THE RESEARCH CONTEXT
Archaeologists begin their study of a site or group of sites by asking certain research questions . These questions are a framework for organizing the large and often confusing amounts of information in the archaeological record. These are some of the typical research questions archaeologists try to answer:
How old is the site?
How long did people live here?
These are some of the first and most basic questions archaeologists ask when they study a site. When we compare a site like the Brazil Mound to others in the area (and elsewhere), we need to know if the sites are the same age or not. If they are, then any differences we see between them - for example, the kinds of tools and other artifacts2 we find - might mean that the sites were inhabited by separate groups, or that the natural environment was different for each area. If one site is much older than the other, then we might explain those same differences as changes in the ways people lived from one period to the next.
2 - Artifacts are any objects that are made or modified by humans.
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