, and perhaps even the date the site was used. Study of the artifacts may tell how the site was used, who used it, and whether they were trading with other groups.

Relationships of the remains show what parts of the site were used for butchering game, cooking food, making tools, gardening, building houses, burying the dead, and conducting ceremonial activities. Artifact relationships may tell whether men and women worked in different areas, and whether the site was used repeatedly through the years. An archaeologist may even be able to discover very detailed information like whether the people cooked their fish whole or in fillets, what strains of corn they grew, and what kind of wood they used to build their houses. This detailed understanding can result only from careful study of a well-preserved site.

The archaeological sites of Louisiana span the time from the arrival of the earliest inhabitants, approximately 12,000 years ago, to the 20th century. These sites are as important in understanding Louisiana’s past as original journals from early explorers. Each is a unique description of the land and people from years past. Just as a journal with all its pages tells more than a single page out of context, a complete site tells many times more than artifacts on a shelf or a site half-destroyed by modern-day construction activities.