With these words archaeologist Howard Carter described the stunning moment in 1922 when he first saw the ancient coffin of the Egyptian pharaoh Tutankhamun. The discovery of “King Tut”—whose gold-encased corpse had lain undisturbed for centuries—created an international sensation. People began wearing Egyptian-inspired clothes and decorating their houses with Egyptian motifs and making up stories about mummies and curses.

By finding, dating, and interpreting the trash and treasures of previous generations—sometimes dating back to before the beginning of recorded history—archaeology satisfies our curiosity about our past as a species and shows us how we became who we are. Along with paleontology—the study of ancient bones—archaeology shows the great antiquity of humankind. We see how our forebears dealt with their world, and how the way we confront our own times grew out of their experiences.