Short answers, pulled from the story.
Nabonidus, a Mesopotamian king around 550 BC, is known as the first archaeologist. He led the first excavations to find temple foundation deposits, including one left by the Akkadian ruler Naram-Sin around 2200 BC, and he was the first to attempt to date an archaeological artifact.
Archaeology is the study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscapes, reaching from the first stone tools 3.3 million years ago up to recent decades.
Archaeology studies human activity through material culture, while palaeontology is the study of fossil remains. Archaeology is especially important for prehistoric societies, which by definition left no written records, covering over 99% of the human past.
Several figures hold versions of the title. William Cunnington has been called the father of archaeological excavation, Augustus Pitt Rivers is regarded as the first scientific archaeologist, and William Flinders Petrie may also legitimately be called the Father of Archaeology for his system of dating layers by pottery.
Archaeologists use remote sensing tools such as Lidar, drones, and satellite imagery, followed by field survey and geophysical survey using magnetometers and resistivity meters. Excavation recovers stratigraphy and context, after which post-excavation analysis studies the finds, often the most time-consuming phase.
In the United States, the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966 requires federal projects to consider effects on archaeological sites, and the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act of 1990 limits institutions' right to possess human remains. In the UK, PPG 16 has required planners to weigh archaeology since 1990.
African diaspora archaeology studies people forcibly transported through the Atlantic, Trans-Saharan, and Indian Ocean slave trades and their descendants. Michael Blakey directed the New York African Burial Ground Project in the 1990s, and Barbados announced the Newton Enslaved Burial Ground Memorial in 2021 to commemorate an estimated 570 West Africans.