History of Archaeology The discipline had its origins in early
efforts to collect artistic materials of extinct groups, an
endeavor that can be traced back to the 15th cent. in Italy when
growing interest in ancient Greece inspired the excavation of
Greek sculpture. In the 18th cent. the progress of Greek and
Roman archaeology was advanced by Johann Winckelmann and Ennio
Visconti and by excavations at Herculaneum and Pompeii; in the
19th cent., by the acquisition of the Elgin Marbles. The study
of ancient cultures in the Aegean region was stimulated by the
excavations of Heinrich Schliemann at Troy, and of Arthur Evans
at Crete. The work of Martin Nilsson, Alan Wace, and John
Pendlebury was also significant in this area, and the
decipherment of the Minoan script by Michael Ventris raised new
speculations about the early Aegean cultures. The foundations of
Egyptology, a prolific branch of classical archaeology because
of the wealth of material preserved in the dry Egyptian climate,
were laid by the recovery of