The systematic recovery by scientific methods of material evidence remaining from human life and culture in the past ages, and the detailed study of this evidence. A person in this field is called an archaeologist. Where archaeology is done in conjunction with new construction, the site is documented with measured plans and photographs, artifacts are removed and processed, and then the excavation is filled in and construction proceeds. While this process can delay a project by months, archaeologists provide us with tangible historical evidence of specific time periods that can augment, or even rewrite, any previous written accounts.