ELI5- how do we identify ancient ruins like did anyone stumble upon the colosseum in the woods or people were used to see some old walls then someone realized this could be the colosseum from olden books!
In: Engineering
There are many ways. IN the case of something like the Colosseum, since Rome had been continuously inhabited since its use, then no one ever forgot what it was. Quite hard to miss really:) Of course modern archeologists and historians add more information about it as time goes on through new discoveries both archeological and from texts.
Another common way to identify an ancient ruin is by comparing it to other known sites. For example a Roman villa or fort had a standard layout, therefor new finds can be compared to these known ones.
Another way is the finds that are taken from the site. For example if you find evidence of burning, and lots of broken pottery, and the outline conforms to the shape of a kiln, then you probably have a pottery producing center. If there are lots of bits of broken metal objects around, then maybe a metal recycling center.
Of course there are also many sites where we don’t know what they were for, just lots of theories. The most famous of these is probably Stonehenge in the UK, but there are many, many more.
I am sure there are more which someone else can explain. Hope that helped.
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