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The Birth of Archaeology In the last 250 years, archaeologists have changed the basic understanding of time and human existence. This program looks at the birth of modern archaeology, an event that stirred all of Europe’s imagination: the unearthing of the ruins of Pompeii and Herculaneum in the 18th century, buried since Roman times under volcanic ash. It follows the early excavations of Pitt Rivers in Egypt and England; the classification of the Stone, Bronze, and Iron Ages; the momentous discovery of cave paintings in Spain and France; and Mary Leakey’s finds in Africa which took human history back over 3 million years.