Archaeology is the scientific study of our human past and archaeologists search out and excavate ancient sites and examine artefacts to gain clues about how various peoples and cultures developed and changed through the ages. Archaeologists at UQ undertake research of international importance and their varied interests take them into the field in Australasia, the Pacific (Hawaii, Easter Island), the Mediterranean and Near East (Pompeii, Turkey), the Maya region of Central America, India and France. In Australia they study the archaeology of 50,000 years of Aboriginal settlement as well as the post-European colonisation period.